The Huli Cat ran a couple successful squid trips. As Capt. Mike Velasquez puts it, "First drop in 900ft of water yielded a few hook-ups but nothing that stuck so we tried another spot for zero then we head towards the 601 where we set up for what turned out to be a FANTASTIC bite with our two divers entering in the water and filming us bringing the Humbolts up from the deep, it was awesome watching the camera lights following the squid up on our jigs, the divers spent about 45 minutes in the water and I'm sure they had some great footage!"
Huli Cat also had NOAA scientists on board who wanted at least 6 live squid to take back to the Moss Landing marine Institute which we supplied with great enthusiasum. At 7 am Tommy called it a wrap and with great footage Live Squid and the deck littered with corpses we headed back in.
Did I say the 601? wellllll, we just had to throw a few Tuna jigs in for a little attempt at a drag and snag, the water was blue and the temp was 59.2 to 60 so we just had to give it a try. We dragged the jigs for awhile and then picked-em up and put the coals to the diesels.
What a day, or rather night it was. We arrived at HMB at 10:30 p.m. and were greeted by the Discovery Channel Film crew. We had to do several "takes" getting our gear out and walking down to the boat and boarding. We finally got it right and after lots of last minute scurrying, we left port at 1:00 am."
Lynda Abbott puts it this way, "Seas were a bit bumpy on the way out. I think we got to the first spot around 3 am. Dropped the lines in and got 1 Squid, then nothing. Another move. A couple of hits and nothing more. Third time was truly a charm. With this last move, we hit pay dirt, where we pulled around 2 dozen more Squid. We got all the live ones, then filled the fish boxes, and then had Squid on the decks. Mike Velasquez, was an animal, and took, no prisoners...what a fisherman he is!! For a beginner, Al (My Husband) Meyers did well. For me, I definitely need to eat more Wheaties! Raising these fish is brutal. Watching the Squid come up and "flash" and "squirt" was a real hoot. But cranking those things up from the depths is not a tast for the faint of heart, nor faint of strength! If you've not fished for Squid, you need to go out on the Hulicat with Captain Calamari! What a trip!"
Huli Cat also went to the Farallon Islands. Incredibly foggy day, whales around us and the fish bit well. 20 limits of nice rockcod with one legal ling.
http://www.coastsideclub.com/Squid/hulicat_squid_2008_0828.html for some pictures
We also used a Sword Magnet light by fishnlight.com. They make a few smaller ones, but I tried this. We had thousands of sauries around the light in short order, in the dark of the night. I pulled the light when the squid bite got furious.