Florida Keys Lobstering…Mini Season 2011

Photos and Article Courtesy of Nathan Austin

As a small boy my father would take me to the keys for the lobster mini season. This takes place each year during the last Wednesday and Thursday of July. This is a two day recreation period for divers and snorkelers only. Mini season is 7 days prior to the 8 month commercial lobster season.

For me this is a time to relax, unwind and have a great time with family and close friends.  I look forward to this trip each year. After chasing the silver king for a solid two months; I can put the rods away and enjoy my wife and kids. 

My family and I like to get to the keys a couple days prior to the opener. This allows me time to take the kids snorkeling and hang out with the wife. We arrived to the keys on Monday; my wife wanted to hit a restaurant she saw on “Man vs. Food”, the Conch House. What a great place to eat, very keys like. Laid back and great food. I recommend a stop here for the Conch Fritters.

The weather was a bit on the rough side. A storm kicked off Cuba and produced 10-25 knot winds each day. This made the Atlantic side 3-5’ seas, definitely not conducive to divers during mini season. The visibility was terrible only 5-10’ on a good day.  
 
Monday and Tuesday flew by like a tornado. I was up at 3:30am Wednesday morning planning for the first dive of mini season. After scouting a few spots on Tuesday I knew where we needed to be.  All the crew had the boats loaded and we started making our way to our chosen spot at 5am. Once the sun had started to rise we hit the water and the pillage began. We produced an 8 man limit within 30 min. We made a quick dash back to the dock and unloaded. After a few pictures we had fresh tanks and a new crew to head out for second shift.  Once back to the spot; we were back in business.  The second group of divers did as well as the first. They produced another 8 man limit in no time. 

Day two was nothing short of the opener. It took a bit longer as the keeper bugs were a little harder to find. Our crew did a great job and we finished out with our day two limit by 11am.  It was back to the dock to clean up and break out the cigars and Colorado Kool-Aid, the Coors Light.