GIANT SQUID IN BIG NUMBERS

March 14, 2005, Keith Williams, San Quintin, Baja sportfishing, Mexico:

This weekend, the KHYC Fishing Fleet from Redondo Beach took our annual trip down to San Quintin this year to find good fishing weather and lots of giant squid in the 20-40 pound range. The big squid were practically everywhere. The squid made it tuff to get down to the bottom to fish for the big reds and lings we're all accustomed to catching. Even the local yellowtail where scarce because of these monsters of the deep. When you got through the squid, and loaded up with some nice fish, the squid would come and steal the fish from your line. It wasn't uncommon to have 2, or 3 of these giants on your rock cod rig after they chewed up your fish. You went from reeling in a nice fish to having what seemed like a refrigerator on the end of your line. We even had boats that ventured 20-25 miles south in an attempt to get away from the squid only to find more down there. It took a little more work this year, but we all ended up with some nice fish and lots of calamari.

We fished were Friday and Saturday, March 11, and 12. There were 18 people in our group that went down this year. We fished with Pete, Pedro's Pangas, on 3 of his boats. A few more of us fished on 3 of Don Eddy's boats. We mainly fished the 15 Fathom and the 240, Breakers Reef, to depths ranging from 90 to 200 feet. Some boats fished west of San Martin Island at some of the deep water rock cod spots, 400 feet. Prior to reaching the island, Ben's Rock was fished by the boats that headed north from San Quintin bay. We even had fishing boats go as far south as El Rosario and fish in water 60 to 90 feet of water. It didn't matter where you fished, the giant squid were still there making the fishing real tough.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Quintin and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Quintin may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Quintin page.