My short dive report from Saturday in Islamorada

[algal bloom]

Well,

I'm sorry for ditching several planned dives and an above water trip but the three guys from church and I had an excellent time in Islamorada. We managed to find our own secret spot where no one else was for the whole day (no, I'm not allow to share the secret but we do have it GPSed!) Between the 4 of us we caught 24 LEGAL (that is the key word) Caribbean spiny bugs. Within about 45 minutes of the first dive we had our limit so we spent the rest of the day enjoying the beautiful reef. Talk about beginner's luck! It was like the lobsters wanted to be caught. They were very cooperative.

BTW, we have no real secrets in catching them. We were just using tickle sticks (with the angled tip), nets, mesh bags, and gloves. The lobster hotel that one of the guys had worked better than the mesh bags since the lobsters really didn't want to go in. I even had one start chewing on the outside of the bag as a last valiant effort to keep from being dinner. Anyway, this is just what worked for us.

My wife enjoyed her first ever lobster dinner last night. I think I may be able to convince her to let me go for more lobster diving this year!

Nate

 

[Scubaguy62]

Glad you had a good time Nate...let me know when you want to go bug hunting again.

 

[H2Andy]

excellent report

i am not a little envious

 

[algal bloom]

Rick,

I'm open Saturday morning. The wife's birthday is coming up but I could claim this as being apart of the present. How was the movie, anyway? Later, my wife told me that it looks like a "renter". What'd you think?

 

[Waterbabie]

Nate -
Awesome dive report! Sounds like you had a great day! Chris and I decided not to see the movie. Maybe it is a "renter".

Rebecca

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

congrats Nate! Lets go get some bugs!

 

[algal bloom]

Here are a couple of photos from the lobster dive. We beheaded the spinies near the site since we were ran out of room for full live lobsters. Don't worry; we made sure that the tails were more than 5 1/2 inches before doing so. (Some literature we found said that if you are going to separate them, you need to make sure the tail is 5 1/2 inches even though the carapace may be 3 inches.) The first one is a photo of the lobster slayer in action. The second shot is the aftermath. As you can see, it didn't take long for me to learn that decapitating a lobster with bare hands is not a great idea. On of the guys has a photo of all the tails next to each other, but I don't have the shot so this is the best to show the moment. Honestly, I'm a little tired of eating lobster. I've been taking a break and might be ready for more by this weekend.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

Honestly, I'm a little tired of eating lobster.

What a wonderful quote from the master Lobster-Slayer! Sounds like a great day of hunting. Congrats!

-Grier

 

[algal bloom]

Not quite "master lobster slayer". More like "Lucky, the lobster slayer".

It is funny how they lose their status as decapods when you pull them apart. They become something like hexapods or sextapods.

Added later:
Just wanted to say that this last statement was utterly stupid on my part and I am embarrassed for saying it. I could go into explaining it, but you guys probably already know why it is such a lousy statement.

Next time, I'll just leave the jokes to Grier and Rick.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

:rofl: