The Ins, Outs of Lobster Season

When lobster season opened Wednesday, Dale Sleight was ready. He and his wife, Trudy, have spent the past two months building new traps and repairing old ones for the beginning of the six-month season. And Sleight, one of an estimated 25 commercial lobstermen in Orange County, has been busy this week setting 150 steel traps up and down the coast, hoping to snare his share of the delectable, but elusive, California spiny lobster.

The local lobsters will soon start showing up regularly in seafood markets, where they sell for $8 to $9, and restaurants. But while lobster season means good eating for diners, it means a lot of hard work for fishermen like Sleight.

Every day from October through mid-March, Sleight, a dory fisherman in Newport Beach, launches his 18-foot boat an hour before dawn and heads out to sea with about 100 pounds of bait. For the next nine hours or so, he makes a 60-mile loop, stopping at each trap to re-bait and to retrieve and measure his catch. Lobsters that do not measure at least 3 1/4 inches along the length of their backs (from eye socket to the rear edge of the shell) must be thrown back. The typical lobster runs about one to two pounds.

For Sleight, the average daily haul is about 60 “bugs,” as the California lobsters are popularly called. Other lobstermen may set as many as 500 traps, according to Mike Castleton, a warden with the California Department of Fish and Game. For commercial lobstermen, there is no quantity limit.

“I only like to fish 150 traps because I can handle those myself every day,” says Sleight, who admits that lobstering is a tough business. “It is not the glamorous job everyone thinks it is. It is cold and miserable.”

The biggest problem in the lobstering business is poachers.

Sleight sometimes stations his wife, Trudy, on the cliffs near Laguna Beach with binoculars to watch the white floats that mark his traps. If she spots someone trying to pull up the traps, she calls officials at the Department of Fish and Game. Harder to spot are the divers who often raid the traps under water, according to Sleight, who has been lobstering for 14 years.

Some lobstermen work at land-bound jobs during the off season, while others, like Sleight, make their living year-round as fishermen. Anyone willing to pay $200 for a permit, $50 for a license and $165 for a vessel permit can become a commercial lobsterman, according to Mike Castleton.

If you don’t want to trap lobsters commercially, but would like to snare two or three for dinner, you can purchase a one-day ocean sportfishing license for $6.50 (or you can pay $11.75 for a license good from day of purchase through the end of that calendar year) and try your luck with a hoop net, according to Castleton, who says he has caught many a lobster that way. Hoop nets, made of heavy netting strung between two metal rings, can be purchased at bait and tackle shops for about $24.95. You tie your bait in the center of the net and then lower the net from the

jetty or a boat. Leave it down for about 15 to 20 minutes, then haul it up and check it for lobsters. Each person is limited to seven lobsters per day.

If you are a diver, you can take lobsters legally by hand. Limit is seven lobsters per person, and a fishing license is required. Lobsters are found in 15 to 60 feet of water and are most often found in crevices, caves and near small openings in the rocks. .

Cruising the channels: Orange Coast College is offering a cruise to the Channel Islands aboard the Alaska Eagle, the school’s 65-foot oceangoing yacht.

The cruise is limited to nine students, and participants must have at least intermediate-level sailing experience. Each night is spent anchored in a cove at one of the islands, and there is ample time for exploring ashore. Cost is $360 per person, including food.

The participants meet from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14 and Oct. 21, for sail training and cruise planning. The cruise departs Wednesday, Oct. 25, and returns on Sunday, Oct. 29. For information call (714) 432-5880.

New club: Plans for a new waterfront boating and social club were announced recently in Newport Beach. Called the Harbor Club, the proposed facility will be at 3333 W. Coast Highway, said Richard Stevens, president and managing director. Charter memberships are now being accepted. For information call (714) 646-1989.

Shearlean Duke is a regular contributor to Orange County Life. On the Waterfront appears each Saturday, covering boating life styles as well as ocean-related activities along the county’s 42-mile coastline. Send information about boating-related events to: On the Waterfront, Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Deadline is two weeks before publication.