We Found Lost Commercial Crab Traps… And Had to Dive for Them

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Today's going to be a weird day. First of all, I got this weird uh this weird voice going on today. I don't know what's going on. Got construction going across the street from the house or it's noisy. We're going to go do last minute diving. Last minute lobster diving before the season ends. So, we're going to head on out today. We're going to go with Lewis who's got a commercial license. I think he can take and don't quote me on this, but I'm going to find out later on. I think he can take up to 250 lobsters. So, recreational guys, we could take six. I think he could take 250, but we're going to find out. Um, man, just feeling a little rough this morning, but we're going to go down out there today and see what's going on, right? So, follow me. Going to go out to Hikemeister and Lewis going to take us to a secret spot where we will uh do some diving for lobster today. So, looking forward to it. Water's going to be a little chilly, but we're going to make it happen. Here's our gear for the day. At least my gear for the day anyway. Going to be using the Blue 3 today, the Nomad. So, we're going to be checking out the Nomad. And of course, got our famous lobster stick. No trip is complete without the Florida fishing couple hat. If you want one, hit us up on the website. We'll get you one.

[00:01:06]They're pretty cool. Anyway, we're going to head on out. Going to be an interesting day. This is going to be very interesting day. It's going to be very different than what we normally do.

[00:01:13]So, um yeah, we're very lucky that Lewis is willing to take us out. Uh he's going to show us some spots and uh yeah, we'll see if there's any. Listen, it's late in the season. You know, the season's going to end here in about about 4 days or so.

[00:01:26]And we're lucky enough that the weather's decent, but I don't know if there's going to be any lobsters in the shallows anymore. So, we'll see. I think we're going to be in about 15 to 25 ft of water. We'll we'll clarify that later on when we get out there. So, Haiko's about to pick me up. We uh he's got a tuna in in his cooler that we caught last night. Going to bring that uh into the into the fold, if you will, and I'm going to fillet him up and then probably do some sushi tomorrow. So, so it's been really a good la like early spring. It's been real productive. So, things have been good. All right. Talk to you guys soon on the water. Lewis, my man.

[00:02:01]>> What's going on?

[00:02:02]>> How the hell are you, buddy?

[00:02:03]>> It's been a while, bro.

[00:02:04]>> It has.

[00:02:05]>> All right.

[00:02:06]>> Figured we squeeze a day in.

[00:02:07]>> All set. Well, yeah. This is it before the end of the season. Very excited.

[00:02:11]>> The water's getting warm. It says 73 right now.

[00:02:14]>> No. It's got to be better than that.

[00:02:16]Come on.

[00:02:17]>> I mean, >> no. It's got to be better than It's got to be better than 73.

[00:02:21]>> I want 80. I want 83. Not like mid80s, but >> [ __ ] 73.

[00:02:27]>> Well, that's why I bought two wet suit seats cuz you know what?

[00:02:30]>> Two wet suits. I love that. Louis is getting tanks on board. Here we go.

[00:02:36]>> Number one.

[00:02:36]>> Strong, dude.

[00:02:37]>> I am. I am. I am.

[00:02:40]I train with these.

[00:02:44]You got to kill yourself before you get out.

[00:02:45]>> Are you about to >> Here we go. We got training exercises going on.

[00:02:51]You know what that means? Last time we saw that there were Blackhawk helicopters heading down to Key West.

[00:02:57]So, who knows? A lot of activity. God bless America.

[00:03:02]Keep our troops safe, please. All right, here we go. This is it. This is what we're looking at.

[00:03:07]Lewis looks like he's done this before.

[00:03:11]Got this thing down pat. And we're going back out on the on the marvelous good grief like we did last time. If you guys recall, we did the uh commercial stone crab day, which was absolutely awesome.

[00:03:24]>> Nice stutter ride. That's your Yamaha, baby.

[00:03:26]>> Yamaha.

[00:03:27]>> Even sounds like a Yamaha.

[00:03:28]>> Apparently, >> they hum.

[00:03:32]Nice, man. Looking forward to this day.

[00:03:34]It's absolutely gorgeous out here. What a day to um like finish up the lobster season. Hopefully, we get some lobsters put in the freezer because the season will not reopen until the end of July, the last Wednesday. and Thursday of July will be mini season. And uh yeah, so we're going to try to get out before the end of this season, which is the end of March, and see if we can uh you know, get enough to put in the uh freezer and have a couple of catch and cooks. Lewis is allowed to take 250 lobsters because he's a commercial fisherman and he's an out he's an amazing commercial fisherman. I mean, been out with him before and he really really knows his stuff. So, he's old beyond his years and uh look really looking forward to having a great day together. So, all right, follow us out there. It's going to be a great great day. All right, so here is the gauge, like the official gauge that the FWC would use. And um this is really important because the ones that you buy in the store that are made out of like plastic like this one here, everybody's got these, they are not the same. So, when you measure and FWC measures, it's going to be different. Look at the difference. I measured right there. Look at that. Do you see that? So, the FWC's is definitely shorter than this one by by a lot. So, be very careful because every single lobster, every single short lobster that you take is a misdemeanor and then you got to go to court and the whole deal. Absolutely not worth it. I say when in doubt, throw it out. So, I always make sure that uh that they're 100% legal.

[00:05:13]>> All right, we're on our way out. As you can tell, we're getting pretty bouncy.

[00:05:18]There's the captain.

[00:05:22]>> Oh, >> got a little wet.

[00:05:24]>> I got wet.

[00:05:26]>> Got a little wet. Water temperature is about 80.

[00:05:29]>> Air temperature is about 85.

[00:05:31]>> It's 80 in Haiti.

[00:05:33]>> 80 in Haiti.

[00:05:51]We're on trap recovery right now. At least I am. I'm going in and pull the pull the trap. And we got octopus eggs, which are really freaking cool. I mean, it looks like an octopus. Looks like his um like his tentacles.

[00:06:06]>> That does look cool, >> doesn't it?

[00:06:08]>> Octopus eggs.

[00:06:09]>> It almost looks like sushi, doesn't it?

[00:06:11]>> Eat one, Dan. Slurp it down.

[00:06:14]>> Nope.

[00:06:15]>> Octopus caviar.

[00:06:16]>> There it is. You interested?

[00:06:19]>> I You think I could grow those in my If I put them in my aquarium, you think they would grow? Yeah. Just drop them in there for now.

[00:06:25]>> No, they must go back, Haiko. We're not allowed to do that kind of stuff.

[00:06:29]>> We're still on still on trap recovery.

[00:06:31]So, what we mean by trap recovery is is Lewis is a commercial crabber and he puts out literally hundreds and hundreds of stolen crab traps. If you saw the other video that we made, you'll know that, you know, he's got hundreds of traps out, but invariably some of them get lost. Some of them are cut off, some of them are stolen, some of them are uh, how can I say, poached.

[00:06:55]So, you can see them sometimes if the water is shallow enough. And so we're out today. He's got his tag names are on the traps that we're pulling. They would be ghost traps and they would um eventually crabs that got in would die, which we just pulled a trap a few minutes ago and there were three stone crabs in there that were dead. So So anyway, we're going to pull as many of the traps. He believes he lost somewhere about 40 traps. And if we could find even five or six of them, that would make it worth his while. So that's what we're doing out here. So follow me. I'm going to jump in the water here in a few minutes. I'm going to ask Haiko to do a little filming of me in the water. Um, and then see if we get any uh we save any stone crabs and save some traps.

[00:07:39]>> Stone crab recovery.

[00:07:41]>> Dan's going in to get more traps. We're in neutral.

[00:07:46]>> Where is it?

[00:07:46]>> It's right to the right there.

[00:07:48]>> It's right there to our left. Right there.

[00:07:50]>> Yep.

[00:08:07]running away.

[00:08:16]>> He's got the rope.

[00:08:24]Totally cut off.

[00:08:27]>> Yep.

[00:08:29]>> All right, let's see what we're going to get.

[00:08:38]>> Yes. Stone crab in it.

[00:08:41]>> Oh yeah, live crab. Oh, multiple.

[00:08:44]>> Oh, >> hey.

[00:08:47]>> Beautiful.

[00:08:48]>> Fruits of your labor are paying off.

[00:08:52]>> Look at that. Oh, I didn't want him to get me.

[00:08:59]Wow.

[00:09:01]You see?

[00:09:03]Okay, that's legit. Anything that pops off.

[00:09:20]I feel like Okay. How you >> feel, Dan?

[00:09:25]>> I feel like a mermaid.

[00:09:27]>> Mermaid. Dan.

[00:09:28]>> I feel like a mermaid. That's so sexy.

[00:09:30]And >> And we got a lot of claws out of that, >> did we? All right. Happy. That's all right. Very good.

[00:09:36]>> Let's see all the claws.

[00:09:39]>> Excellent.

[00:09:39]>> Woo. Made like 20 bucks there.

[00:09:42]>> Let's go.

[00:09:43]>> Plus a trap.

[00:09:44]>> I'm excited.

[00:09:46]>> Now we need to prepare a bucket for them.

[00:09:48]>> I feel like we're fishing. So, what about these traps that we're getting?

[00:09:50]So, we are recovering these traps while they're still in season. They are from this year with tags. Um, and normally once the season closes, there's a trap recovery program where the state hires people or it's like a derby.

[00:10:05]>> But, uh, now again, like that is still in season.

[00:10:07]>> These are your traps.

[00:10:08]>> These are my traps. We are allowed to go recover them as they're lost and put new buoys and whatnot.

[00:10:13]>> Right. New buoys, >> which is why they're going back to land so we can do the repairs they need. put new buoys.

[00:10:20]>> Awesome.

[00:10:21]>> Etc. >> Excellent. All right. Good deal. And the unspoken thing is we're cleaning up the ocean as well because there are hundreds of traps that we've seen today that are not Louiswis's that we could not touch.

[00:10:32]But they're all over the place.

[00:10:34]>> It's unfortunate.

[00:10:34]>> It is, right? I mean, it's a shame.

[00:10:36]>> If an officer, someone higher up sees that out there, maybe they I understand why they wouldn't want it because it's easy to cut a buoy and pretend it's not yours or wasn't yours and you wanted to make it yours. I could see the the issue with being able to touch someone else's, but at the same time, we are preventing other animals from getting killed, cleaning up plastic from the ocean that ultimately doesn't go anywhere. Um, they do have chew out boards, so they should be able to get out, but as you saw in one of those other traps, some of those don't live.

[00:11:06]>> Yeah.

[00:11:06]>> Um, they just they Yeah. They didn't make they didn't figure it out. They didn't find a way out.

[00:11:12]>> They didn't chew it out in time. Maybe they were sick. Who knows?

[00:11:15]>> And the other thing is the money that it's saving you because Oh, yeah. These these traps cost people don't realize these trap this is expensive business for you to be in.

[00:11:22]>> So the traps are like $35 $40 a piece brand new plus you have to build them plus you have to pour concrete in them.

[00:11:29]So you know time, labor, energy, whatever you want, however you want to look at it, they're worth more than the dollar signs that you see when you pay for them. And if you buy them used, if you can even find them, um you better hold on to them cuz someone took that loss.

[00:11:43]>> There you go. This is why stone crabs are so expensive. I mean, there's a lot of cost involved. So, all right. Anyway, so far so good. We're having fun.

[00:11:50]>> What you got there, Dan?

[00:11:54]>> Hand grab, baby. Hand caught.

[00:11:57]>> Hand caught. Dan got himself a hand caught stone crab. Oh, and there's a new crab.

[00:12:03]>> They're loaded in there.

[00:12:04]>> Yeah, they are. I see them.

[00:12:05]>> They're in there. In here.

[00:12:06]>> That one's loaded.

[00:12:08]>> Woo. Good work. Good work, >> buddy. I think he's short, but hey, I >> think he's dead.

[00:12:16]What?

[00:12:17]>> I don't even know if he's alive.

[00:12:19]>> What do you mean he's alive? You never put your finger in there. He's alive.

[00:12:22]>> That might be a rotten co >> dude. I don't know. He ain't closing it.

[00:12:30]>> It doesn't smell, though.

[00:12:31]>> Yeah.

[00:12:33]>> Where was he? On the outside of the outside.

[00:12:35]>> Oh, then he's got to be alive.

[00:12:36]>> Yeah, he's crawling, >> man. But someone [ __ ] him up.

[00:12:40]Someone did not know how to tear the pole off. Let's see what's inside.

[00:12:45]>> It's another treasure co. Oh, there's definitely crab in here.

[00:12:52]>> Oh, that one didn't have any claws.

[00:12:54]>> Oh [ __ ] Oo, that's a good looking club.

[00:13:16]>> Just short.

[00:13:24]>> Baby next to a >> a baby next to >> next to a teenager.

[00:13:28]>> A teen and a pre-teen.

[00:13:30]>> Now we need your mama.

[00:13:32]>> Yeah.

[00:13:33]>> All right. So, excuse the >> Oh, shoot. Excuse the uh the um the lens which got some stuff on it, but we've already got look eight traps. Already got eight traps recovered.

[00:13:45]Hiko's in the water now. We just picked up another one. Is there anything in there?

[00:13:51]>> So, this is awesome. Very nice.

[00:13:54]Cleaning up the ocean, saving money. And haiko the fish coming up recovery there.

[00:14:04]Got him.

[00:14:06]That's horrible.

[00:14:07]>> I caught whatever that smell is in my mouth.

[00:14:10]>> Catch of the day so far. Look at that bad boy.

[00:14:14]>> Nice.

[00:14:14]>> Let's see that, Dan.

[00:14:15]>> He's a righty.

[00:14:17]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:14:18]>> He's a good one.

[00:14:19]>> Woo.

[00:14:20]>> Oh, he's trying to trying to be a bad one.

[00:14:22]>> That's a nice claw.

[00:14:23]>> He's a beauty.

[00:14:24]>> Hey, >> I think this is the claw you were talking about.

[00:14:27]>> Yeah, I saw I saw a big claw. I was like, "Oh, yeah." Unquestionable.

[00:14:31]>> Unquestionable. Let it go. Come on. Let it go.

[00:14:35]>> You look like you're trying to steal candy from a baby.

[00:14:38]>> See? Yeah. See, you see how >> Okay, keep going.

[00:14:41]>> And then I heard it bad.

[00:14:45]>> Here, I fold him like that. This one doesn't. Yeah, he's going to want to rip out.

[00:14:50]>> Yeah, he does. He's kind >> This one here, I'll teach you the left.

[00:14:56]>> Oh, nice. That was a big pull. What? We got 13, 14, >> 15.

[00:15:03]>> 15 traps recovered. That's amazing.

[00:15:06]That's absolutely awesome. Oh, we went out for lobsters, but we wound up doing something else instead.

[00:15:12]>> Got to make something out of a slow day.

[00:15:13]>> That's right. Turned out to be great.

[00:15:16]>> Here comes the toilet bowl.

[00:15:19]Only in the Florida Keys.

[00:15:43]Is it working or is it not working?

[00:15:47]>> Live or is it Memorex?

[00:15:48]>> Hey mom, I'm going to let you in on another little secret. You ain't cold while you're doing this, but when you stop I'm freezing my [ __ ] off right now.

[00:15:56]>> It's entertaining because you got something to do >> and and you're active. You're moving.

[00:16:00]>> Yeah.

[00:16:00]>> But when you're done Oh [ __ ]