Lobstering Guides
Practical guides to lobstering in South Florida and the Keys: season dates and rules, where to go, how to catch your limit, and the gear you need.
Seasons & Rules
Florida Lobster Season Dates: When It Opens & Closes (2026-2027)
Florida lobster season dates: mini-season is July 29-30, 2026, and the regular season runs August 6, 2026 through March 31, 2027. The exact open and close dates, the closed season, bag limits, and when to actually go.
Florida Lobstering Rules: Bag Limits, Size, Season & License
A plain-English guide to Florida recreational spiny lobster rules: season dates, bag limits, the 3-inch size rule, licenses, legal gear, and no-take zones.
Florida Lobster Mini-Season 2026: Dates, Rules & Tips
Exact 2026 sport-season dates, bag and size limits, licenses, no-take zones, and beginner tips for lobstering in South Florida and the Keys.
Where to Lobster
Florida Keys Boat Ramps for Lobstering: Locations, Fees & Parking
A ramp-by-ramp guide to launching for lobster from Miami through Key West: addresses, current launch fees, trailer parking, ramp conditions, and how crowded each one gets on mini-season and summer weekends.
Lobster Mini-Season Spots: Where to Go and Beat the Crowds
Mini-season is two crowded days. The key to a good, safe trip is options: spots on both sides of the islands and at every depth so you can dodge the crowds, adapt to the weather, and dive at your own pace. How to plan ahead with Lobsterly.
Florida Artificial Reefs: History, Coordinates & How to Find Them
Florida has one of the largest artificial reef programs in the country: 4,500+ public reefs you can lobster, fish, or dive. The history of the program, the rule on harvesting lobster from reefs, recent deployments, and how to search them by county and depth.
Buying Lobster Spots in Florida: App vs GPS Files vs Charters
Thinking about buying lobster spots in Florida? Here are your three real options, GPS coordinate files, a guided charter, or a spot-finding app, and how to get the most spots for your money.
Free Florida Lobster Spots: GPS Coordinates to Get Started
Real, free GPS coordinates for lobster spots from the Palm Beaches through the Florida Keys, organized by region, plus how to use them. A sample of 100+ free waypoints in the Lobsterly app.
Lobstering in the Lower Keys & Big Pine Key: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering the Lower Keys and Big Pine: backcountry ledges and drop-offs around the Content Keys, channel hardbottom, Gulf-side flats, oceanside patch reefs, public ramps, and why this is the quiet, kayak-friendly end of the chain.
Lobstering in Key Largo, Florida: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering in Key Largo, FL: the reef tract and the fossilized reef just inside it, patch reefs and hardbottom around the famous no-take reefs, nearshore rocks, public ramps, and the Monroe County rules.
Lobstering in John Pennekamp: Rules, Season & Spots
Can you lobster in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park? Yes, in the regular season, but not during mini-season when the whole park is closed. The rules, the protected coral zones, the no-take reefs, easy nearshore rocks, and how to launch in Key Largo.
Lobstering in Miami & Biscayne National Park: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering in Miami and Biscayne National Park: the densest patch reefs in the Florida reef tract, the biology that makes them so productive, public ramps, and the 12-vs-6 bag-limit rule every Miami diver needs to know.
Lobstering in Key West, Florida: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering in Key West, FL: nearshore rocks, shallow patch reefs, the oceanside reefline, and the backcountry. Public ramps, the Monroe County rules, and why Key West has diveable bottom for any wind and any skill level.
Lobstering in Marathon, Florida: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering in Marathon, FL: oceanside patch reefs and Gulf-side backcountry from the same ramp, public launches, the Monroe County rules, and why the Middle Keys give you the most habitat variety in the chain.
Lobstering in Islamorada, Florida: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering in Islamorada, FL: the oceanside patch reefs and bayside potholes that hold bugs, public ramp access, the Monroe County rules, and why this stretch produces lobster year after year.
Lobstering in Duck Key, Florida: Spots, Access & Tips
A local's guide to lobstering around Duck Key in the Florida Keys: bayside and oceanside spots, kayak access for visitors, the rules, and how to catch your limit.
How-To
Scuba vs. Freediving for Lobster: Which Is Right for You?
Should you scuba or freedive for Florida lobster? It is less about which is better and more about the right tool for the job. The honest pros and cons of each on access, crowds, speed, gear, cost, and safety, and how to choose.
Where Do Florida's Lobster Come From? The Surprising Science
Most divers assume the egg-bearing lobster they see are restocking Florida. The science says otherwise: spiny lobster larvae drift for months on ocean currents, and a large share of Florida's lobster begin life upstream in the Yucatan, Cuba, and the wider Caribbean.
Reading the Weather for Lobstering: How to Plan Your Trip
Wind, seas, visibility, and tide decide whether a lobster trip is great or a wash. Learn to read the forecast: which wind sends you to the bayside or the ocean side, what seas and visibility to look for, how tides affect current, and when to call it.
Tickle Stick & Net vs. Snare: How to Catch a Lobster
The two main ways to catch a Florida spiny lobster by hand: a tickle stick and net, and a tail snare. How each works step by step, when to use which, the blunt-tip rule, and the technique tips that actually land bugs.
How to Catch Lobster Without a Boat (Kayak, SUP & Shore)
You do not need a boat to catch Florida lobster. Plenty of bugs sit in shallow nearshore rocks, grass ledges, and flats you can reach by kayak, paddleboard, wading, or swimming. Where to go, the gear, the rules, and how to stay safe.
Bully Netting for Lobster: The Keys Night-Netting Guide
Bully netting catches lobster at night from a skiff as they forage on shallow grass flats, no diving required. The gear, the technique, where it works, and why it is legal at night even during the Keys mini-season.
Lobstering at Night: Rules, Tips & Where It Is Legal
Night diving for lobster can be incredibly productive because lobster come out to feed after dark. Where night diving is legal in Florida, the Monroe County mini-season ban, the gear you need, and how to do it safely.
How to Find Lobster: Reading the Bottom Like a Local
The skill that matters most in lobstering is finding them. Learn to read the bottom: why seagrass is your best clue, what good structure looks like, the fish that give lobster away, and how to use your eyes and electronics to land on bugs.
Lobstering Safety: What to Watch Out For
Lobstering is safe and fun when you use good judgment. Here is what to be aware of on the water: boat traffic, current, and weather, plus the critters and coral to give space, and why moving to an easier spot is always the right call.
Water Temperature and Lobster: How to Find Bugs All Season
Spiny lobster are cold-blooded, so water temperature drives where they are. Learn the temperature band lobster like, what they do in summer heat and winter cold, and how to follow them through the August-March regular season to catch your limit.
Lobster Habitat in Florida: Where Spiny Lobster Live & How to Find Them
A field guide to Florida lobster habitat: seagrass, hardbottom, coral heads, patch reefs, channels, and the reef tract, how each one formed, what lobster do in it, and how their habitat shifts with the seasons and water temperature.
Lobstering Around Bridges: The Seven Mile Bridge & the Real Risks
Bridges like the Seven Mile Bridge hold lobster, but strong current, poor visibility, entanglement, and boat traffic make them advanced water. Why bridge lobstering is risky, who should skip it, and how to do it safer if you go.
How to Set Up Your Boat for Lobstering
Rig your boat for an efficient, safe lobster day: anchoring vs. drift diving, the right anchor and ground tackle, marker buoys and boarding, and knowing your draft.
How Does Lobstering Work? A Beginner's Guide
New to lobstering? Learn how to catch Florida spiny lobster step by step: the gear, where to find them, the technique, and how to keep it legal.
Gear
Conservation & Science
Lobster Conservation: What You Can Do to Help
Recreational divers have real leverage over the future of Florida's lobster. A plain, actionable guide to lobster conservation: follow the rules, release short and egg-bearing lobster unharmed, protect nursery habitat and the bottom, leave casitas alone, and support the big breeders that produce the next generation.
Sargassum and Lobstering: How the Seaweed Blooms Affect Your Season
2025 set an all-time record for Atlantic sargassum, and 2026 is tracking as another record year. What sargassum is, where the blooms come from, why the floating mats are vital habitat but a mess on the beach, and how they affect lobster habitat and your dive days in the Keys.
Lobster Casitas (Lobster Condos): What They Are & Why Florida Bans Them
Casitas, or lobster condos, are artificial shelters that concentrate lobster, and they are the backbone of legal fisheries in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Mexico. In Florida they are illegal. What casitas are, why they work, why Florida keeps them banned, and the cleanup that pulled hundreds out of the Keys.
Florida Lobstering by the Numbers: Harvest, Value & the Big Days
Florida's commercial fishery lands around 5 million pounds of spiny lobster a year, plus about 1.5 million recreational, and Monroe County alone accounts for roughly 85% of it. The numbers behind the fishery: recreational vs commercial harvest, year-by-year landings, how many lobster that really is, and where they come from.
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