By Paul Lebowitz

A chill in the evening air. Battles on the gridiron. California spiny lobster steaming on a plate. Why lobster? It’s as synonymous with autumn in Southern California as falling leaves in Maine. Each year lobster season opens the first week in October.

Not too long ago, fresh caught lobster was a privilege limited to divers willing to suffer cold, dark water, or to those few who could decipher the arcane meaning of Section 29.80 of the California Ocean Fishing Regulations. Now that the word is out on hoop netting, more and more saltwater anglers are enjoying the sweet, buttery taste of a successful lobster hunt. 

Jim Salazar is a lobster hooping guide and pro staffer for Promar, maker of a popular series of pre-rigged hoop nets that incorporate built-in bait pouches. Salazar says the dear price of a pound of lobster and the ease of hooping explain the soaring popularity of lobster hunting. “It’s our most expensive culinary delight,” says Salazar, who further remarks that hoop netting can be done from most any floating vessel.

Smaller, more maneuverable boats such as small skiffs, center consoles, or even kayaks are ideal. For those who are landbound or don’t have a fishing license, public piers work too. Pier hoopers may use up to two nets; boaters may use up to five per person, with a maximum of ten hoops per boat.

Going out for lobsters is very different from a day of fishing. For starters, it’s an activity best pursued in the dark. Spiny lobsters spend most of the day hunkered down in the cracks and crevices of reefs and breakwaters. At night they venture out to scavenge for supper. That’s when they can be tempted to walk onto a baited hoop net.

First, prepare your nets by stuffing the built-in bait pouches if available, or use metal bait cages and attach one to each net’s central ring. Any oily fish should do. Score it for better scent dispersion. Mackerel, sardines, bonito, and yellowtail and tuna scraps are commonly used for lobster, but there are many others. Next, rig some sort of illumination to the hoop nets’ main lines.

Make them distinctive so your nets stand out from others on the water. Milk or soda bottles are popular and inexpensive supplemental light containers. Drop in a chemical light stick and you’re ready to go. 

Head out to some promising structure such as a harbor breakwater or rock garden and set out the nets. Working a hoop net isn’t complicated. “It’s a pretty easy deal,” says Salazar. For boaters, Salazar recommends approaching your spot from the up current or upwind side. Coast up to the spot and come to a stop.

Don’t just toss the nets out; let them down in a nice controlled drop. If swell and weather conditions allow Salazar enough time, after a net has hit bottom he lifts it about a foot and drops it carefully back down to assure himself the net is sitting nice and flat.

Salazar lets his nets soak about twenty minutes before pulling them up. “Approaching the pull is the same as the drop,” he says. Come up from down current or downwind and come to a stop.

Salazar says it is important to get directly over the top of a net so the main line is vertical. Pull the net up as fast as possible without losing control or allowing a hand to slip. Any pause causes the hoop net to flatten and lose its trap shape, giving lobsters a good chance to escape.

HOOP SUCCESS – The word on hoop netting is out. The sport is a simple way to enjoy gourmet fare. Here first time lobster hooper Kevin Joyce shows off two nice bugs taken just after the 2005 season opened. PHOTO COURTESY KEVIN JOYCE

HOOP NET - A hoop net is made of two concentric rings. Bait is placed on the lower ring. When it’s resting on the bottom, lobsters can crawl right onto the flat net. The outer ring springs up when the net is retrieved, trapping the lobsters.

KAYAK LOBSTER – Kayaks make great lobster hooping platforms. The small, maneuverable boats have no props to snag errant lines. PHOTO COURTESY JOHN PAWLAK

Suspense builds as a net is pulled towards the surface. What could be inside? However anxious or curious to find out, don’t pull the net right into the boat when it gets to the top! In addition to tasty lobsters, baited hoop nets can attract delicious stone crabs (keeper crabs must be a minimum four inches wide measured by the shortest distance through the body), freaky looking spider crabs (marketed as California king crab, there’s a lot of meat inside the often muddy carapace), and a host of less welcome creatures.

Many are curiosities that you wouldn’t otherwise see, and some can hurt the unwary. Chief among the later are eels, which come up with a nasty attitude and fearsome looking fangs. Also look out for sting rays and sculpin with toxic spines. Simply tipping the net towards the water should free most of the nasties. Fin fish of any kind, legal size or not, have to go back into the water.   

If you’re lucky, when the net comes to the surface one or more lobsters will be scurrying around the bottom. Now it’s time to see if they measure up. With gloves on (they’re not called spiny lobsters without reason), pin a lobster down with one hand, then slide the other hand beneath it and grab it around the body. Now take your lobster gauge (mandatory), place one of its arms in the ridge between the lobster’s eyes and rotate the other arm down towards the tail. If it hits carapace, that lobster is legal, but if it hits the segmented tail the lobster must be released. In DFG speak, lobsters must be a minimum of 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.

What should you do if you pull up one empty net after another? Kayak hooping guide Jason Morton of KayakSportfishing.com says don’t play the waiting game. “Hooping is a lot like fishing. If one area is not producing move your nets around,” says Morton. A spot only 50 yards away could be loaded with lobster.