Lane's Cove 05/20/06

[Scott5644]

I made my first New England salt water dive today at Lane's Cove with Matt from Mass Bay Divers. When we arrived, Matt said it was the lowest tide he has ever seen there, and that the entry would be tricky. Sure enough, as we made our way in, a guy and his wife/girlfriend we headed out and he took a tumble, and blamed it on his companion. She got a little p***ed, and a few moments later joined him on her backside. Into the water we went, and there was just a little current to deal with. We dropped down into some kelp, and vis was about 7-8 feet. As we made our way a little deeper and into the rocks, visibility went to 15-18 feet or so. Temp down at 40 feet was 44 degrees.
Now my first lobsta hunt begins! After a few minutes, I spotted my first one and pointed it out to Matt, who dug in with hand and stick to get it out....To small. This was repeated four more times with the same result. Then it happened. The BIG one (at least in my opinion), waiting for me to take home for my wife dinner. Matt took off after him and reached in and pulled HER out, with the smallest v-notch on the end of her tail. A short time later, I saw my final chance to grab one. I could see that it was no way close to being a keeper, but I thought to myself, I don't think that little guy can hurt me. So I went after him, reached down.... and had second thoughts about grabbing him blindly. I quickly decided to use my hand like a tickle stick and poke him out into the open. It worked!!! There he was, all .5 lbs of him, waiting to be caught. I picked him up, and the thrill of victory was mine. When I put him back down, he gave me a bit of attitude, and held his claws up at me as if to say "Don't try that again".
Maybe next time I'll have something to bring home besides memories of a great dive.

 

[localdivah]

Hey Scott- welcome to NE diving (conditions were bad today -- if you had fun, it only gets better)!

Lobster hunting is great fun...here are some suggestions in a past post about grabbing techniques. If you do a general search for "lobster techniques", you'll get more ideas than you can shake a stick at.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=129459&highlight=lobster+techniques

 

[Dash_Riprock]

Hey Scott,

We were out there at Lane's yesterday as well. I was one of the two coming out of the water as you two were heading in.

The conditions yesterday were way better than any of us had expected. 15' or so of vis just after low tide. Nice warm sunny morning with calm seas. And, My buddy Pete managed to snag a couple of keepers.

We saw a huge school of what I think were pollock. Saw them on the way out for our first dive and in the exact same spot on the way back in.

Al

 

[Dragon2115]

Hi Scott,

Sounds like you had fun. My wife and I just started lobstering last summer and are still working on technique too. Here's a link to a very good article on lobstering written by Matt Silva. As Matt says in the article, I'm not too sure about the "just stick your hand in there and pull them out" approach. I keep seeing visions of a lobster winning the battle and me going home with a broken finger.

http://www.pgdive.com/NewsAboutLobsters.htm