July 12, 2017 Lobster Diving Report, Plymouth, MA - Mike Chace

Location: Plymouth, MA
Water temp: 58 degrees
Conditions: flat calm, low tide

I finally slipped in a morning of badly needed water time this past week. The Plymouth area has been one of my favorite dive locations the past few years due to the great conditions and different marine life we experience there as compared to diving the south coast area. Dive buddy Eric and I arrived to meet our friend Ted to try a new location in the area. As we carried our gear down to the waters edge we were stoked to see the conditions we had hoped for, I have come to call this place the "Cold Caribbean". Gorgeous panoramic views with the sand bottom next to reef and rocks producing that turquoise color, it's easy to imaging you are looking at a tropical location in front of you. After diving warm cloudy inshore visibility in the Rhode Island area in the summer it is always a great change to slip into some cooler water with 25-30 ft visibility.

As we began to put fins on I noticed an odd wake coming up the shore from our right side about 100 yards offshore. The ocean was like glass with not a ripple anywhere so I pointed it out to my friends and we decided to watch it for a few minutes. A large V shaped wake moving slow and straight, it never deviated from the path it was swimming. There was no dorsal fin extending any height above the water but what ever was swimming just below the surface was very large and produced a significant wake. We decided to hold off and watch it some more time, fearing it possibly be "The GW" we all hoped we would never see there someday. I was hoping it was a big bluefin in shallow for some reason but it swam too straight line and did not act at all like tuna on the surface, it was not a whale as it was only in 25 feet of water and we never saw a back or fluke, or see it dive, or anything else that would lead us to believe it was a small whale. We have all known this area has GW visiting since the seal population has expanded in recent years, but we personally have never had any encounters or sightings.

(what is this dive float / cooler you might ask? stay tuned for new product release) 

After we watched it swim off heading north about a 1/4 mile out of site we decided we would just stay in near the reef in shallow and poke around for some lobsters among the rocks then evaluate it some more. After a few minutes in the water I surfaced to find myself amid a school of jumping menhaden being pushed in to me by a group of seals balling them up and pushing them into the shallows. We swam in to standing depth and watched the show of 6-7 large grey seals pushing and aggressively feeding on the fish they had balled up in shallow. Once they had pushed the fish further down the beach about 200 yards we resumed diving.

I managed to pull 4 really nice lobsters very quickly within 1/2 hour. I did see a couple of large females held up deep in their holes i did not bother with assuming they were eggers. Twenty minutes later we surfaced again to find the seals pushing fish into us again. This happened one more time as well and the seals were now swimming in to 20 feet away to check us out and wonder why we were amid their dinner. Finally we decided that the amount of feeding seals, dead oily fish in the water from them, and the rather large critter that swam by earlier was just not the smartest combination of conditions to be in the water with. so we called it and headed in. Diving this area seems to get sketchier every time i try lately. Unfortunate, as it such a pretty area.

 Eric and I stopped at one of my little neck spots on the ride home to complete an interesting day. With som lobsters and littlenecks now secured I could now cook a dish my wife and kids have become very fond of... a Pad Thai with New England Shellfish (pic above) , I will post recipe in coming days.

Dive Safe,
Mike

June 19th & 20th Lobster Diving Report from Cape Cod Bay - Mike Chace

Day: Saturday June 19, 2016
Location: Cape Cod Bay side of Cape Cod
Report Contributor: Mike Chace
Conditions: a 9 out of 10.

Met up with a good friend for some freediving for lobsters in Cape Cod Bay. We arrived at 9:00 am to a flat sea, perfectly sunny morning with slight NE breeze on a flood tide. The tide was high as we entered mother ocean to find she had gifted us with some beautiful conditions. Vertical visibility was about 20 feet and calm waters. We were pleased to find there was many more keeper size male lobsters in the general area than just 2 weeks ago.  A few hours of some hunting in some gorgeous scenery resulted in 17 keepers between my dive buddy and myself. Noticeable was the lack of large Jonah Crabs that were here two weeks ago... gone. A few small ones scattered about. My dive bud got a swarmed in a school of 30 lb class bass he could only watch as they seemed to be looking for all the sand eels that seemed to be present this week. The flood tide kept it really high most of the afternoon making the conditions stick for the rest of the afternoon. A couple of cold ones to celebrate back at the homestead and I washing off my gear and changing my plans for Sunday to head back to the same general area and try another spot.

Saturday's catch 2 divers:

Day: Sunday June 20, 2016
Location: Cape Cod Bay side of Cape Cod

Conditions: a 10 out of 10.

We arrived by boat at a different location and suited up hoping the conditions had stuck around over night and the ocean would be just as nice as the previous day. Today we planned to scout out a few new locations with the boat and not stay too long at either one spot. We jumped in to find it was even better conditions than the previous day with gin clear 25 ft + vertical visibility with 50 ft + horizontal visibility over the sandy bottom as we kicked in to the shoreline to find some rocks over the sand the bugs like some much. The conditions were so superb, the lobsters plenty and the ocean life so beautiful we could not help be in awe of what a lucky day was to be there, take it it... and appreciate it. Had the opportunity to shoot a decent tautog for my Captain and harvested him who requested one. Again the striped bass were today were working the edge of the rockweed beds at high tide with schools of fish in he 20-30 lb class not spooked too much by your presence, quite a cool experience. About four hours and 58 drops later my legs were exhausted from two days of diving and decided to head home with another nice catch. Father's Day dinner was baked stuffed lobsters for the family,  I will share the recipe in my next Cooking the Catch post.

My catch Sunday:

I I have always been in love with freediving for lobsters so I looked forward to this time of year as much as I look forward to spearfishing each Spring. Now that I could dedicate two wonderful days in a row to my passion and get the "bugs" out of my system (so to speak) I can dedicate the next couple of trips back in the RI area looking for some decent bass. Thanks to some great dive buddies for a great weekend and mother ocean for gifting us with a pair of stellar days and diving experiences.

If you enjoy diving in the big bay... It is here. Set aside some time for a dive with favorite dive buddies and get in before the weather pattern switches and screws up the conditions that are there right now.

Cheers,
Mike

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.