Sunday, August 03, 2014

A Great Week of Diving in Fort Lauderdale

I would like to thank Captain Todd, Greg, and Dave for a great week of diving. When in Fort Lauderdale, dive American Dream II Dive Charter.

How to Catch a Lobster

I was telling, Dave, a boat crewman for American Dream II Dive Charter, about Brandon and I missing the chance to get the lobster yesterday. Dave told me that you need to use the metal pole to gentle touch the lobster's tale and the lobster will come out of the hole as it thinks it is being attached from behind. On the second dive, I found a lobster and Dave demonstrated the "tickling the lobster's tail" technique. As you can see on the video, it worked as the lobster came out and was looking for another hole to hide. We just let the lobster be as Mini Lobster Season was over at midnight.

Mini Lobster Season

Wednesday and Thursday were Mini Lobster Season, which is kind of like Deer Season up north here. You need to buy a license and you can go out and bag a 12 lobster limit. I heard about this early in the week but Thursday afternoon, I was on an all Lobster Hunting Boat. I was paired up with Brandon and we dove to get lobsters. On the first dive, we were on a deep 60 foot reef, which I just did not think was going to work. I had never seen lobsters that deep and sure enough, we did not see one. We kept trying to get more shallow, but it the reef just stayed deep. On the second dive, which was a 30 foot reef, I went over a ledge, looked in a hole and saw a lobster staring out. I signaled Brandon, who used the metal pole and noose, but missed the lobster. It shot deep back into the hole and stirred up silt, so we never had another chance. The couple on the boat brought up a dozen lobsters, all told. The young man found and brought up a lobster. In all, it was an exciting trip and I would like to go back next year and get my license to go lobster hunting. The underwater shots of the lobsters are before and after Mini-Lobster Season. I saw them all over the place and it was almost like they knew when to go into hiding and when the coast was clear, so to speak.
















Reef Dives

I made eight dives during the week, with five being reef dives. Here are the best shots.














Hog Heaven Dive

This was the last day of our Fort Lauderdale 2014 Trip. Once again, we dove the Hog Heaven Wreck, which is very big and picturesque. I had my Sears Craftsman reef gloves in my pocket to put on when I went down. When I got down to 70 feet and went to put my glove on, they were gone. They had fallen out of the pocket. Very disappointed. Anyway, when I got back on the boat, the gloves had gotten knocked out when I hit the water and the boat crew recovered them. I was really glad.