Conditions and results were mixed Wednesday on the opening day of lobster miniseason.
Winds were a little stronger than the 5-10 knots forecast, seas were choppier than anticipated early Wednesday morning and the water was cloudy, with visibility of about 20 feet, which meant divers had to get close to lobsters to be able to see them.
Those conditions might be why not as many boats as usual were on the water for the two-day miniseason, which ends at midnight Thursday.
“I don’t think it was as busy this year,” said Jeff Torode of South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach. “But that’s OK, that’s good for the lobsters.”
Those boats that were following their divers got soaked by mid-morning rainstorms along the South Florida coast. After the storms passed, the wind dropped, the seas got calm and the sun scorched everyone who wasn’t in the water looking for lobsters.
Roray Kam, Bill Dennis and Mike Ziegler experienced all of those conditions, but they were able to catch their miniseason limit of 12 lobsters per person, which is twice the regular-season limit.
Dennis, of Lighthouse Point, and Ziegler, of Oakland Park, said it was one of the best opening days they’ve had. All three men were on the water before sunrise and were finished by 10:30 a.m.
“An awesome day with good friends,” said Kam, of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. “Where else would you rather be?”
Kam added that local knowledge of the reefs and a relatively brief scouting trip Tuesday revealed where the lobsters were concentrated.
“I found some good spots, so we knew where to go and where not to go,” said Kam, who scouted for about 90 minutes and found most of the lobsters in 20-30 feet. “Some of my good spots didn’t have them, so I kind of knew where to go.
“I didn’t think we were going to do this good.”
Jim Mathie and his four-man crew on Chiefy got their 60-lobster limit, but they had to make multiple dives.
“We never found the motherlode, we had to work a little harder for them,” said Mathie, of Deerfield Beach, who visited a number of different spots from Boca Raton to Pompano Beach, checking them out just long enough to catch what was there.
“We did half a tank here, half a tank there. Every time we went in we’d get eight, we’d get six, between the two guys.
“We got some with eggs and not as many shorts as I thought. A lot of them were good sized, but we didn’t get any big ones. No two-handers.”
Torode said no really big lobsters were weighed in at Sands Harbor Marina in Pompano Beach for the Great Florida Bug Hunt, which is part of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s BugFest. The contest, which offers $20,000 in prizes, continues Thursday.
He added that most of the divers on the three South Florida Diving Headquarters boats caught some lobsters.
“I don’t think it’s up or really down from last year,” Torode said. “Everybody’s getting a little bit.”
There were a few diving incidents Wednesday.
A man was in his anchored boat while his 16-year-old son was diving just north of Dania Beach Pier. The boat lost power and somehow the anchor came free, causing the dad to drift away from his son.
Spokesman Mike Jachles said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue got the call at 1:15 p.m. and immediately launched its Marine 6 boat at Port Everglades. The rescuers located the son, brought him aboard and reunited him with father, who was half a mile away, then helped them get their boat going.
A lobster diver was rescued offshore near Vista View Park at A1A and Oakland Park Boulevard. The rescued man and his buddy were diving from shore, said Battalion Chief Greg May, of Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue. A rescue helicopter “noticed bubbles, like dive bubbles, from overhead and directed our fireboat over,” May said. The man was rescued without incident or injury, May said.
In the Keys, a man who was found in the water unconscious and not breathing was towed to Bahia Honda State Park by someone on a personal watercraft. His condition could not be confirmed by law enforcement agencies.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Marathon man who was caught with more than 30 lobsters.
According to MSO, deputies Matthew Cory and Orey Swilley were at a boat ramp at 2:30 a.m. when they received a tip about a man who was bully netting lobsters on the Gulf side of Marathon, returning to land, then going back out to catch more lobsters.
The deputies watched him put the bugs he caught in a black wire trap that was in shallow water near land several times before stopping the man, who was identified as Nicolas Moreira, 78. He had one undersized lobster in his boat, then the officers checked his trap, which had 32 live lobsters. The lobsters were returned to the water and Moreira was cited for the undersized lobster and being over the limit and taken to jail.
Staff writer Tonya Alanez contributed to this report.
ALSO
Safety is always a lobster miniseason priority
