Southeast Florida & Key Largo lobster reports

[FLNativeGuy]

A few of my diving buddies & I were discussing lobster catching yesterday. Which made us wonder how the season is going so far.

Here is what I can say. Mini season excellent in south fl. Limit was achieved quickly.

Key largo good too but lots of shorts now.

Yesterday a short dive resulted in one bug (SE Florida ...65 ft).

By the way not looking for or suggesting anything specific about locations.

 

[reefman]

lobstered twice this week freediving on inshore patches between north dry rocks and watsons reef(north of the elbow ), water depth 8-16FT. lobsters were big(few shorts); spotty on some patches, plentiful on others, limited both days(everyday iv'e gone out so far this season actually). had more success the further offshore I went but well inside the outer reef and freediving gives one the opportunity to cover far more habitat than on scuba. friends snorkeling further south inside pickels and conch reef areas had limited success Friday and yesterday(only 3 ). overall the season has been good for me. lots of commercial traps but only observed one other private vessel lobstering either day, very quiet out there especially during the weekdays,,



reefman
key largo

 

[Cisconius]

Caught a couple bugs on Saturday off West Palm ... Still haven't hit my limit

 

[iamrushman]

boat dove twin ledges in pompano. the whole boat came back with none. only saw two with eggs...hope for better luck this weekend.

 

[FLNativeGuy]

Iamrushman,

We dove pompano ridge today didn't see any bugs at all. On the other hand baitfish and heavy bird action...maybe we should have been fishing...smile.

also dove ancient mariner...current was knarly.

 

[Chugwhump]

I am having an OK year.
My typical two tank trips on a Six-Pack out of Hillsboro Inlet in Broward,
are yielding anywhere from 2-6 typically.
While they are here, the females are still on eggs a lot of the time.
I have not seen too many "shorts" since Mini-Season.

Chug
Not finding the Lions in quantity lately.
Lions

 

[Chugwhump]

I had a lousy weekend in the "Bug" department.
On Saturday I went out on a "Six Pack".
I couldn't seem to find one yesterday off Pompano on either the "Third Reef" in the 45'-90' range on dive one, and even after coming into the "Second Reef" in the 35'-70' for dive two, it was still skunkage for me.
6 divers only accounted for 3 bugs.
I only found about half a dozen Lions, and only brought up 2 that were 12" or longer.
I observed that Hogfish in the 12"-16" range were plentiful though.
My personal limit is 16" or longer though, and my freezer is currently stuffed with Lions and Dolphin, so I took a pass.
Sunday,
I went out again on the same commercial "Six-Pack" and found exactly one bug on two dives in the 45'-90' range.
I pointed it out to one of my two buds instead of grabbing it myself as I was cleaning out a nest of Lions in 85' or so, and was also beating off a 4' Nurse shark from my catch bag.
I ended up taking a 20" Hogfish after passing on 6-7 others in the 12"-16" range.
I brought up about 8 Lions longer than 12" but that was a team effort.
We probably left 3 dozen little Lions on the bottom, and with 6 divers, 20 bugs came up.
It was a nice weekend.

Chug
Is all for the size limit on Hogs going up to 16" on the Florida Gold and Treasure Coast.

 

[MrChen]

I caught 5 on Friday diving out of WPB. One was a small and none had eggs. These were the only 5 bugs we saw in 2 dives and lucky for me, no one else was fishing.

 

[scubadada]

Dived in Boynton Beach, Delray, and Jupiter Oct 4-7, few lobster around

 

[FLNativeGuy]

Thanks for the reports. Again, not looking for any VERY specific or "secret" locations, just reports on what we observe and better yet ....catch.

A special thanks to Chugwhump for the additional information on available fish....and the size limit opinion is ok too.

I'm thinking it would be interesting to have reports indicate if you were on a dive boat or or on private vessel hitting areas that may be visited less often (or am I dreaming ...haha)....

Thanks again for reporting on this thread.