The long or the short? The short - 15 squid for 4 anglers. The long - Capt Rob Yeomans of the F/V Erica Lee, in Massachussetts was the beneficiary of Huli Cat squid, donated via Squids For Kids, to schools for dissection. Rob came to California for a short visit and asked if there was a chance to catch some Humboldts. Weatherman indicated several days ago, Wednesday would be the day, 4 to 6 knots. I got up this morning, looked at the weather, and the forecast did not seem to be in the same universe. 10 to 20 knots, 3 to 6 on wind waves, looked ugly. I figured I would head out to see where it started to get real ugly. Made it 27 miles SSW of the harbor, dropped the jigs in 1040 feet of water to start. Hooked several in short order, 4 hanging several times in a row. The SE wind was 10 to 12 kts, drift was fast, soon Huli Cat was in 1140 feet and having trouble holding bottom as the wind ramped up. I moved in to 840 feet to try to hit the bottom, but the wind was too strong. The few anglers got a good workout. The squid made a feeble attempt to come up, we got a few about 300 feet down. The rest, we had to lay the jogs on the bottom, and slow crank up. Many were quite sizable, one we cleaned was full of eggs.
If you plan on heading out this weekend, be extra careful. The weather gods seem to be assembling full rath, DFG is doing the same.
