Caught this Humbolt Squid by rod and reel in the Sea of Cortez. Doesn't count as a fish, but fun as hell. Kind of freaky too when it wraps a tentacle around your ankle in the bottom of the boat! It didn't matter what we used on the end of our lines when they were around, they grabbed onto anything that moved. Caught several with a 6 oz jigging iron on 50 lb mono. Hooked some bigger ones but couldn't land them.
These are vey cool animals. There's a bunch of pseudo-documentaries and other videos (some on YouTube) on Humboldt Squid. It seems to be a craze to don chainmail and go diving among them. The videos often show the squid attacking divers, so hence they are labeled "dangerous" and "aggressive". Of course, what they usually don't show you is that they first attract them to the boat with chum and work them up into a delirious frenzy - then they jump in the water with them. I'd bite the divers too if they were chumming with (e.g.) pizza...
Apparently they eat people near the surface sometimes in the sea of Cortez. Of course, I learned that from River Monsters, and at times Jeremy Wade has been known to promote some pretty wild theories on TV in spite of his scientific background, but he found enough people with beak marks on their backs and shoulders to make me believe it.
You're right, though; the whole situation is definitely quite sensationalized on TV.
Google "Humboldt Squid Fatalities" (or something like that) and you'll find unsubstantiated rumors alongside quotes such as "...no authenticated reports of any fatal attacks on people committed by squid" (i.e. any squid).
Now, apparently, some octopus species are pretty poisonous and bites have resulted in deaths (but that's a different story).
i will give Jeremy Wade credit for dispelling some rumors about Allligator Gar, he showed that they don’t attack people, and brought awareness to their condition, so I’ll give him credit for that...
If you're interested in them count them in a subcategory so you can have 56 fish species but 4 "other" or however you want. At the end of the day its your life list you can do what you want with it, but if you share your number make sure people know what you're counting so they don't think "damn how does this guy have a huge list?!" when in realty its filled with squied and crawfish ;)
I don't know about the reports of Humbolts attacking humans. But I do know I'd never get in the water with them at night (that's when they come towards the surface from very deep water). The reason we couldn't land the very big ones on rod and reel is that the rest of them would shred them to pieces if you couldn't reel them in fast enough. Fished for them one night out of a little panga with no lights except for personal headlamps. We were able to crank them in with 50 lb test and the drag cranked down nearly all the way on sizes up to the one in the pic. The bigger ones would take a little drag out and give a great tug of war battle, then would just suddenly stop. The line wouldn't go out, but you couldn't budge it either, like you were caught in the rocks, only the nearest rocks were hundreds of feet straight down. Then it would just come in with nearly no resistence. That's when you'd pull in a shredded squid over the side of the boat. Fished for them another night off the mothership with full spotlights illuminating everything. They were on the surface and all depths below in the crystal clear water. You could see them zipping all around quickly. Then when you'd hook one and it put on a struggle, you could see the others zero in on it. If you didn't get it in quick enough, up to 7 or 8 others would converge on it on procede to chew it appart. That's when we could see why we couldn't budge them at times, when there was a large mass of squid at the end of the line, each anywhere from 3 to 6 feet long. Individually they would take off with a severed tentacle or other piece of the originally hooked squid. That was easily 20 years ago and I'll never forget that sight. Still fun as hell catching them, as well as seeing the whole scene. We tried eating them. The taste wasn't bad but very chewy/rubbery. That probably had a lot to do with the way they were prepared. Ended up using the couple we kept for cut bait, which worked great (never came off the hook).
Lifelists are for fish, although someone caught a seahorse a while back and I don't know what category that falls under......
"I swear if you catch another drum"
Also no loons, ducks, golden retrievers, clams, otters, glowing green sea slugs, or annoying drunk skinny dippers.
What about tree species? I'd bet I've caught well over a hundred species of tree throughout my angling endeavors :)
Caught this Humbolt Squid by rod and reel in the Sea of Cortez. Doesn't count as a fish, but fun as hell. Kind of freaky too when it wraps a tentacle around your ankle in the bottom of the boat! It didn't matter what we used on the end of our lines when they were around, they grabbed onto anything that moved. Caught several with a 6 oz jigging iron on 50 lb mono. Hooked some bigger ones but couldn't land them.
Sorry for the crappy photo
Thanks for sharing. Insane.
I heard big humbolts are inedible due to ammonia build up. Would love to catch one in the future!
I have seen them on menues:
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/how-to-fillet-prepare-humboldt-squid/
A seahorse is a fish.
Life list goals for 2023: Silver Redhorse, Greater Redhorse, and River Redhorse
These are vey cool animals. There's a bunch of pseudo-documentaries and other videos (some on YouTube) on Humboldt Squid. It seems to be a craze to don chainmail and go diving among them. The videos often show the squid attacking divers, so hence they are labeled "dangerous" and "aggressive". Of course, what they usually don't show you is that they first attract them to the boat with chum and work them up into a delirious frenzy - then they jump in the water with them. I'd bite the divers too if they were chumming with (e.g.) pizza...
Apparently they eat people near the surface sometimes in the sea of Cortez. Of course, I learned that from River Monsters, and at times Jeremy Wade has been known to promote some pretty wild theories on TV in spite of his scientific background, but he found enough people with beak marks on their backs and shoulders to make me believe it.
You're right, though; the whole situation is definitely quite sensationalized on TV.
SomewhereDownstream
Google "Humboldt Squid Fatalities" (or something like that) and you'll find unsubstantiated rumors alongside quotes such as "...no authenticated reports of any fatal attacks on people committed by squid" (i.e. any squid).
Now, apparently, some octopus species are pretty poisonous and bites have resulted in deaths (but that's a different story).
Read what Scientific American has to say about our illustrious Jeremy Wade...
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/but-not-simpler/an-open-letter-to-animal-planet-learn-the-difference-between-real-and-fake-monsters/
i will give Jeremy Wade credit for dispelling some rumors about Allligator Gar, he showed that they don’t attack people, and brought awareness to their condition, so I’ll give him credit for that...
"I swear if you catch another drum"
If you're interested in them count them in a subcategory so you can have 56 fish species but 4 "other" or however you want. At the end of the day its your life list you can do what you want with it, but if you share your number make sure people know what you're counting so they don't think "damn how does this guy have a huge list?!" when in realty its filled with squied and crawfish ;)
I don't know about the reports of Humbolts attacking humans. But I do know I'd never get in the water with them at night (that's when they come towards the surface from very deep water). The reason we couldn't land the very big ones on rod and reel is that the rest of them would shred them to pieces if you couldn't reel them in fast enough. Fished for them one night out of a little panga with no lights except for personal headlamps. We were able to crank them in with 50 lb test and the drag cranked down nearly all the way on sizes up to the one in the pic. The bigger ones would take a little drag out and give a great tug of war battle, then would just suddenly stop. The line wouldn't go out, but you couldn't budge it either, like you were caught in the rocks, only the nearest rocks were hundreds of feet straight down. Then it would just come in with nearly no resistence. That's when you'd pull in a shredded squid over the side of the boat. Fished for them another night off the mothership with full spotlights illuminating everything. They were on the surface and all depths below in the crystal clear water. You could see them zipping all around quickly. Then when you'd hook one and it put on a struggle, you could see the others zero in on it. If you didn't get it in quick enough, up to 7 or 8 others would converge on it on procede to chew it appart. That's when we could see why we couldn't budge them at times, when there was a large mass of squid at the end of the line, each anywhere from 3 to 6 feet long. Individually they would take off with a severed tentacle or other piece of the originally hooked squid. That was easily 20 years ago and I'll never forget that sight. Still fun as hell catching them, as well as seeing the whole scene. We tried eating them. The taste wasn't bad but very chewy/rubbery. That probably had a lot to do with the way they were prepared. Ended up using the couple we kept for cut bait, which worked great (never came off the hook).