I assume you'll be hooping off a pier?
Get yourself some hoop nets. There are regulations on their size, depth, how many you can have per person, etc. Also, you now need a "lobster card" to tally your catch, even though you don't need a fishing license off a pier. Look all that stuff up on the CA DFG website. You also have to have a lobster carapace measuring device on you while hooping.
(In CA, you have to have a commercial license to use any kind of trap or cage-style device)
Any hoop net you get at the local Sporting Goods store (or "Second Chance" type place) is likely to be legal. Good ones will have good heavy hoops (so you don't have to add weight), a fairly tight net weave, good, heavy, synthetic rope (at least 75' worth) attached in at least four places around the hoop, with a bouy above the net to keep the ropes suspended.
As for bait, the BEST bait IMO is stinky, oily fish heads and carcasses that you've left out in the sun in a black garbage bag for a week. Mackerel and bonito are running this time of year, can be caught off the pier, and are excellent bait. I attach the bait to the net with plastic wire ties (zip ties), but you can use twist-ties, string, whatever.
Best is a night with bright moon and low wind/swell, during a small incoming tide. High swell and large tide will push your nets around, flip them, cost you bait, make you catch nothing but seaweed, etc. Go out on the pier to just past (deeper than) where the waves start to roll up into breakers. You'll likely be over about 15-25 feet of water. This is where the bugs hang out, waiting for crap to roll in. Set up on the side where the water/swell is moving away from you, so your nets don't get dragged under the pier. Tie off the rope to the pier railing, lower the the hoops, give just enough rope slack to lay on the bottom and a little extra slack for tidal movement, bring a folding chair and some refreshments, and wait.
Every ten minutes or so, pull 'em up. Wear leather work gloves if you like your skin. Give a good, strong initial yank, and keep the rope coming in steady so the bastards can't escape the net. They are quick. Bring a good flashlight so you can check the net just above the water, save yourself the extra 20 or 30 feet of line pull up to the pier if the net's empty (500 out of 1000 pulls), contains only junk like moray eels or seaweed (400 out of 1000 pulls), or only obviously small lobster (99 out of 1000 pulls). You only need to pull it all the way up on that 1 out of 1000 pulls where there's one that even looks close to being a keeper.
(I've hooped 3 or 4 times a season for about the last 10 years, and in all that time I've gotten three keepers. Please don't plan on feeding the family with this hobby! The kids always find it fun though, 'cause you never know what you'll pull up, and you meet many "interesting" people on the pier at night.)
If you'll be hooping off a boat, your chances improve greatly because you can maneuver to the spots where rock meets sand, that's where they REALLY like to hang out.
A good place to get more of your Q's answered on this is
www.sdfish.com
Good luck!