Southern California Lobster Hunting

[lamarpaulski]

You could get a non-hunting regular old familiarization nite dive under your belt too. Different experience. (Make sure you're exit point is marked with light(s)....for one thing..). My buddy and I came up on the wrong beach one nite.

 

[undrwater]

Another strategy to help increase safety is to have one hunter, and a game bag holder. That way you have to be checking in with each other.

 

[Z Gear]

Things to watch out for:

Avoid bug hunting in dense kelp areas when visibility is poor. You can find you and your dive buddy in a tangled situation. Make a good dive plan, take into consideration everything around the area where you are bug hunting, rock formations, dense kelp, etc... Try to go slow and easy ,you will find more bugs this way. You will be more likely to scare some off and also miss some if you swim around to quickly. Make sure you and your dive buddy are in agreement on this, before you dive. Going to fast is probably the worst thing you can do. It can potentially land you in the middle of kelp that is to dense. You should be able to safely navigate through the kelp. If it looks unsafe for you to go through it probably is! Find the safer route through the kelp, always stay close to each other. Make sure you have a knife or shears to cut fishing line or kelp if one of you should become tangled.

 

[IrnBear]

I was not aware of this.
Thank you very much for the info.

IrnBear

Southern California Marine Protected Areas

Nothing may be taken in Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

It's been in effect for two years but people still need reminders. Some need to be reminded more than once, usually in the form of a ticket.
MPA Articles and News

 

[drbill]

It's been in effect for two years but people still need reminders. Some need to be reminded more than once, usually in the form of a ticket.
MPA Articles and News

Had a guy who was fishing in the die park the other night... casting his line from right next to the stairs! Of course there is nothing posted, but anglers and hunters are supposed to be aware of the rules involved in their activity. I have nothing against either as long as they are done legally.

 

[OCdiver2]

So I am happy to say that I finally went on my first lobster dive Sunday night and caught my first bug. I wanted to thank everyone for the advice that helped ensure that it was a safe fun dive. We did a recon dive in the daylight to make sure we were comfortable with the site, we had a plan and stuck to it, and we relied on the buddy system and made sure we stuck together.

Now we already cooked and ate our catch but I was curious, does anyone know the best way to keep your catch fresh over a day or two? Should I try to keep the bugs alive, and if so how? Or do I tail them and freeze them?