In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Wanted: Alive! posted by jim on September 19, 2008 at 09:59:21:

Jim,
Your "varying degrees of success" is most likely due to your lack of aggressiveness hunting. The fact is that if you hesitate and wait to evaluate the size of every large lobster you grab for, you won't get very many.

I personally know of very few hunters who take bugs with the intention of getting a trophy. Most including myself are hunting to take them to consume. I have never grabbed a lobster that I did not believe I was going to consume when I went for it. However I have decided to release large ones once I was back on the boat and I had time to see how big they truly were.

My personal rule is to release anything I catch over 8 lbs. Some seasons that ends up being none. I have released as many as two bugs from a single dive.

I too have an issue with people who hunt but do not consume their catch. I especially have an issue with people who spear a fish and return to the boat asking "What is this?" or "Is this edible?"