Sportfishing companies in Newport Beach resume squid fishing Sunday night

Sportfishing companies in Newport Beach will resume squid fishing tonight after taking a break for the storms and Super Bowl. The unusual creatures were first spotted off the coast of Orange County about a week and a half ago. Since then, anglers have been hooking hundreds of the large cephalopods.

Before the worst of the big storms moved in, Friday night's squid catch totaled more than 500, according to the two major sportfishing companies in Newport Beach.

"Sometimes they're here for two weeks; sometimes they're here for a month," said Davey's Locker crewman Brownie Guttierez who helps anglers pull their heavy catches on to the boats.

Leo Solovichk from Rancho Santa Margarita was one of 90 squid fishers on the Western Pride last Monday. He caught five jumbo squid and shared half of another with a shark that put up a big fight. "I'm going to be having squid for every meal for many weeks to come. I'll grill them, boil them, fry them, you name it."

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Eleven-year-old Steven Taylor from Detroit, Michigan and his mom Amanda each caught 30 pounders on their first squid fishing trip. She said the calamari would be a nice consolation prize for her husband Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, who shared a nomination for a Grammy with other musicians for their work on the soundtrack for the movie Cadillac Records. Slumdog Millionaire ended up winning. "He didn't get the big prize," she said, "but we got one today."

Experienced angler John Limbocker said the squid looked to be about 4 feet on average, smaller than the ones he has caught in Mexico. But they're just as feisty. "They are so carnivorous they'll eat each other. If you leave [a hooked squid] in the water too long, you'll pull up three or four together. They'll all be attached. They'll literally eat each other. It's not a place you want to fall in the water. They are very aggressive."

The squid, which are believed to be migrating north from the Sea of Cortez, are a boon for Davey’s Locker and Newport Landing. This is usually the slowest time of year for sport fishing, said Captain Dustin Devoe with Davey's Locker. "On a regular winter night we'd be home watching Dancing with the Stars. It's a bonus for everybody."

Each of Devoe's passengers paid $33 to catch one of the nocturnal creatures that Mexican fishermen call 'diablos rojos' or 'Red Devils' for their fierceness and their deep color, which weirdly flashes and changes when they’re hooked.

Biologist Steve Blair with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach said the Humboldt or jumbo squid, which are named after the Humboldt Current off South America, have been appearing off the Southern California coast in large numbers since at least 2003. "There might be as many as a million of them," he said. "They're considered an invasive, aggressive species."

More studies need to be done about their effect on native ocean fish, he said. "They eat up to 25 percent of their own body weight each day and can grow up to 100 pounds in just one year."