Last of the Season Hooping!

Seizing the opportunity to hoop for lobster one more time this year on Jason's boat, I wanted to make the most of it. Our previous outing left us short of bait cages especially the seal proof PVC ones so my morning quest was to locate the necessary equipment and bait.

I found one bait cage at Hogan's Tackle and one at the Jig Stop in Dana Point to add to our other 4. I still needed 4 more which I found in San Diego at Angler's Center. As for bait, I found a 25# block of mackerel at Hogan's for $40.

I left for San Diego yesterday around 11:30 and got there early enough to take a cat nap in my car before we loaded the boat and baited the cages. Jason had gone to the bait receiver earlier in the day for a bucket of fresh sardines. He mixed the mackerel with the sardines and we stuffed them in the cages. We loaded them up and headed on to the outside to set out nets.

We were in the water by 5:30 pm and waiting - when we saw Bob Fletcher and his family ready to do some hoop netting himself. We chatted and he decided to try inside. We set our radios to channel 72 so we could keep each other informed.

I made our first two pulls and we got loads of crabs and one legal lobster. Jason made the next and in all we made 9 or so pulls. Each pull was similar - loads of crabs, lots of short lobsters (just under legal) with an occasional legal lobster. Throw in a few octopus, sculpin and rock crab and we had a busy night. We checked with Bob and he wasn't having any luck inside, so we called him on out where we were. He didn't stay very long so we think his luck didn't match ours. At nights' end, we had 11 legal lobsters - woo hoo! A good way to end the season.

We stuck it out until 12:15 am before we headed to dock. By the time we unloaded, packed my truck and I drove home, it was 2 in the morning. I was exhausted but it was well worth the effort. Thanks again Jason!