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California Spiny Lobster Hunting
updated: Sep 25, 2012, 8:05 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

Can anyone tell me some basic information about California spiny lobster hunting? The season is set to open soon and I'd like to try my luck.

Where are some good spots? And what is needed?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 324143	2012-09-25 08:21 PM
You may only take them with a valid fishing license and a lobster report card. You may only use a hoop net or take them by hand.
COMMENT 324146	2012-09-25 08:23 PM
Leave them alone - let 'em live for a couple of years and let our Ocean Heal.
COMMENT 324148	2012-09-25 08:26 PM
Dont have a spear gun anywhere near your person or you will get busted whether you speared them or not.
COMMENT 324149	2012-09-25 08:27 PM
Don't have a spear gun anywhere near your person. You will get busted whether you speared them or not.
COMMENT 324153	2012-09-25 08:39 PM
take ur hoop nets on a kayak and try ledbetter beach
COMMENT 324181	2012-09-26 07:12 AM
try Sage hill
COMMENT 324186	2012-09-26 07:40 AM
Lobsters are nocturnal, but can be found during the day as well. Try areas with eelgrass and rocks - shallower earlier in the season, deeper in the winter. No structure, no bugs. The crawl really comes alive in big swells and rain - expect long cold nights with big payoffs some days, and plenty of skunks. Put in your time and you will find them. if you see traps in the area, that is usually a sign the area can be productive.
COMMENT 324192	2012-09-26 07:52 AM
With all the great white sightings no way i would go diving without a spear gun
COMMENT 324204	2012-09-26 08:34 AM
Been heading out to the islands for years. We have a few secret spots we hit, and we dive in at 12:01am Saturday. The numbers have been steadily declining for years. 5 years ago we'd limit out (7 per person) and be back in the harbor at 7am with armloads. Now, lucky to get 2 legals (make sure you have a measurement gauge) at all after hours of searching. We've also had some success snorkeling in the rock bed just off the beach between East Beach and Butterfly. Go at night, get a scuba scooter with nice bright flashlight. You have catch them with your hands, so get gloves, and rather than trying to scoop them, you slam your palm into their back and pin them to the ground. If you get your fingers under the tail they'll fold up and snap your fingers off if you get a big one. So pin 'em, get a good grip on their body cos they are friggin' strong and fast, and pop 'em into your hip bag.
COMMENT 324210	2012-09-26 08:48 AM
@ 204. You clearly understand that the species is declining locally. Sportfishermen do have an impact; why not have you and your buddies back off for a few years?
COMMENT 324214	2012-09-26 08:58 AM
4143.... since when did they change the regs about using any kind of device, a hoop net in your example, other than your hand(s) to catch a spiny lobster? In Florida you can use snares but not here - hands only. Nighttime is the best time to catch 'em out foraging but in the daytime they are holed up pretty good.
COMMENT 324228	2012-09-26 09:25 AM
Nobody going to talk about the elephant in the room? The amount of traps the commercial guys put out is amazing!! Take a look at the parking lot at the harbor before or after the commercial season. Who divides the resource? who gains the most hmmm
COMMENT 324235	2012-09-26 09:35 AM
We have a small boat and have been hoop netting for about 5 years. Last year we went to Santa Cruz Island for the recreational opening, hoping to get some before the commercial opening, one week later. The entire East side of the island already had THOUSANDS of commercial traps out (that were not baited). It was very difficult to maneuver the boat around these traps, and it was dangerous. It was also heartbreaking to see that every possible area open had traps. Thank goodness for the marine protected areas! The population has seemed to decline greatly over the past 5 years.
COMMENT 324248	2012-09-26 09:59 AM
Don't blame the divers getting a couple each just to have exercise and enjoy one or two... The real impact is from overfishing commercially. Might as well blame every child with a fishing pole for decreasing fish numbers.
COMMENT 324258	2012-09-26 10:10 AM
Huh?
COMMENT 324261	2012-09-26 10:15 AM
Gotta love the uninformed kelp huggers! There're plenty of bugs out there, size limits make sure of that, but commercials seem to get the lions share of the legals.
COMMENT 324282	2012-09-26 10:49 AM
thank goodness we have a "sustainable" commercial fishery for our local lobster, so that a few people can sell them to the Chinese for 20 bucks a pound, leaving next to nothing for recreational divers. That's a huge benefit to our community, huh?
COMMENT 324288	2012-09-26 10:58 AM
Kelp hugger here. Oh how I wish everyone would let the lobsters live out their happy lives. At the very least, the professional lobster trappers need to put permanent i.d. tags on their traps and be made to retrieve such traps off our beaches, when the traps end up onshore. Poor lobsters, to be the target of such greed.
COMMENT 324293	2012-09-26 11:04 AM
Lots'a misinformation here on who gets the "lions share," folks. Search for DFG Stock Assessment. 30-60% of landings now sporties since 07. This change prompted DFG's Management Plan now underway. Think lobster is overfished? Plenty of blame if that's what floats your boat. Think it's OK? You agree with DFG. What's your bias? DFG says: Hoop nets have become popular in the recreational fishery since ... 2005. By 2007, they accounted for 80% of fished gear based on bightwide recreational creel survey. Over this...time, more efficient conical hoopnets were introduced...becoming the design of choice among [sporties]. Recent lobster report card results suggests...recreational take adds an additional 30-60% to the commercial catch.
COMMENT 324308	2012-09-26 11:28 AM
293 - in reality, this recreational catch is based on extrapolating data from the less than 20% of returned report cards to everyone who buys a report card. An attempt is made to account for those who don't catch anything or never fish, but it is completely arbitrary. In reality, almost 100% of non-returned cards likely represent zero catch, making the recreational share more like 20% of the commercial catch. It is far less than that in areas like SB and the islands, where there are not many hoop netters and virtually no areas accessible to recreationals and not commercials. I do agree that hoop netting could become an issue, but the present distribution of catch, particularly in this area, is unfair. Building the recreational fishery through commercial gear restrictions (trap #) and marine reserves could lead to much more economic benefit to our area than the commercial fishery currently provides.
COMMENT 324326	2012-09-26 12:11 PM
Where else does nature provide something free of charge so that people can take advantage of it to make a living without putting any resources back into it? Basically the situation is unsustainable but in the short term a few people can still make a living at it. Once they are overfished, they will take years to recover and the commercial guys will have to find a new species to decimate. Something that is now considered a trash fish will have to become the new delicacy. That is how it seems to work. In the meantime, I fly thousands of miles to find a reef that has fish to look at when I snorkel. Modern life!
COMMENT 324351	2012-09-26 01:05 PM
337, too far
COMMENT 324371	2012-09-26 01:42 PM
Oh come on - 337 was hilarious. Lobsters are delicious, that's just a fact!
COMMENT 324418	2012-09-26 03:09 PM
Well said 308. Hugger 288 that is already a law. Traps are expensive and guys will retrieve them if they are able to. To the op if you want to dive in the day try going to the pit and walking north until the first house. Lots of bugs around still. Have your card filled out DFG is on it these days.
COMMENT 324522	2012-09-26 05:18 PM
Healthy heaping of domoic acid, please!!!
COMMENT 324635	2012-09-27 06:43 AM
288 here lol, I eat plenty of bugs, so I will raise you 3 next week, because I have 5 in my family that eat the tasty devil's. My comment is about resource allocation, not the eating of crustaceans
COMMENT 324713	2012-09-27 09:15 AM
For the life of me I cannot understand why the DFG lets the commercial nuck nucks throw a gazillion traps out there UN baited 3 days before recreational season starts? I really hope the DFG reins in the commercial guys a bit. This is ridiculous. What good does an un baited trap do anyone? Staking out your claim?
COMMENT 324756	2012-09-27 10:18 AM
But thanks for the road map on where go to before the commercial season opens.

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