A Spiny Situation: A Lobster Hoop-netting Adventure with Dana Wharf Sportfishing

By Andrea Swayne

Succulent white meat; buttery in flavor; a treasure from the sea—all descriptions lobster lovers can relate to and much of the reason so many anglers look forward to spiny lobster season each year.

Recreational lobster fishermen like Steve Moss have caught the bug (No pun intended, but lobsters are sometimes referred to as bugs.) and just can’t get enough of this spiny but tasty catch.

“I’ve lived in Dana Point for 10 years but fishing has always been a big part of my life,” said Moss. “Even before moving to the coast I would drive the 30 minutes to fish out of Dana Point Harbor. Three years ago I discovered lobster hoop-netting, bought a boat and started going out at least once a week during lobster season. Fresh fish is delicious but there’s just something about California spiny lobster—you just can’t beat the flavor. I love them!”

Spiny lobster season runs from October through March and during these months the waters off the coast of Dana Point Harbor are a sparkling sight to behold when night falls. The lights of anglers pepper the water, marking the location of every hoop-net and diver who have been lured to the sea by the promise of catching this species of clawless, spiny antennaed lobster known to the scientific world as Panulirus interrruptus.

Hoop-nets are round and sort of conical or tubular in shape when fully extended. As they are lowered to the ocean floor from a boat (or kayak) the net collapses to form a sort of hill that the lobsters crawl over in search of the bait—chopped up bloody mackerel or pieces of other raw cut up fish—in a box made of wire mesh at the center of the net.

When a fisherman pulls the net back into the boat, the net expands and traps the distracted, feeding lobsters inside. Anglers attach a small buoy and a glow stick to the nets to mark the spot where they drop their nets.

The light of glow sticks bob up and down with the water’s motion marking the location of lobster hoop-nets. Further outside of the breakwater and usually more toward San Clemente and Laguna, the twinkling flashlights of divers in search of these nocturnal delicacies can also be seen.

“The first few times I went it was super intimidating, because it’s pitch black and in the middle of the ocean,” said Jake Dowell, a 22-year-old San Clemente native who is on his fourth season of lobster diving. After getting the hang of catching these critters though, Dowell now loves the sport—not to mention the delicious lobster he and his friends get to eat afterwards.

Although lobsters wake up when the sun goes down, divers usually wait until later in the night when they are more active and easier to see while hoop-netters are often seen taking to the water on their boats right around sunset.

Dowell and his friends load up backpacks with a net, flashlight, mask, snorkel, fins, weight belt, and gloves—which are crucial for grabbing the lobsters. They zip up their wetsuits and paddle on longboards to their spot for the night. Often they go to Seal Rock in San Clemente, but “pretty much anywhere there are rocks, there are lobsters,” says Dowell. Dana Point Harbor and the beaches in Laguna are also popular diving spots.

“When lobsters see the light, they freeze for half a second before they take off. You gotta be quick!” said Dowell. He and his friends go lobster diving on average a couple times a week during the season, although there are some that go every night.

Not a boat owner myself and not having any inclination to dive into dark murky water to grab lobsters by hand, I decided to give hoop-netting with Captain Jack VanDyke of Dana Wharf Sportfishing a try.

“Buying a fishing license is kind of like getting a driver’s license. Fish and Game expects anglers to know all the regulations related to fishing—that includes lobster fishing. Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” said VanDyke of the highly regulated sportfishing industry. “You can have only up to 10 nets per boat for recreational lobster fishing, no matter how many licensed anglers are onboard.”

First I would need a fishing license specific to lobsters and a spiny lobster report card. The report card is for keeping track of each individual angler’s catch for the season, the area they netted in and the equipment they used. I will admit, I needed a little help with filling it out, but I vowed from then on to always do my homework on the Fish and Game website before any future fishing trips.

According to the California Department of Fish and Game regulations, a spiny lobster report card is required for every person taking spiny lobsters in California ocean waters and the legal limit is seven per person per day. Seven per person? That limit got my hopes up—I could have lobster dinner for days!

I also learned that in order to be a legal catch, the lobster carapace (body) must measure three and a quarter inches long. The crew had plenty of Fish and Game approved gauges to measure each lobster we get to determine whether or not it would be thrown back for being too small.

I joined eight other first-time lobster anglers aboard The Clemente and we headed out for a four-hour trip. I was surprised when the boat stopped just outside of the breakwater and we started setting the traps. Apparently these lobsters like to hang out near the jetty rocks and in pretty shallow water.

The night was spent taking turns—each angler had a number—in sequence, pulling up the hoop nets to see what was inside.

My number was 4. I pulled up my first net and lo and behold—a pretty big one! The three anglers who had turns before me had at least two in each of their nets but after careful measurement, all were returned to the ocean. I knew it right when I saw it—mine was a keeper.

We kept this cycle going for the entire four hours. Some baskets were empty. Some were full. But most were thrown back. By the end of the evening we had pulled in 59 undersized lobsters and only 6 legals. Inevitably, some on the boat were disappointed and went home empty handed. Two man caught three keepers and another landed two! They love lobster fishing now.

No so, for the ones that didn’t. I heard comments coming from that group complaining how they should have gone to the supermarket and bought a lobster. It would be easier and take a lot less time, they said. We should have stayed home to watch Monday Night Football, they said. Grumble, grumble, they said. Despite the grumbling, everyone disembarked with a smile on their face and a story to tell at the end of the trip.

It turned out that as exciting and interesting as the lobsters were, other mysterious creatures found their way into our nets making for an even more fascinating catch. We caught a few different types of fish I had never seen before and a sting ray, as well as a couple of crabs. It was like a marine biology lesson at sea.

I knew that I could expect to see some interesting animals in the nets by talking to Moss about hoop-netting the day before. He told me that this was one of the main reasons his daughter Rachel enjoys going lobster fishing with him—for the experience. “Last weekend we pulled in an eel. We’ve pulled in an octopus, many different fish, crabs and even a small shark,” he said.

The next day I told Moss about my lobster catch and how excited I was to find these delectable creatures so close to home.

“We’ve spoken to a lot of people who encourage us to go to Catalina or Long Beach or Newport but we’ve had great luck right here in Dana Point,” he said of his weekly, and sometimes bi-weekly lobstering trips with his son Bill. “There’s no need to go anywhere else. Dana Point is the center of our lobster universe.”

That night, as I cooked up my lobster tail for dinner, I couldn’t help but thinking that, yes, it would indeed be easier to get one at the market, but my experience of catching it for myself was going to make the meat taste that much sweeter. And so it did.

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To book a lobster fishing trip with Dana Wharf Sportfishing, call 949.496.5794 or log on to www.danawharf.com.

Kirstin Amavisca Sacher contributed to this story