Calamari on a fly

[DonCooksey]

Anyone ever caught a giant squid on a fly?



I caught this one on a Lefty's Deceiver down in Baja south of San Felipe. The first two I hooked took me well into my backing before working them back to the surface after about 15-20 minutes each. I lost both of those when they got to the surface. The third one (pictured) was gaffed as I got it to the surface. Sorry, no catch-and-release, but it made great bait the next day that my friend caught a 63-lb grouper with (not on a fly rod! ).

[k.hanley]

All the time down in the East Cape and northward into the Cerralvo and Loreto Regions.
Cheers, Ken

[Darian]

Hi Don,..... WOW!!! Catch/release could be a real adventure with something that big and with tentacles.... (who's releasing who )

Haven't caught any on a fly but, after, seeing squid wash up on shore at East Cape, I decided that squid patterns should work very well down there.....

[Gregg]

Oh man, after seeing that picture I don't know if I'd want to hook one! That must have been an unusual hook up!

[DonCooksey]

Gregg:

It was an incredible experience at night when a school of these things came in and disturbed our fishing for bait (mackerel) with yo-yo rigs (this was primarily a meat trip for tuna and grouper with heavy bait rigs - not fly fishing; I had to hide my fly rod from these guys for most of the trip to avoid ridicule). When dozens of these big squid came swarming in like white ghosts zipping in and out after the mackerel, I just had to run and grab my fly rod. They went crazy for the Lefty's Deceiver that I tied on and fished with a jerk-strip retrieve. This squid flashed past my fly, swimming backward as they usually do, and the suddenly reversed direction and came straight up to my fly head first, extended its tentacles, clamped down on my fly, and took it straight down about 60 feet with line screaming off of my reel. My poor 8-wt rod was completely doubled over. My meat-fishing friend, who was used to using 80-200 lb test line to bring up whatever he hooked on the bottom of the ocean (tuna, grouper, boulders, old boats, etc.), was convinced that my thin graphite rod was about to break at any moment. The rod survived, of course, although even I thought at one point when the squid tugged so hard that I was doubled over the edge of the boat with the rod mostly in the water, that I might have to test the Orvis guarantee of replacing broken rods. I was exhausted by the time I landed it, since as I mentioned in the original post, I had fought and lost two previous squids that were probably larger than this one for 15+ minutes each. Anyway, this seems to be an under-rated game fish (cephalopod, actually), so the post was mainly to see if others have found out how much fun they are to fish for on a fly. Glad to see that Ken has had experience with them.

[David Lee]

Great catch Don ! How much Beer batter did it take to cover that sucker up before you deep fried it ? YUMMY !! D.J.L.

[Gregg]

How was taking out the fly? I've heard squid have pretty powerful beaks?

[DonCooksey]

Gregg:

It was hooked on one of the tentacles on the inside near its base. I used pliers to unhook it, not wanting to get too close to the beak with my fingers, as you noted. It was still very much alive at that point, changing colors rapidly. By the time I got my camera, the body had turned mostly white except for the tail, or whatever that is.