Saturday’s mission was to catch the last of the spring squid migration and load up on some calimari and some ika-yaki (Japanese grilled squid) as well as bait for later this summer when fluke (summer flounder) fishing begins.
Fisher (my son) and Peter (his godfather and my cousin) launched the boat at 10 and were off the Wianno Cut within an hour, running our jigs down to the bottom and almost immediately pulling in nice 18″ long squid.
Squidding is a total mess. The squid blast out big gouts of ink, covering the boat, our faces, our clothes with black stink. We kept at it for a couple hours, filling a 5-gallon bucket with at least 50 squid. We moved on to look for bluefish, but they are a week away, not a single sign of the choppers was seen yesterday despite some promising looking slicks which the fish make when they tear through the bait.
Squid strike the small jigs because they have laid their eggs and are protecting them from what they think are minnows. Fascinating creature, they change colors rapidly, iridiscent one second, red the next, neon purple, white ….
We cleaned them, cut them into rings, dipped them in tempura batter and tossed them into the deep fryer. Sunburned, a couple beers to wash them down, and all were happy with a nice May hunter-gatherer dinner.
good shot of Mr. Squid. Even better shot of you and Fish in the boat.
I caught fish, burned out mmost of tfhe varish in my outboard’s carbs and am now off to thr noted auhor’s. then home wednesday to my dog the tasty coyote snack.
jim
My first time out at 4am. I just got back from the pier from trying to jig for squid, but I need to know how deep and how fast I should be making my pole go up and down? This was my first time squidding and I don’t have a glue how to do it right…because I seen several schools of squid swim buy and not bite my “squid jigs” Please help?!