FISHING: Humboldt Squid Wash up on San Clemente Beaches

Humboldt squid moved in to the waters 4-6 miles off Huntington Beach Wednesday afternoon providing anglers with a welcome surprise. The ¾ boat Enterprise out of Long Beach Marina Sportfishing encountered the 2-5 lb mollusks in big schools near some of the offshore oil rigs. “Our passengers has a blast with them,” said skipper Andy Siratt.

According to the Orange County Register, several hundred washed up onto San Clemente Beaches Wednesday night.

It’s sometimes a comical scene on deck when fishing for jumbo squid. As anglers bring them to the surface, they have a penchant for squirting copious quantities of cold sea-water in there predators face. In other cases, instead of water, some anglers are squirted with ink. It’s not such a bad idea to add a raincoat to your tackle arsenal to avoid fishing in soaking wet clothes for the rest of the day or night.

Humboldt squid can reach six feet in length as weigh as much as 100 pounds. They are voracious, sometimes cannibalistic feeders that wipe out everything in their paths. They have a large brain, three hearts and a razor sharp beak. In Baja California, fishermen call the squid, diablos rojos or red devils.

“We are happy to see them here,” said Don Ashley from Pierpoint Landing. “They are not all that big yet so they shouldn’t do a lot of damage to the environment. They are fun to catch and good eating too.” Recently, hundreds of the jumbo squid washed up on Blacks Beach near San Diego.

Other Fishing News

Thanks to the Friends of Rollo Youth Fishing Program, two children 15 years of age and under can fish for free at participating Landings with a paid adult this weekend. The arrival of the jumbo squid presents the perfect opportunity to not only take kids fishing, but to show them something interesting and stimulate interest and learning about these interesting sea creatures.

Participating landings include H&M, Point Loma, Seaforth, Helgren’s, Dana Wharf, Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach, Newport Landing, Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach, Long Beach Marina Sportfishing, L.A. Harbor Sportfishing, Marina Del Rey Sportfishing, Channel Islands Sportfishing, Hook’s landing Oxnard, and Sea Landing Santa Barbara.

Tuna fishing remained excellent for boats able to fish 150 miles from San Diego. The waters off San Martin Island in Northern Baja California continue to produce excellent bluefin and yellowfin tuna fishing, as well good kelp paddy yellowtail fishing with some dorado.

Anglers have to be on a 1.5 day trip or better with a 6-7 pm departure time in order to arrive to the prime fishing grounds with time to fish.

Surf Fishing

Surf fishing remained good in most areas with barred perch, corbina, spotfin croaker, halibut leopard sharks and more being taken off most Southern California beaches.

Excellent corbina fishing has been the rule off San Clemente, some nice halibut near Corona del Mar and Newport, with some nice spotfin croaker near Seal Beach. Palos Verdes is producing some nice opaleye perch on frozen peas and there has been some good barred perch fishing off Redondo and Hermosa Beach.