October Marks Opening of Southern California’s Recreational Spiny Lobster Season; Electronic Chart Plotter With Detailed Digital Cartography Helps Find The “Bugs”
When the days grow shorter and the nights grow colder in Southern California, many boaters put away their fishing rods and head out into the darkness in search of the Pacific Ocean’s ultimate night stalker – the spiny lobster. Chasing these tasty bottom dwellers — affectionately referred to as “bugs” by recreational fishermen — has become somewhat of a craze along the coast and the waters off Catalina Island. A lot more people are doing it, and it’s gotten a lot more competitive. Still, those with good marine electronics and the knowledge to use them have a definite edge.
Diving for lobsters with scuba gear has been going on for decades. It takes a special breed of person to don a wetsuit, jump into the cold winter Pacific waters and feel their way along the bottom in the dark, peering in to cracks and crevices with flashlights for these scary looking creatures. There’s a reason they’re called “spiny” lobsters — their shells (and especially their muscular tails) are covered with sharp points. And one more thing, you have to grab them with your hands. Even with diving gloves, they’re quite a handful.For the rest of us who are not that hearty breed of sportsman, there is another method of catching lobsters that is much more civilized. The activity of lobster “hoop netting” has also been around for years, but it has seen a boom in activity over the last five years or so.
Netting lobsters involves lowering special weighted hoop nets baited with cut mackerel, bonito or other oily fish and placing them on the bottom around breakwaters, jetties, wrecks and other structure in 20 to more than 100 feet of water. Just drop your nets (think oversized basketball hoops) on the sand bottom near the structure, wait about 15 minutes and pull ‘em up. If you’re lucky, you’ll haul a net full of flopping bugs over the gunwale.
Hoop netters and divers must have a valid California sport fishing license and an approved lobster measuring device to ensure that all bugs meet the minimum size (3-1/4” from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear end of the body shell). Each person must have his own measuring device with him.
Whether you dive or take them in a net, finding good lobster habitat is always the first step. These structure loving creatures spend the day hiding inside rockpiles, reefs, wrecks and any other kind of structure, crawling out only at night to look for food. Finding hidden structure spots can be the secret to success, particularly as the season goes on and boat pressure takes its toll. A marine chartplotter with quality electronic charts is an important tool to help anglers find and focus on structure spots. The C-Map charts I use contain valuable data on rocky outcroppings, natural and manmade reefs, shipwrecks and other bottom structure where lobsters like to hang out.
My electronic chart plotter also provides an excellent visual record of where I “net” my best lobster scores, by allowing me to mark the locations of the most productive nets. Over time, I’m able to see, for example, that one particular end of a reef produces best during an incoming tide.
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