Request: SoCal Lobster site help for a PNW visitor

Hey Bug Hunters,

Later this week, I'm visiting a friend who lives in Southern California, and we were thinking of doing a coupla lobster dives over the weekend. Only thing is, he hasn't lived there long, and doesn't know which shore dive sites are likely to produce a few bugs. He's a Lt. Cmdr in the Navy and serves at Port Hueneme (near Santa Barbara?), so if anyone can advise as to somewhere in that neighborhood, we'd appreciate it. And any hunting tips would be appreciated too. We both have done a fair amount of crabbing up here in Puget Sound, and have a good lobster bag, but zero lobster experience.

Thanks!

GearHead:

Hey Bug Hunters,

Later this week, I'm visiting a friend who lives in Southern California, and we were thinking of doing a coupla lobster dives over the weekend. Only thing is, he hasn't lived there long, and doesn't know which shore dive sites are likely to produce a few bugs. He's a Lt. Cmdr in the Navy and serves at Port Hueneme (near Santa Barbara?), so if anyone can advise as to somewhere in that neighborhood, we'd appreciate it. And any hunting tips would be appreciated too. We both have done a fair amount of crabbing up here in Puget Sound, and have a good lobster bag, but zero lobster experience.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

The best site is probably Cortez Banks - 2-3 day boat trip almost to Mexican waters - I've never dove there but have heard of good bug catching in the Laguna Beach area. Searched the SoCal forum and found five pages of listings, you can review them:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?searchid=755732

sjspeck:

The best site is probably Cortez Banks - 2-3 day boat trip almost to Mexican waters - I've never dove there but have heard of good bug catching in the Laguna Beach area. Searched the SoCal forum and found five pages of listings, you can review them:

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?searchid=755732

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip!

Just a few notes from a first year hunter:

Lobster are nacternal. They hide by day and come out at night. Yes you can find
them in the daytime because not all lobster follow the rules. But it's best to
go at night.

Buy a guage. You MUST measure carfully a mistake can cost you a real big
fine, like $500 And yes, I've seen fish and game enforcemnt people out on the
beach at 1:00am Follw the riles or you WILL get caught.

Break walls are good spots to hunt. You want a place where there is cover but
alsowide open places. You grab them in the open places.

You need a _very_ quick arm and a "death grip" hand but watch out for sea
urgent spikes.

Lobster are very stupid. Just one step up from star fish. When they scoot to get
away from your hand they don't look or aim and 9 times out of 10 the dumb bugs
will bouce off the rocks like a pin ball machine. I've had several hit me square in
the chest. That's what swimming backwards at high speed gets them. You
can learn to take advantage of this

If you see one hiding under a rock with antena poking out you likely will not get it.
They can scootback into the hole very fast.

Things that are very sharp that sting and bite also live in holes. Don't reach in
without looking.

If you need to hold a bug to measure it while holding the back in your "death grip"
place the side with feet on your arm or leg. A stupid bug will grab your arm with
all it's feet and try to hang on. They feel "safe" while holding onto your arm
and you may even have to rip it loose to stuff it in the bag.

There are many rock jetties, harbor breakwals and shallow reef systems up in
your area. Any place where there is both a rock pile to hide in and open space
to forage in and few other divers is good.

Remember your mask magnifies everything 25% A leagal lobster looks quite
large underwater.

GearHead:

Hey Bug Hunters,

Later this week, I'm visiting a friend who lives in Southern California, and we were thinking of doing a coupla lobster dives over the weekend. Only thing is, he hasn't lived there long, and doesn't know which shore dive sites are likely to produce a few bugs. He's a Lt. Cmdr in the Navy and serves at Port Hueneme (near Santa Barbara?), so if anyone can advise as to somewhere in that neighborhood, we'd appreciate it. And any hunting tips would be appreciated too. We both have done a fair amount of crabbing up here in Puget Sound, and have a good lobster bag, but zero lobster experience.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Guaranteed lobster results.

Step 1 - get license from DFG for lobster hunting.
Step 2 - Make sure you have a California Lobster Gauge 3 1/4 inches. Not every state has the same standard.
Step 3 - Select the site. This part is really quite easy. Simply obtain a list of dive sites in SoCal, then click on the monthly dive reports for October and deduct any sites I have dove. The remainder must be where the most bugs are because they sure haven’t been where I have been diving.

Book a trip on the Peace out of Ventura but make sure you specify you want a hunting trip as some of their trips are to the protected areas.

Pt Hueneme is about an hour or so from Santa Barbara, You're probably closer to diving in Ventura, maybe down to Malibu. Check out the Peace or Spectre dive boats out of Ventura.

Good Luck, if you do make it up to Santa Barbara, I've got a few sites I'd be happy to show you, just make sure you have your license and guage. I have just as much luck diving for bugs during the day as I do at night. During the day they're hiding, so they're a little easier to catch cause they're stuck in the holes, they're just harder to find.

Thomas

Great input! Thanks a ton, guys!