Islander trip diving

So, will we be able to free dive for Lobsters?  What would I need?

if you want to freedive for lobsters get a lobster gauge, a flashlight and if you are close to shore, do this at night because thats when they come out and for freediving it'll require less effort.

freediving for lobster is a workout because you are down hunting around grabbing and your bottom time will be shorter. if its shallow it can be fun but if its deeper then it can be quite a challenge: )

john

If it's a boat trip, most people scuba dive.
I prefer going on a camping trip and free diving at night. I usually stay pretty close to the shore at night, I don't like deep water at night where my lightbeam cannot penetrate to the bottom. I guess I'm taking enough risks already by going diving at night by myself, so stay close to shore I always do. It's a very enjoyable experience once you get comfortable. The scenary is quite different from daytime. And there are usually plenty of bugs in shallow.
You need a lobster bag and a flashlight. I use a bag that I can wear under my weight belt (so I don't have to hand carry the bag). My dive light is a UK D8 eled. Bright but battery lasts a long time too.

Isn't that clever.  I've got the light.  I don't yet have a floatline for it.  My wire rimmed gam bag will work I guess?

I think more info on the dive spot will better prepare us all. I have never been to the Cortez Banks. How deep is the diving? Water temps? How thick of a wetsuit do we need? Are we diving right off the boat or from the kayak?
Once some of these questions are answered it will give us all a better perspective on how to prepare.

I use this lobster bag:
http://www.nhtdivers.com/products/beltbags.html
Your wire rimmed game bag will work, it's just a lot of pain to carry it around. When I free dive for bugs, I use one hand to carry the flashlight (with the lobster gauge bungeed to the flashlight) and the other hand to grab the lobster. If one of your hands has to both carry the flashlight and the game bag.... you get my point, very awkward.
I think the Nht bag is great for lobsters, the downside however, is the bag doesn't have any backing. The lobster spines will rough up your wetsuit surface a bit. I heard Florida Freedivers carry a Rob Allen bag that has fabric backing but otherwise is the same as the nhtbag. I have not personally seen or tried the bag, but it's worth a try for sure.
I think most people don't use a floatline for lobster diving. When the light is on, it's pretty hard to lose it.

I think more info on the dive spot will better prepare us all. I have never been to the Cortez Banks. How deep is the diving? Water temps? How thick of a wetsuit do we need? Are we diving right off the boat or from the kayak?
Once some of these questions are answered it will give us all a better perspective on how to prepare.

man , i was spearfishing cortez banks 2 years ago on a 4 day trip. if you go there and want bugs, you better scuba. the shallowest i could find there was 55 or so feet deep. on a good day you could see bottom and it looks closer but its actually deep to dive it on breathhold. we were freediving and spent the majority of the time cruising the surface.

i would pack a good sized speargun and cruise the edges of the kelp forest. man, i would love to do that again soon. that place is home to big fish.

you want a cold water suit and if you are diving you'll probably dive right off the boat so the dive master watching will have less clutter to keep track of and not accidentally think that someone fell out of their yak. if you want to dive there nothing short of a cold water suit will do.

that place is wide open and some guys got caught in the fog bank that rolled in and had to get hunted down. whatever you do, bring a gps on the kayak and use it, bring good batteries too because sometimes in a matter of minutes the fog can be in and you cant even tell which direction the boat is without gps.

that is the only place i ever dived where i saw bait tornadoes go from the surface all the way to the bottom of the ocean. beyond how far i could see even with the gin clear visibility.

john

That's what I've heard too.  The currents are supposed to be treacherous as well.  I can bring my pair of scuba tanks, with a compressor on board I think we'll only need one each, so I can save someone a rental if they don't have one.

My friend that dove there said a Hawaiian sling with a single flopper point was helpful for the lobsters, you can't shoot them, but you can reach around the lobster with it to cause him to retreat towards you.  Appearantly there's some technique to it that he didn't get though - he said his approach was to find one in a hole and pull off all it's legs until it couldn't hold itself in anymore...  He said that guys diving during the day would get 1 or 2 lobsters per dive, but guys diving at night caught easy limits.  Night diving requires a larger flashlight and preferably a smaller backup light. 

We probably won't be at the bank all three days, at the islands we'll have access to shoreline areas where freediving may work okay.  With unlimited scuba fills though it might be better to just blow bubbles.  I don't think lobsters are spooky like large gamefish are, and from my friends account catching the buggers is hard - I don't want to worry about freediving while first trying to learn how to manipulate the bugs.

As an interesting aside, the landlord's eyes have the same cone/rod ratio as people do, which means he doesn't see very well in the dark compared to other sharks and probably won't be on the prowl at night.

Tickle stick or the polespear implementation while lobstering is not legal in California.
Actually I personally think getting lobster in Cortez Bank is a waste of (precious) time there. There are plenty of other places where you can catch lobster (and don't require such a long boat trip). Time in Cortez Bank is best spent for spearing pelagics.

Huh.  For some reason I thought that line was talking about gaffs...

Guess I'll be taking the 'rip all their legs off' approach then. 

Just aim for the carapace. Once you get your hand on the carapace, you WILL get it out. Pulling antenna is useless (unless you get a solid hold on the base of the antenna).
Most people will tell you to take a violent grab for the bug as quickly as you can. I found that approach didn't work for me too well. I do much better by avoiding the antenna, inching my hand a bit closer and then a quick grab. That works 90% of the time for me. I guess everybody has slightly different techniques.

another thing you can do is bring a pole to use off the islander for some fun night fishing. bring some glow in the dark lures and jig at night.

some of these boats may also let you troll a lure behind the boat as they motor out.

i know a guy who once got a bluefin tuna doing this. once the fish was on they stopped the boat and reeled it in.