Shore conditions held and it was a beautiful morning!
We prepared by snorkeling last night to see how it looked. They were everywhere and not very concerned, either. It seems that they had something going with BSO, because as soon as we hit the beach then went through our gear to make sure we weren't poaching early.
Next morning we hit the water about 7 am. By then the carnaige had already been pretty much completed. In my best spots all I found were arms & antennae!
So, it turned into a pleasure dive and we saw a lot of life... nurse shark, eels, turtle and the ususal reef fish. I shot a grunt and a porkfish because I've heard the plentiful grunts are good eating... we'll see tomorrow night (mo-in-law made SAUCE for tonight).
We turned, disappointed but happy having been in the water. On the way in we hit a small patch with a nice coralhead - four lobster peeking out like it wasn't their season or something. They made the dash back in and no coaxing or patience would draw them back out.
BUT we were in the zone... another coral head a few yards north and we (er... my dive buddy, a 15-year old on his first hunt) got the largest lobster I've seen in the LBTS shore-dive zone since moving here... we took one more, left three go because they were too small, and headed home.
BUT, not before I took a blind shot at a grouper that dashed into a hole... I hit him in the head - thankfully because he would have been too large to drag out fighting. I hit another large one on the way in, and that concluded our hunt.
We cleaned up while the girls made fresh lobster omlettes for breakfast and. Though we probably won't head out tomorrow for the second day, I'm looking forward to the season and a few more lobster omlettes!
