Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo heavy)
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- Big Bend Brian
- Posts: 345
- Joined: May 15th, 2002, 8:00 pm
- Location: Ponte Vedra/Cedar Key
Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo heavy)
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything lately - it’s been a darn busy summer! My family had a great time hanging in the Upper Keys last week during the 2 day Mini Season. This has been an annual extended family get-together tradition for eleven years now and it was another great one with great company and lobsters that were quite plentiful. Rather than me explaining our trip the photos give a good idea of how our trip turned out. The upcoming August 6th opener for Regular Lobster Season should be a great one for everyone! Catch em up!
Tuesday: We scouted our lobster numbers on Tuesday and found lobsters on most of our holes. We then prioritized the order of which we would hit the spots for Wednesday.
Wednesday am: With 7 family members on board Wednesday morning we were fortunate enough to catch our limit of 42 by 8:10 am. After heading back in we cleaned the bugs, got lunch, and a few of us went back out to scout a new area we’ve never looked over. Plenty there too.
Mini Opener 2013 just prior to dawn
Hittin’ the 1st hole: Uncle Steve, my daughter & wife Pat
First hole/hotel
Wahoo!!
Uncle Steve
My wife Pat
Nicky in action
Nettin’
Heading up
Well done Nicky!
Daughter Kaitlyn
2 for 1
Happiness is a live well full of lobsters…
Happy Crew!
Wednesday’s dinner: Mojo pork, black beans & rice
Thursday: With 7 divers on board we caught 30 bugs in short order. We headed back around 10 am to pick up a good friend who had just arrived with my 14 year old son who was returning from the 2013 Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. With 9 divers on board we headed back out and we managed to find enough lobsters to fill our 54 lobster limit. High tide was mid-morning which gave clear water with water temps of 85 ˚F, winds were lite and it was some of the best weather we’ve had for mini season in a long time. Not as many boats as in years past either.
Thursday morning on the reef
Kaitlyn scoping out some bugs
Future dinners
Close up
First lobster for Rich!
(he successfully survived the First Lobster Initiation……)
Deck of bugs
Another Happy Crew
Friday: In the morning we headed into town and purchased some poles spears to introduce another aspect of enjoying some good family time on the reef. After lunch we went to some shallow patch reefs looking for hogfish. Winds were kicking up and it was getting choppy but everyone got plenty of pole spear practice in the sand before they started hunting for hogs.
Pole Spear’ers
First hogs
Fun times
Thursday’s dinner: fresh hogfish, BBQ chicken & fettuccini
Saturday: With light winds at dawn we headed out for a quick yellow tail trip before we came back to take the girls to snorkel the Carysfort Lighthouse. The current was hopping but we managed some nice yellowtails for Saturday’s diner (sorry no pics).
Carysfort Lighthouse
Father & daughter
Small Mouth grunts
Juvenile Trumpetfish
Stoplight Parrotfish (terminal phase) w/remora
Stoplight Parrotfish (Initial phase)
Stoplight Parrotfish (Initial phase)
Blue Tangs
Blue Tang
Small moray
Soft corals
Daughter & wife
Scorpionfish
Tubin’ back from Carysfort
GREAT family time!!
You can’t get any better family time than that spent on the water!!
HooYah!!
Brian
Tuesday: We scouted our lobster numbers on Tuesday and found lobsters on most of our holes. We then prioritized the order of which we would hit the spots for Wednesday.
Wednesday am: With 7 family members on board Wednesday morning we were fortunate enough to catch our limit of 42 by 8:10 am. After heading back in we cleaned the bugs, got lunch, and a few of us went back out to scout a new area we’ve never looked over. Plenty there too.
Mini Opener 2013 just prior to dawn
Hittin’ the 1st hole: Uncle Steve, my daughter & wife Pat
First hole/hotel
Wahoo!!
Uncle Steve
My wife Pat
Nicky in action
Nettin’
Heading up
Well done Nicky!
Daughter Kaitlyn
2 for 1
Happiness is a live well full of lobsters…
Happy Crew!
Wednesday’s dinner: Mojo pork, black beans & rice
Thursday: With 7 divers on board we caught 30 bugs in short order. We headed back around 10 am to pick up a good friend who had just arrived with my 14 year old son who was returning from the 2013 Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. With 9 divers on board we headed back out and we managed to find enough lobsters to fill our 54 lobster limit. High tide was mid-morning which gave clear water with water temps of 85 ˚F, winds were lite and it was some of the best weather we’ve had for mini season in a long time. Not as many boats as in years past either.
Thursday morning on the reef
Kaitlyn scoping out some bugs
Future dinners
Close up
First lobster for Rich!
(he successfully survived the First Lobster Initiation……)
Deck of bugs
Another Happy Crew
Friday: In the morning we headed into town and purchased some poles spears to introduce another aspect of enjoying some good family time on the reef. After lunch we went to some shallow patch reefs looking for hogfish. Winds were kicking up and it was getting choppy but everyone got plenty of pole spear practice in the sand before they started hunting for hogs.
Pole Spear’ers
First hogs
Fun times
Thursday’s dinner: fresh hogfish, BBQ chicken & fettuccini
Saturday: With light winds at dawn we headed out for a quick yellow tail trip before we came back to take the girls to snorkel the Carysfort Lighthouse. The current was hopping but we managed some nice yellowtails for Saturday’s diner (sorry no pics).
Carysfort Lighthouse
Father & daughter
Small Mouth grunts
Juvenile Trumpetfish
Stoplight Parrotfish (terminal phase) w/remora
Stoplight Parrotfish (Initial phase)
Stoplight Parrotfish (Initial phase)
Blue Tangs
Blue Tang
Small moray
Soft corals
Daughter & wife
Scorpionfish
Tubin’ back from Carysfort
GREAT family time!!
You can’t get any better family time than that spent on the water!!
HooYah!!
Brian
Quality Time
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
Looks like an awesome time with your family!
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
A++
use your opportunities ...
218 Carolina Skiff
25 Bayliner Deck
218 Carolina Skiff
25 Bayliner Deck
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
Man O man......that tops them all!
Beautiful, beautiful. beautiful!
Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful, beautiful. beautiful!
Thanks for sharing.
SS-342
198DLV CS 115HP
13' Gheenoe 6HP
198DLV CS 115HP
13' Gheenoe 6HP
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
Looks like you guys found and cured a bad bug infestation! Awesome!
Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood!
- Hit-n-Miss
- Posts: 3515
- Joined: May 20th, 2004, 12:15 pm
- Location: Boston Ga.
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
That's awesome, love your reports. How deep do you have to freedive to get the bugs?
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
Awesome report! Something i wanna do in the next few years.
NO FLUKE!!!
LANARK MARKET!!!!
LANARK MARKET!!!!
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
awesome!
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught.
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
That looks like a lot of fun.
By the way, what's involved in cleaning a lobster?
By the way, what's involved in cleaning a lobster?
- big bend gyrene
- Moderator
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- Joined: August 8th, 2005, 9:30 am
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Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
Rodbow's just flat out wrong... correcting to A+++!RodBow wrote:A++
Love all fishing posts on this board, but only a select few make me lust with envy... this is definitely one of those.
"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank GOD for the United States Marine Corps." Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
We were down in Key Colony Beach for the opener as well. I'll try to post a late report this weekend.
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
We clean them by sticking a knife in between the carapace and the beginning of the tail and make a cut to separate the two. Then break off an antenna and shove it up the rear to push the poop shoot out the front of the wrung tail. Done.guthooked wrote:That looks like a lot of fun.
By the way, what's involved in cleaning a lobster?
Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
Great pictures and report!
- robbankston
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- Joined: December 22nd, 2009, 12:34 pm
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Re: Sport Lobster & great family time: Upper Keys (photo hea
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. -George S. Patton