By Paul Lebowitz

It’s California spiny lobster season again. Frenzied bug hunters are back at it, busily stalking the delicious crustaceans.

It’s an incredibly busy time at the harbor breakwalls. These obvious and easy to reach spots are the focus of intense pressure. Seemingly anyone with a boat that floats is out there staking out prime hoop net turf. And don’t forget the divers, who thread their way through the lines of bobbing floats.

Once you break a wall up between 50 people, there’s not much real estate to go around points out Jason Morton, marketing director for hoop net manufacturer Promar. Like an accident-marred rush hour on I-5 through downtown LA, the overcrowded scene is a prescription for high blood pressure.

So what can a kayak angler with bugs on the brain and an aversion to combat fishing do?

Morton points out plenty of options. Lobsters enjoy other rocky haunts, such as the edges of kelp beds, rock piles, and artificial reefs.

If some of these spots seem obvious, well, that’s because they are! Rocks poke out of the water at low tide, reefs are shown on maps and charts, and nothing can hide from a modern fishfinder.

Any place you dredge up a shallow water rockfish potentially holds lobsters. Depths up to 120 feet don’t discourage the bugs, especially come winter when they migrate to deep water. Of course, that’s a long, muscle-burning pull.

Ok, its true many if not most of these potential lobster mother lodes are miles from a harbor. That’s why they get so little love from the masses. Our launch almost anywhere craft don’t care. The better question is, do you? After all, it’s dark out there! Launching and landing through the surf is tough enough when you can see it.

For Andrew Allen, the long-time kayak angler who runs OEX Sunset Beach, the answer is yes.

“I stopped hooping Mission Bay because it got too crowded. At La Jolla on the opener, it would be one scuba diver after another,” Allen says.

Orange County kayaker John Near, a Hook 1 pro staffer, is another over the beach hooper.

“I don’t like the crowds. You’ll catch more lobsters if you can get away by yourself. Besides, it’s safer. I don’t have to worry about getting run over or losing nets to a boat propeller,” Near says.

A heavy load of hoop nets plus surf? That’s a challenging combination. How do these pros deal with it?

KAYAK YOUR WAY TO A BUGGY BOUNTY – Jim Salazar shows how it’s done. The lobster guru doesn’t limit himself to the obvious places, the harbor breakwalls. He knows paddling away from the crowd can pay big dividends for those up to the challenge.

CLAY ‘THE FISHCATCHER’ HARDING SHOWS OFF DAD’S SURF COLLECTION – Watermen with exceptional surf knowledge are kings of the close-in reefs. Situated just outside and sometimes even within the break zone, few people are crazy enough to go after these shallow-water bugs.

“I usually go in a Malibu Mini-X. It’s a very surf-friendly kayak. At times, I just glide in,” Allen says.

For Near, the answer is securely stowing his nets. After all, a tumble with loose lines –there’s a lot of rope to hang yourself with on a stack of lobster nets – is a good way to get hurt. Near ties his nets down on a simple PVC rack of his own design.

“It works for me. If I had to I’d ditch the kayak and save myself,” Near says.

Launching through surf is simple enough – just wait for a break between sets and go for all you’re worth. Landing is a tougher proposition, especially when you can’t see the swells that are coming. Allen turns to another sense.

“You can tell when the set wave hits. It booms. I don’t wait around much after that,” Allen says.

Near finds comfort in company.

“I go with a buddy. I’ve been hooping where it’s downright scary. It’s good to have a friend to save your bacon if you get in trouble. That’s huge,” Near says.

When you commit to a landing, give it 100 percent. “Hesitation leads to devastation,” in Near’s memorable and oh-so-true terminology.

Kayakers who fear no surf are the kings of the in-close reefs. Few sane boaters trespass here, perilously near and sometimes within the break zone. The commercial guys can’t touch it.  

This is not a place for the faint-hearted or the under-prepared. For watermen like Martin Harding of the Loco Pescadores crew, it’s just another night at the office. Taking a few over the bow comes with the territory. 

“You’ll get wet. Deal with it; it’s a water sport,” Harding says, and he’s right. Pulling hoops from a kayak is soggy business.

The key here is a thorough understanding of the local beach. This means an intimate, surfer’s eye view of where and how the waves break. Where’s the inside reef? Where are the productive zones no one else touches?

In this tight, surge is a major issue. Harding weights his nets down to keep them in place, but even that has its limits.

“If it’s choppy and splashed out, if it looks like its ripping, it’s not a good night to go out,” Harding explains.

Lobsters won’t linger in a sliding hoop. In fact, Harding, also an experienced free diver, says the bugs hunker down in their holes when the surge might carry them away. In these conditions, hooping is just hoping. 

We’ve talked a lot about surf – it’s the barrier that must be broken for kayakers to claim their very own pieces of the lobster pie. For those who don’t know their business, it’s a dangerous even deadly place given heavy loads of hoop nets and multiple coils of line. So let’s hit this point one more time.

“The last thing you want to do is get tangled. Wrap your ropes carefully,” Harding emphasizes.

A couple more points. When launching through larger surf, Harding recommends tying the hoops down the bow of the kayak, where their extra weight will help punch through the waves. Coming in, the opposite applies. Placing them on the stern will help prevent the kayak’s nose from digging in and pitch-poling (never pretty) and should improve the surf performance of most fishing kayaks.   

But then again, when it comes to braving the waves in the dark, you’ve got to be a little Loco like Harding. The last thing most kayak anglers want to do is catch a wave. For Harding, it’s a free ride.

Just lean back and enjoy it, minus the crowds.