My best

[acelockco]

They are not banned here in NJ and those are the same ones we have. And yes, they can take your finger if you are not careful. They are much slower than we are so as long as you are quick.

Now here are two nice size lobster a friend of mine bagged. Notice the porthole on the deck he also grabbed!

[diverchrispy]

Hey Acelockco,

I've always wondered .....when they get that big do they still taste good??
I always assumed that when they get that big and old they would be tough or stringy or such.

Chris

[acelockco]

Nope, they taste just as good but take longer to cook if you can find something big enough to cook them in. I was told that they are going to change the laws here limiting the maximum size you can take. It really does not make much sense to me, but I will follow the laws when they start.

[hbh2oguard]

Ace it might be different with a maine lobster but with a spiny lobster once they are five pounds or so they get tough, still ok for pasta. But the big ones are the largest produces and I would strongly reccomend releaseing them because their only predators are divers, because they don't fit in traps.

[seasnake]

Yep, Ace, those are some big fellas! I was going to ask about size limits before you mentioned it ... so as it stands now, there are none? Yeh, taking the big producers I would think will affect the stocks in the long run?? *shrug*

You say they are slow but I once watched a diver poking and teasing a large lobster like that with a knife. The lobster slothfully endured the prodding for a minute and then, quicker than you can blink, he snatched the knife away from the diver!

When the guy was telling the story later on the surface, he said "all I was thinking was 'okay boys, now he's armed'."

[hbh2oguard]

Snake by no means are they slow but again that's a spiny lobster. With one flick of the tail they are gone, and some how they always seem to bounce into me and half the times it's into my mask. Again taking the big lobsters will hurt the population, my motto is take seven(daily limit in CA) of his/hers kids and let him/her make seven more

[PhotoTJ]

I've never seen it, but I wonder if there are spinys that have the unusual colors as well. If I ever catch a blue one, or 1/2 blue 1/2 red, I'm giving them to the Aquarium of the Pacific!