Near perfect weather conditions on the ocean for this year’s mini-season, found many divers out on the water in southeast Florida. This year mini-season fell on July 30th & 31st, the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday in July.
This tradition was started in 1975 allowing only recreational divers to harvest spiny lobster during this two day period before the regular season begins August 6th through March 31st. And in this area of Broward and Palm Beach Counties, we are allowed to catch twice the normal limit of six lobsters during mini-season. So the hunt is on to Catch the BUG!
The Chiefy crew left the dock at 5:30 am and ventured out of the Boca Raton Inlet to a spot in 35 feet of water. The good news is we are only a few hundred feet off shore, well within sight of the coastline. After getting some spiny lobster, we then jumped in to a few spots in 45 feet of water, off of Deerfield Beach and Hillsboro Beach. These were very productive as we finished getting our double limit by 11am.
So the final count for the Chiefy crew was 5 divers catching 60 spiny lobsters. Not a bad day out on the water.
Chiefy
Jim “Chiefy” Mathie is a known lobster slayer for more than 25 years and author of “Catching the Bug, The Comprehensive Guide to Catching the Florida Spiny Lobster.” Jim was given his Chiefy nickname by his dive buddies while spear fishing off South Florida in 2004 after he encountered and survived a shark frenzy witnessed by his friends. Later that evening, for entertainment, they watched “Jaws.” During the movie, boat captain Robert Shaw, who later gets eaten by the Great White, nicknames Police Chief Roy Scheider Chiefy. It is Chiefy who ends up killing the shark. At the time, Jim was a fire chief, so a new Chiefy legend began. The web site www.chiefy.net was established to showcase numerous Chiefy adventures, keeping the legend alive!