January 7, 2012.

We were anchored in the lee of Hog Cay with one other boat in the next cove north of us. The headland between us hid them from view so it was almost as nice as having our own island. The problem was that I wanted to hunt that cove. With so much island available to either of us I didn't want to encroach on them in their cove.

Its just that the spot they chose to drop the hook is next to one of my favorite lobster holes. Every year I get a bug or two and maybe even three out from under this one small rock. There’s a long vertical wall with very little cover so any lobster in the area seem to hide under MY rock. Imagine my surprise when they upped anchor and moved. Honey, lets go swimmin'.

My rock sits in 4 feet of water and is shaped like a large coffee table. One end provides excellent shelter but you can see under it from side to side for 75 % of the rock. As I approached I could see several antenna and a multitude of legs against the backdrop of light coming under from the other side of the rock. There was a nice 3 pounder right in the opening with more bugs behind him. I lined it up like a pool shark and took what turned out to be a pair of 3 pounders with the first shot. After that it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I had to wait for the sand from the previous bugs struggle to settle but once I could see again it was one lobster after another.

It turned out that there were 7 lobster under my rock. I took 5 and let a small one run away. That left one more stuck way up inside in the back. I could see both of his antlers completely but had no shot at his body. He was definitely the biggest of the bunch. I tried teasing him out to no avail. We left and swam the rest of the wall and came back 30 minutes later with no change. He thinks hes patient, I'll show him patience.

Okay okay, I'll admit it it, I have no patience. I found that if I wedged my arm and head into the hole I could almost, sorta keep the snorkel tip above water. This enabled me to grab him by both of his antlers. I figured I'd just whip him outta the hole and it would be “game over”. It turned into a stalemate as he was rock solid as he wedged himself into place. He wanted no part of the whole being whipped out into the open thing. I had to take slow shallow breaths as sometimes the snorkel pulled air while as often as not it pulled water. Finally one of antennas broke off. I needed the antenna to keep track of where he was beneath the rock so I grudgingly let go before I broke the second one off.

When I went to pull back from the hole I found that my mask or snorkel was stuck in the opening. I couldn't free myself until I stripped off my mask. I thought I heard him snickering from under the rock when I pulled free and when I surfaced Christy was definitely laughing. Round one to the crustacean.

I regrouped and used a small bent stick to reach around him and poke him in the butt. Its a little known fact that lobsters are raging homophobes. He instantly stepped forward and spun around to see who had snuck up behind him. Mistake. And now hes dead.

All in all we saw 10 lobsters. We let 3 wee ones go, I missed one and we took 6 for the one way ride to the pressure cooker.