{"id":2840,"date":"2013-11-10T15:19:51","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T22:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2013-11-10T15:19:51","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T22:19:51","slug":"lobster-hunting-off-of-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2840","title":{"rendered":"Lobster Hunting Off Of Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 8, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was so sore last Thursday from Cage Fighting training earlier in the week, that I took the night off and went to a local bar to ingest some recovery carbs.<\/p>\n

I was greeted by the hot bartender by her yelling, “So, where the fuck is my lobster? You gave everybody one except me!”<\/p>\n

Yeah, the last trip I got skunked, but I never promise anyone lobster until I actually have them.<\/p>\n

That greeting sparked a conversation with another patron who also goes lobster hunting.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I have a friend with a boat, if you want to go out Friday night for some hunting, we have a spot,” the guy said, who would later identify himself as Ranger Danger.<\/p>\n

Not knowing if he was bullshitting me because he was drinking, I took his number and followed up the next day – yep, we were going. <\/p>\n

We met at the local pub, where he picked me up to get my SCUBA gear at my apartment in the ghetto.<\/p>\n

“Why are you bringing all that shit?” Ranger Danger asked.<\/p>\n

“Uh, we’re going lobster hunting, right?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, but we use hoop nets,” he responded.<\/p>\n

Oh, Fuck!<\/p>\n

I guess I should have asked for details on this trip!<\/p>\n

I was determined to dive – scoop up the lobsters, limit, and drink beer while I watch their futile effort to score the big bugs; at least, that was my plan.<\/p>\n

So, for this trip – Captain Tom, Luis, Ranger Danger, all hoop netters, and me on SCUBA.<\/p>\n

\"Captain
\nCaptain Tom’s boat.<\/em><\/p>\n

We boated out of the harbor, but within the break wall, to a secret spot.<\/p>\n

\"Hoop
\nHoop Nets next to SCUBA gear.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Hoop
\nThey threw baited hoop nets over.<\/em><\/p>\n

“OK, we can’t anchor, but we’ll know where you are by your light; if you pull this off, I’m gonna take a refresher course and join you next time,” Captain Tom said.<\/p>\n

I was determined to limit.<\/p>\n

I geared up and flipped backwards over the starboard side.<\/p>\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #454<\/p>\n

Solo Diving<\/p>\n

Secret Location: 49 6e 20 74 68 65 20 62 72 65 61 6b 77 61 74 65 72 2c 20 6f 75 74 73 69 64 65 20 74 68 65 20 68 61 72 62 6f 72 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 69 73 6c 65 20 6f 66 20 43 68 61 66 66 65 65 2e
\nLong Beach, CA, USA<\/p>\n

In With: 2900 psi
\nOut With: 1500 psi
\nMax depth: 35 feet
\nWaves: Pretty flat
\nVisibility: shit to 10 feet
\nWater Temperature: 62 degrees
\nAir Temperature: 73 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: 25 minutes or so<\/p>\n

I submerged to a barren wasteland of boulders – I searched in the holes, up and down, going East.<\/p>\n

I saw one lobster and pinned it – it was so short, I didn’t even bother measuring it, and let it go, unharmed.<\/p>\n

I continued hunting… some molts, but no lobsters.<\/p>\n

Fuck, they must be deeper?<\/p>\n

I took a heading and went deeper – the visibility turned to shit.<\/p>\n

Off the rocks, the floor is a three foot deep mass of mush.<\/p>\n

After about twenty five minutes or so, not seeing any legal lobsters at all, I surfaced.<\/p>\n

I spotted the boat, gave three blinks on my light, and was picked up.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing down there,” I said.<\/p>\n

Captain Tom expressed some concern when I went deeper because they lost sight of my light.<\/p>\n

Once on the boat, they went around pulling their nets.<\/p>\n

All “blanks” except for one sheep crab.<\/p>\n

\"Ranger
\nRanger Danger looks way too happy to have caught a sheep crab.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sheep crab was thrown back.<\/p>\n

We went on to our next spot – more to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 8, 2013 I was so sore last Thursday from Cage Fighting training earlier in the week, that I took the night off and went to a local bar to ingest some recovery carbs. I was greeted by the hot bartender by her yelling, “So, where the fuck is my lobster? You gave everybody one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,7,9,3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2847,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions\/2847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}