Choppy waters forcing divers to catch lobsters in backcountry

SUGARLOAF KEY — Friday is the last day of the regular lobster season and if you were thinking about heading to the Keys to get your last limit or two, you’re going to need to head for the backcountry.

Strong winds this week have churned the waters in the Keys, making for poor visibility under the water and bumpy boating getting to your dive spots.

Seas were rough in the Atlantic Ocean. A fishing trip Monday afternoon in 150-200 feet with Dave Bingham and Shawn Verne featured waves of 4-6 feet.

The trip did produce a sailfish and three bonitos drifting with live pilchards, but conditions were bad enough that Bingham said we needed to dive in the Gulf of Mexico to have any shot at catching lobsters on Tuesday.

Bingham said that this time of year, most of the bigger lobsters have left the Gulf for the Atlantic. But since diving in the ocean was out of the question given the seas and poor water clarity, we were going to take our chances out back.

After all, the two-day lobster miniseason isn’t until July 26 and 27 and the regular season opens Aug. 6, so it was now or never.

Even though the winds were about 10 knots, the Gulf was milky from strong winds over the weekend. At our first stop, there were a couple of tiny lobsters on a coral head in six feet of water, but it was impossible to see if there were any of the crustaceans underneath the head because the visibility was so poor.

At the next spot, the water was much clearer, but all the bugs we found were too small, their carapaces measuring less than 3 inches.

Then Bingham headed in his 17-foot Boston Whaler to an area 8-12 feet deep with clusters of coral and rock ledges. To our delight, they held plenty of lobsters, many of them keepers.

Although the visibility wasn’t great, Bingham was able to pick out the antennae of bugs hiding under the ledges. Once we dove down to the bottom, the lobsters were easy to see and to coax out into the open with our snares.

We had our six-lobsterper-person limit in short order. Along with a 16-inch hogfish that Bingham speared, that gave us the makings of a fine dinner with which to celebrate the end of lobster season.

Alan Zaremba

fly fishing with Zaremba for three days in the C-100, C-8, C-9 and G-15 canals.

STEVE WATERS/STAFF Dave Bingham shows off half of his six-lobster limit which he caught diving in 8-12 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico.