Lady's and gents most of us will most likely know this already on the 16th of this month we will be saying hello to our little friends we find hiding under ledges.
was hoping to get a sticky so that we could have a thread dedicated to the Lobsters we catch we can show off sizes weights and where we got them!




Common Name/s: Rock Lobster
Scientific Name: Jasus spp.
Minimum legal size:
Male - 11cm carapace length.
Female - 10.5cm carapace length.

Bag limit: 2
Possesion limit: (in, on or next to Victorian waters): 4

Closed season:
Male - 15 Sep to 15 Nov inclusive.
Female - 1 June to 15 Nov inclusive.

When taking rock lobster, you must not take or possess female rock lobster with eggs, or remove the eggs. You must not take soft-shelled rock lobster.
all info was found here http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fisheries/recreational-fishing/catch-limits-and-closed-seasons/crustaceans/rock-lobster-all-species

Cheers,
Menzies_

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I can understand why we should not take female lobster with eggs, but why we cannot take soft-shelled ones? Are they about to carry eggs?

So far I never see one cray - live or dead

I asked the fisheries officers at the boat show in melb a few months ago and even they couldn't answer the question (there were four of them).

Really! Four fisheries officers didn't have a clue!

that is ridiculous that fisheries didn't have a clue. Shame on them!

When they are soft shell they are easy to get it is as though they are retarded, maybe because it is "unsporting" and I have heard they don't taste as nice (I wouldn't know) I went to hrab one that hard that I am pretty sure I killed it anyway due to its lack of protection.

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Yeah i'd assume that it might be to do with the catching process and damage.

Interesting to know if the professionals have to return soft-shells as well, they don't get damaged getting into pots. From WA experience (western rock lobsters) the soft shells come into shallow water for a short time after moulting for the new shell to harden up, before heading out deep again. They also cannot be taken by recreactional fishers in WA.

I'm pretty sure that when they're soft shelled they hole up and don't go out feeding because they're too vulnerable to predation. So I'm guessing they wouldn't end up in pots while soft very often.

Not so sure they come in close to shore with a soft shell for any reason? Wouldn't they get the shit pounded out of them in the swell? Out wide there is only current on the bottom no swell as such. I don't know.
Soft shell is a vague term. If you can put your thumb into it's shell and it doesn't return that is soft. Reckon have had a few borderline, didn't taste any different. Would require an explanation from a fisheries officer and then would play devils advocate.

How many fisheries officers does it take to determine a soft shell?.... Wait wrong joke, how many Irishmen does it take to change a light bulb.

SEASON OPENING TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

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coming up in to shallow water while they have soft shells makes sense because there would be less water pressure than at depth...

Lobsters are full of water. Water is incompressible (approximately).

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Civilisation ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

Spot on Kiwi, it's the air in our lungs and sinus that means the pressure is an issue for us. Also the nitrogen in the air becoming desolved in our blood stream. Haven't seen many crays sucking on a hooka.