Logged Dive #270 – Lobster Hunting With The Divevets
Night Diving, Solo Diving, Lobster Hunting – So Cal Buddy Diving with the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat
In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 90 feet or so
Waves: Pretty Flat
Visibility: 15 feet, but dive bombing sea lions stirred the bottom
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
Lobsters caught: 3
The boat a couple weeks ago was canceled due to conditions; but another boat that went out a few days before came back full of lobsters.
We pulled out of the deck a little after 7 PM.
While slowly moving through the wake free zone of the harbor, the Captain spotted a HUGE fish floating on the surface.
He turned around and his deck hand gaffed it and dragged it aboard.
It was a 110 pound Grupper.
I asked the deckhand, “What are you going to do with it?”
“It’s still breathing, so we’re going to fillet it,” he said.
“Isn’t that like eating road kill?” I responded.
“No, he’s still alive, a boat probably just hit him,” he responded.
The divers were wondering if we should throw it overboard to attract lobsters during our surface interval; but we were just joking.
I was the first one off and cried as the 54 degree water ran into my wetsuit.
I slowly went down the anchor line and went South; I stayed mostly in 80 feet of water.
After five minutes I had caught two lobsters and thought I wouldn’t have a problem limiting on this dive.
At 10 minutes I turned around and went back over the barren sand and pipes and caught my third one of the night.
I surfaced slowly, making a three minute safety stop at 20 feet.
When I broke surface, I could not see the boat, but I soon realized that a current had taken me further South when I was surfacing and the boat lights blended with the city lights on shore.
I had a nice 80 yard surface swim back to the boat.
A group of sea lions circled and bombed the divers.
The rest of the divers followed in with a moderate amount of small, but legal lobsters.
