Went for a solo dive today in search of my dear friend the lobster. Scoped out a new place and ended up scoring.
On the first drop I smack into a nice one just behind the surf zone trying to bury himself in the sand. In the Banks board he went! Over the next two hours I found plenty of bugs, but let them be so they could grow up to play another day. Managed to find some great structure and proceeded to pluck the ones that persuaded me to take them home.
Best part of the dive was pouncing on a good 3lb'er from behind and realizing that there was a much bigger set of legs in the same hole. After calming a frantically beating heart, I scoured the rock for any exits big enough for the now lone occupant to utilize. Upon finding nothing bigger than the size of my fist, I checked to make sure he was still there.
He was there alright, and he had called in an honor guard of grass rockfish and sculpin. Pushing those out of the way, I found I could only get two fingers on the knuckle of this bug. Desperately low on air, I ignored the fire in my lungs and ever so slowly wiggled him out to where one hand could grab him, then another. At last! I had secured a death grip! By the time I got to the surface, I knew I could not have stayed down any longer, as faint stars were making themselves present in my vision. It was worth it though, I didn't break a single leg or antenna off of him.
I grabbed two more after this guy, making it a resoundingly successful dive, and my first limit of lobster. Biggest went 4.75lb, and the others were between that and 3lbs. Riding strong on a serious dive high this evening.