Arriving in Key Largo around midnight Monday evening we didn’t exactly get an early start scouting for lobsters on Tuesday.
Tuesday afternoon Scouting: Winds were kicking at 15 knots in the morning so we only managed getting out in the afternoon when the winds dropped a bit. Not as many boats out scouting as in years past and we anticipated that the next’s day’s opener of Mini Season would reflect the same. After scouting only 6 spots we could already see we’d not have too much difficulty finding the bugs. A new spot we found was aptly named “PACKED” since it had antenna’s sticking out everywhere. After finding it we had our game plan with an obvious hierarchy of spots to hit.
Wednesday: Let the dock at 6:24 a.m. and headed out in a rough chop and strong winds. Near our area we could see that there were far fewer boats than in years past and could attribute that to the stronger winds keeping less motivated crews back at the dock. After arriving at our first spot we had a scare as we were anchoring and backing down the boat. Another boat quickly pulled up behind us and immediately threw out 2 dive flags and then dove in and started working the spot. Pretty DARN sad & pathetic. It’s well known that Sport Season in the FL Keys can be crazy and competitive and this was a perfect example of it. I was so p__zzed that I swam over to the captain to give him a piece of my mind. After a few words with their captain and his crew we were fortunate to find that they weren’t working our newly discovered spot. I then directed the swimmers to the spot not far away and they started working the PACKED spot.
12 yr old Casey
Nice sack full
Jason
After a while I recalled the crew to check our count as I was concerned we were close to limiting out (7 snorkelers). We were 4 short of a limit and although there were still a number of legal lobsters below but it was becoming more complicated and challenging for the younger snorkelers we had on board (10, 12, 13, & 15 yrs old) so we decided to go to the second spot where we already knew there were at least 10 legal lobsters hanging out.
At the second spot we were fortunate enough to find quite a few more so we called the other family boat over and by 10 a.m. both boats were limited out and we headed back to the dock.
Screamin’ Seaman
Scallywags
Thursday: Winds were whipping…... Not as motivated as the day before mostly on account of high winds so we left later around 10 a.m. Underwater the vis had become quite poor and it was much more difficult to see. To see anything you had to snorkel down to the bottom before you could discern any details or see any lobster. We worked hard in the conditions but decided it wasn’t worth the effort and instead we would go back in for lunch and wait for the winds to subside a bit and for the afternoon high tide to help push out the dirty water.
Happiness is a livewell full of lobsters
Around 2 p.m. the winds had dropped a bit and the second family boat informed us about an area that was closer to where we were staying. Arriving here we put out 2 lines & 4 snorkelers and started towing over an area that was new to us. Over the next few hours the crew picked at solitary lobsters in small single holes. With the second boat already back at the dock with a limit we stopped at 6 p.m. with 16 for the afternoon and decided to call it a GREAT LOBSTER MINI SEASON!
Lobster knuckles
Surf & Turf
This was our 9th extended-family reunion in Key Largo and this trip was the most successful in terms of the number of lobsters. My 2 highlights of the trip were my 10 yr old daughter catching her first legal bug (without help) and finding that my perforated eardrum from 2 years ago has FINALLY healed and I can dive again. Casey was pretty proud of catching his 12 lobsters too!
Major HOO YAH!!
Brian
