anybody do any squid fishing via a kayak ??

We've got 'em here in the Sound right now. Just have to brave the overnight low temps.
No prob for Tote!

If you do decide to go for it, here's the lure of choice in Wa.
http://www.juicyjigs.com/

Z

Quote from Mexfish.com:

"The Giant Humboldt Squid is a fiercely cannibalistic opportunistic predator, attacking anything that moves with lightning strength and speed. It travels in large schools and employs cooperative hunting techniques, feeding primarily on fish. The Humboldt Squid has a large brain, large primate-like stereoscopic eyes, three hearts, blue blood, and eight arms equipped with suction cups rimmed with a bony ring of teeth about the size of a dime. It seizes its prey with two lightning-fast, hook-laden tentacle clubs, draws the captive into a squirming nest of eight arms, and proceeds to tear chunks of flesh from its body with a disproportionately large, razor-sharp, parrot-like beak that is heavy in mass and very powerful. The tongue or radula has also has a series of rings of curved teeth. The Humboldt Squid has the ability to change color several times per second, from a deep maroon to an opalescent white. It reaches lengths of up to 8 feet and weights to 110 pounds, with lifespans of one to two years. The Humboldt Squid is considered by many biologists to be among the most cunning and ferocious of all animals.

The Humboldt Squid does not give up the fight once on a boat, but bites, grasps with tentacles, and in anger sends out a 5-gallon, fire-hose-like blast of blackish-brown ink that will cover humans from head to toe."

So Shotgun, in reply to your original question, I personally have never desired to share my kayak with a Humboldt Squid.   Just my .02 

We caught them off the New Sea Angler this past November. They pulled extremely hard but they were absolutely motionless the second they hit the deck. I would like to know if they would chew on a kayak or not. A mothership trip with some very stable yaks like my triple would be fun.   

Well.......if the big squid taste like the little squid they have almost no taste at all, and when they're on your plate the "taste" ends up being that of your sauce-of-choice.

So yeah, squid taste like drawn butter....
So yeah, squid taste like garlic and butter...
So yeah, squid taste like tomato sauce with mushrooms...
..........and on and on..........

Now one of these suckers (pun intended) weighs in at...oh, 20-40 pounds...??...

So if I kill one I've got that much what......???....crab bait....???...
My appetite for "calamari" is just way-not that big.

Judd

Well.......if the big squid taste like the little squid they have almost no taste at all, and when they're on your plate the "taste" ends up being that of your sauce-of-choice.

Sounds to me like you've drowned your calamari in too much sauce.

Squid is a pretty mellow taste and I personally like the texture the most. It's super good raw w/ soy & wasabi and if cooked correctly can be buttery. When I eat fried calamari I lightly sprinkle it w/ some salt and a extra light drizzle of lemon. Simple and so gooooood.

Z

  Back in my days of fishing the Texas coast, I used to occasionally run into massive drifts of small squid in the bays. At times, they were as thick as mullet - if you went by the appearance, the things were so closely packed that you might think you could walk on them. And they would stretch for hundreds of yards without a break. Unfortunately, that was before I discovered that calamari were actually edible, thanks mostly to Thirsty Bear in San Francisco. In those days, despite the rumors we heard that there were people somewhere who would eat the things, we regarded them as the dead bait of last resort, and we just about never resorted to dead bait of any type.
  About the closest thing to that I've run across in our waters was a very substantial population of medusa jellyfish that stretched for miles off Pt. Reyes.

My wife and I just had some pasta in squid ink sauce at a local bistro  it was very good. I didn't know if I would like it or not.
 On a long range tuna trip we asked the skipper to let us bag and tag some jumbo squid to take home. We caught enough for kite bait, lunch the next day, and some to freeze for home. After cleaning and skinning around 100 squid for our group, the spicy ink smell was soaked into everything. Washing with bleach helped, but I should have worn rubber gloves.It is a sickly sweet,spicy smell ,cinnamon like odor. The next day at lunch I couldn't bring myself to eat the calamari sandwiches that everyone was raving about.               
       

We are going to go back out on the New Sea Angler when the waters calm down if anyone wants to join us.

My wife and I just had some pasta in squid ink sauce at a local bistro  it was very good. I didn't know if I would like it or not.

A while back Liz and I went to a Spanish tapas restaurant and ordered Paella Negra which is cooked in/with squid ink, we had never tried it before but decided to try something different.  When they brought the pan of paella out all we could do was to kind of stare at it for a minute trying to figure out if something was wrong with our order    The color of the seafood contrasted against the black rice sure made it look pretty but it was odd to see a black rice.

It ended up being delicious.

This isn't exactly what it looked like but it's similar  http://www.flickr.com/photos/santos/271072419/

Hey Z,
The squid sushi does sound good.  Are you speaking of the giant squid or regular squid?

The smaller type. The larger might be on the thick side so potentially could be tougher. Just a guess though.

And squid ink in cooking is da bomb. It sounds crazy, and looks even crazier, but it has to be tried to be understood. Thanks for the pics Pacifico... now I'm fiending for a squid lunch.

Z

We've got 'em here in the Sound right now. Just have to brave the overnight low temps.
No prob for Tote!

Hey Zee!  Are you gonna try for some?  Let us know what the end game  of the battle is lioke.  Maybe bring a milk crate and plop it right into the crate, and just cut the leader....  You only need one squid, after all, if it weighs 40 lbs!

BTW, I love calimari fried....but then I love just about anything deep fried.

Allen

If you do decide to go for it, here's the lure of choice in Wa.
http://www.juicyjigs.com/

Z