First Lobster Dive Report Cape Cod Bay - May 30, 2016

A good buddy Mark Welzel and I had scheduled ourselves for a freedive for lobster trip this morning in Plymouth County, then the rain from remnants of tropical depression Bonnie moved in.  At 6:00 a.m. this morning we looked at the radar and made the call to go anyway, even though it was raining when we left NEF. We arrived to getting suited up in a downpour and the walk to the shore felt a little silly as the rain dripping from our heads clouded our view as we chuckled about it. The tide was high, the sea was flat, there was no lightning forecasted so what did we have to loose... what were we going to get a wet?

The tide was high as we hopped into 50 degree water temps that felt so good in the new Beuchat Rock Sea Trigo Camo 5 mm wetsuit. Immediately we noticed the big Jonah Crabs were in in big numbers. I have a few great recipes for crab so maybe once or twice a year when they seem big and plentiful I like to grab a bunch for my kids to eat and then pick the rest of the meat and freeze for some future cooking. Yes it is a little work but some free time, and a 6 pack and some reggae playing I manage to clean them all. The large ones in spring are very sweet tasting and an excellent choice for any number of crab recipes.

We proceeded to work a short stretch of shoreline as the rain came down pulling many bugs for the next few hours. The 20 foot visibility in this location makes it fun to hunt bug dens from the surface and enjoy seeing all the life in the area. Small blackfish, cunner, small eel pout and a womper of fluke I wish i could have taken with my Crist polespear in hand. But i was occupied pulling a keeper bug from it's lair when i noticed it a few feet away.
 
We managed to cull through the very shorts, just barely shorts, too big, V notched females and egg bearers to end up with a few keeper lobsters a piece. Typical early season dive that i can look forward to getting better in the next few weeks. Along the way we also managed to both almost limit out on the large Jonahs that seemed to be everywhere, so we could be selective.



By trips end we had a nice dive bag of tasty morsels for our families and a great workout at 64 drops. A great day with a great friend and some more quality time with mother ocean. It seems as though some good lobster diving is here and hopefully you manage to find more keepers than i did today, but plenty of lobsters inshore to make it fun diving. Mahalo.