Not what I wanted

[Abundance]

I caught a humboldt squid on my bottom leader yesterday. Its the first one that I have found, although two of my fishing partners got one last year. I have already found one good calamari recipe. Lemons and lemonade, you know.

[Salty]

One of my friends caught "squiggly" in Neets Bay two years ago.

[khaos]

How was the squid? I've heard mixed results from Humbolt squids. Catch any more? Do they hit hoochies or spoons?

[Abundance]

I thought it was downright great. A little chewy, but very good flavor. I caught this one on a flasher. I heard of one guy who went sport fishing with squid jigs in southern Clarence and had five hundred pounds in a morning. Maybe a guy should look into squid fishing!

[khaos]

I used to catch bucketfulls of the smaller squid in Puget Sound, never much over 12 inches, but very tasty. Fun to catch with those jigs and you could see the schools at night. I am seeing more and more squid in salmon stomachs these days, and last year a blackcod had one still in its mouth that was at least 16''.
I imagine a humbolt would be snagging pinks left and right up here. You'd think they would latch onto our fish from time to time.

[Abundance]

I've heard of Humboldts attacking pinks on the hook. They are relatively recent immigrants to this part of the world, at least in large numbers and since people started to take note of these things. I found a dead one on the beach about ten years ago, and I had no clue what to make of it. I'm pretty sure that they are eating a bunch of fish, but I don't know if they get enough to hurt much, since they give a lot back by being food for other predators, taking some pressure off of salmon. I don't think a population boom of them is going to be good for us, but there isn't anything we can do about but wait and see. I doubt that this is the first time that they have wandered up here, or the last. We often see schools of little bait squid at night, particularly if we are anchored around a tender with their sodiums on. I can remember jigging them of the docks here in Craig as a little kid. I always let them go, but I strongly remember watching them chase my shiny treble hook around the pilings. Writing this makes me remember my Dad telling me about the time he pulled up an octopus on his bottom leader, not hooked but simply refusing to give up the pink it grabbed.