While deep drop snapper fishing recently, I caught something totally unexpected.
The fishing had been pretty good. Around 2 a.m., something darted across the nightlight under the boat.
I asked my mate Johnathan Robinson “did you see that?” He replied, “I think so but what was it?”
With the line on the bottom, a big tug hit the rod. A really nice fish coming up, sweet I thought to myself. About 20 feet from the surface, the rod went crazy. I was looking over the side and promptly caught a good hosing of water right in the face then saw a giant tentacle coming over the transom latching firmly on to my leg, and I do mean firmly!
We gaffed the 21 pound yellowfin grouper and slung it into the cooler with an 8-foot squid still clinging on to it! We tried to put it back in the water but let me tell you, that wasn’t a good idea. It had suckers the size of a quarter and a beak as big as a macaw’s so we just let it sit in the cooler. The whole thing was like a science fiction fire drill.
We don’t see too many of these around here, so we were certainly caught off guard. Scientist from the U.S. identified it as a Humboldt squid. You just never know what you are going catch! For the record it weighed 26 pounds and will make great fried calamari!
Submitted by Capt. Doug Rowe Fish Rowe Charters George Town, Great Exuma, Bahamas; phone: (242) 336-3440; cell: (242) 357-0870; email: drowe@batelnet.bs; web: www.fishrowecharters.com.
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