Lobster Bully-Netting and Tickling in Florida

Part of More Florida Activities · All fishing tutorials

Florida’s spiny lobster has no claws and no fear of a slow, careful diver — which is why two of the state’s favorite ways to catch it use no spear at all. On dark nights in the shallow bays of the Keys and Biscayne Bay, anglers bully-net lobster walking the open bottom; by day, divers tickle them out of reef ledges with a stick and catch them in a hand net. Both methods exist for one reason: a lobster must be measurable, unharmed, and releasable if it is short or carrying eggs.

This page covers the license, seasons and limits first, then the in-the-water measuring rule, bully-netting technique for night work, and tickle-stick technique on reefs and ledges.

Jump to: License, Seasons and Limits · Measuring in the Water · Bully-Netting at Night · Tickle Stick and Hand Net

License, Seasons and Limits

Rules below were checked October 2026; verify at MyFWC.com and on our Florida fishing regulations hub, because lobster rules are enforced hard in the Keys.

• License: a saltwater fishing license PLUS a spiny lobster permit are both required unless you are exempt. The permit is $5 for residents — price your exact combination with the License Cost Builder.
• Sport season (“mini season”): the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday of July — in 2026, July 29–30. Regular season: August 6 – March 31.
• Limits: mini season, 12 per person — except 6 in Monroe County and Biscayne National Park. Regular season, 6 per person everywhere.
• Berried females: a lobster carrying eggs (the orange-red mass under the tail) must be released unharmed. Harvesting egg-bearing females is prohibited.
• Whole landing: lobster must be landed whole — separating tails on the water is prohibited.
• Legal gear: hands, bully net, hoop net, tickle stick with a hand net, or a lobster snare. Never a spear, gig, gaff, hook or anything that punctures or crushes — short and egg-bearing lobster must go back unharmed.
• No-take areas: Everglades National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park, the Biscayne Bay/Card Sound Lobster Sanctuary, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary no-take areas and Biscayne National Park coral reef protection areas are closed to lobster harvest, and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park closes during the sport season. Night diving is also prohibited in Monroe County during the sport season only.

Measuring in the Water

The carapace — the hard shell from between the horns over the eyes to the rear edge of the shell — must be more than 3 inches, and the measurement happens in the water, before the lobster goes in the boat. Carrying a lobster gauge is required at all times while harvesting. Slide the gauge over the carapace: if it does not pass cleanly, the lobster is legal; if the gauge slides over, the lobster goes back on the spot, gently, where you found it. Measure every lobster, even the ones that look huge — officers do, and “it looked legal” is not a measurement. The Keeper Checker lays out the same keep-or-release logic for fish species.

Bully-Netting at Night

Bully netting works where lobster walk open bottom at night: the back-country bays of the Keys, Biscayne Bay grass-and-sand patches, and shallow shorelines from Key Largo to Key West. You pole or idle slowly in two to six feet of clear water with bright lights pointed down, watching for the paired orange eye-shine and long antennae of a lobster out walking.

1. Glide in quietly with the light steady on the lobster. Sudden engine or hull noise sends it bolting backward under the nearest ledge.
2. Position the boat so the lobster is beside, not under, the hull, and the netter has a clean swing.
3. The bully net — a wide hoop net on a long handle, angled like a giant spoon — comes down over the lobster and slips underneath it in one motion, trapping it in the mesh pocket as it kicks backward.
4. Lift smoothly, keep the net in the water until it is over the boat, and measure the lobster in the net, still in the water alongside, before it comes aboard.

Tickle Stick and Hand Net

By day, lobster back into holes and ledges, tails in last, antennae waving out like warning flags. The tickle method walks them out backward:

1. Spot the antennae and feel out the den with your eyes first — one lobster often means several, stacked in the same ledge.
2. Place your hand net flat on the bottom behind and below the den’s opening, where the lobster will back into it.
3. Slide the tickle stick gently into the den and tap — tickle — the lobster’s underside and legs. It walks backward out of the hole to escape the annoyance, straight into the net.
4. Pin the net, reach in with a gloved hand, and grip the lobster firmly around the carapace. Measure it in the water with your gauge before it goes in the catch bag.

Work gloves are not optional — spiny lobster are honestly named — and neither is respect for the reef: no standing on coral, no breaking ledges open, and no reaching blind into holes that might hold a moray eel instead.

Keep Learning

Lobster rules change by place as much as by season, so keep the full Florida fishing regulations hub and the License Cost Builder in your trip planning, and run borderline keepers through the Keeper Checker logic before they go in the cooler.

Florida’s other great snorkel harvest runs all summer on the Gulf coast — see our guide to bay scalloping for zones, limits and the same measure-first mindset.