By Paul Lebowitz

With the dark coastline of northwestern Catalina looming indistinctly in the distance, Ben Hong eased off the throttle, allowing his Bayliner to glide quietly up beside a lighted float. Jim Salazar, standing at starboard rail, gently picked up the line dangling from it and carefully took in all the slack. The moment it came vertical and taut Salazar began hauling, pulling the rope in quickly and smoothly.

The line in his hands vibrated promisingly, a sign that a big lobster, as yet unseen in the net Salazar was raising from the sea floor to the surface, was rattling around in a bid to escape. As the net broke the surface the large “bug” flicked its tail again, nearly flipping itself out of the net, but Salazar was fast. With a gloved hand, he pinned the fat 5-pound lobster against the mesh and hoisted it and two other keepers into the boat.       

It was just the first “pull” of the young night, and as Salazar put it, “It only seemed to get better from there.” Along with George Wang, Promar Product Development Manager Hong and Pro Staffer Salazar were in Catalina for a night of hunting ‘Cat tails – the oh so sweet lobster tails that come from Catalina’s near pristine waters.

Earlier that day the group had braved a wet crossing from Marina Del Rey over to the island. A stack of Promar’s high-quality pre-rigged lobster hoop nets was tied down on the bow, safely out of the way and secure enough to avoid marring the Bayliner’s gel coat. Arriving well before dark, the trio motored over to their planned lobster hunting zone to scout for hazards and map out the bottom structure.

“There are a lot of boiler rocks,” Hong said of northwestern Catalina. “Before the sun goes down we mark them on GPS.”

“It’s not like hooping your local breakwater,” added Salazar. The hazards of the unfamiliar waters charted, they claimed a mooring in Two Harbors, fired up the grill, and fortified themselves for the night’s work to come with a barbecue rib dinner. As the sun dropped low on the horizon, they headed back out to their spot.

Hong explained the basic strategy as Salazar prepped ten nets, the maximum allowed per boat. Other numbers to be aware of are 5 hoops per person max., and a daily and possession limit of 7 lobsters per licensed angler.

“At Catalina, we set the nets in up to 80 feet of water, pretty deep. We drop the first net in 20 feet, the next in 40, then 60 and 80 and work back in. It helps us figure what depth the lobsters are at,” said Hong. As he spoke Salazar attached a chemical light stick to the large white float on each net, and then attached a bait cage overflowing with oily mackerel inside each net’s inner hoop.

As the eastern horizon began to darken, Hong eased the boat up to drop the first net. Salazar swung it overboard, carefully controlling the line as the net sank. When it hit bottom, he lifted it about a foot and then gently laid it back down.

“We lift and carefully set each net back down to make sure the net lands flat and the middle hoop is centered,” explained Salazar. If it lands cock-eyed, a lobster can get to the bait without venturing onto the net.   

Working together, Hong and Salazar dropped the remaining nine nets of the first set. By the time they’d finished, the first net had been soaking for 20 minutes. Time to see what’d come to dinner. 

After that first net yielded those three legal lobsters, the action was steady. Few nets came up empty. Whenever there was the slightest doubt whether a lobster met the minimum legal size (three and one-fourth inches measured in a straight line on the midline of the back from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear edge of the body shell), Salazar would quickly measure it with a lobster gauge. Short lobsters were tossed back into the sea without ever making it into the boat, but there weren’t many. “At Catalina, it seems like everything is big,” laughed Salazar as he dropped another couple of keepers into the bait tank.  

One net seemed especially heavy as Salazar was hauling it up to the surface. Instead of the hoped-for lobster mother lode, all the net held was a thrashing eel that didn’t much appreciate its involuntary basket ride. Salazar up-ended the net, ridding it of its nasty occupant. “That’s why you should never swing a net into the boat without first looking at what’s inside,” warned Salazar. Other hoop net hitch-hikers were a pair of stingrays, a horned shark, and a few guitar fish, but this time there were no sculpin to carefully pry out of the nets. 

As the night wore on, more lobsters were coming out of the nets set deeper, so Hong and Salazar concentrated their efforts there. Hong was also hoping to supplement the lobster catch with some tasty stone crabs, but they didn’t show. When Salazar pulled up his 34th net of the night, the boat hit its Blackjack – 21 legal lobsters in the tank. It had taken less than two hours, a time that Hong considers “just average” for a night of lobster hoop netting at Catalina.

TWO BIG ‘CAT TAILS – Promar’s Product Development Manager Ben Hong shows off a pair of the sweet-tasting lobster tails produced in Catalina’s crystalline waters.

DREAM HOOP – If lobster hooping at Catalina isn’t a sure bet, it is at least a good wager. On a recent trip, Promar staff members and guests hooped up 21 legal size lobsters in just 34 net pulls, a fantastic ratio that Hong considers “just average” for Catalina.

HOOP NET HITCH-HIKER – A hoop netting trip isn’t all lobsters. The baited nets sometimes haul up hitch-hikers such as this rough character Salazar identified as a Catalina green eel.