Jumbo Squid Invasion Is Grabbing a Lot of Attention Around La Paz

If you’re a saltwater angler eager to break out of the December doldrums, hop on a plane and head for La Paz.

What you’ll find, besides the occasional wahoo, dorado or tuna, will be a little on the bizarre side.

What you’ll find, says David Jones of Fishermen’s Fleet, are “giant alien squid creatures flying around everywhere.”

Actually, they’re swimming around like small torpedoes, but they are seemingly everywhere, a phenomenon not seen around this part of southern Baja in 20 years or so.

Jumbo squid, more common off the coast of South America, have moved into the Sea of Cortez by the thousands, settling into a 20-square-mile area just south of Baja California Sur’s biggest city.

“And these guys go about 20 pounds and are as big around as a football,” Jones says. “And they’re about three feet long.”

And they’re creating quite a circus atmosphere. Commercial fishermen in skiffs, some of them having come all the way from mainland Mexico, are hand-lining squid from sunup to sundown. The fleet is about 200 strong.

On a good day, Jones says, two men in a panga can land more than 1,000 pounds of the rubbery mollusks, which sell for about four pesos--40 cents--a kilo.

Larger vessels have also moved into the area and are capable of cranking up 50-100 tons a day.

Mexico’s calamari supply doesn’t figure to run dry any time soon.

Meanwhile, Jones says his customers are also catching an assortment of game fish that have moved in to feed on the squid.

“All of our fish are starting to arrive, and if the squid hold here, this will get very good,” he said Thursday morning. “[On Wednesday] I went out alone and caught six dorado, five tuna and four wahoo. . . . We’ve also had sailfish, marlin and roosters [roosterfish].”

Fishermen’s Fleet can be reached at 011-52-112-21313.

AUSTRALIAN FOR FEAR

Jeff Klassen, host of Surf and Shore Fishing the World, has been busy traveling around the globe, stockpiling material for the new program--and says the seemingly glamorous job isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

His latest stop was Australia’s Northern Territory, where local guide Lance Butler instructed Klassen to wade 50 feet across a shallow channel to get to the most likely place to catch giant trevally and queenfish.

“Halfway across this body of water he yells, ‘Oh, yeah, mate, I forgot to tell you to watch out for sharks!’ ” Klassen recalls. “Anyone watching would have known then the meaning of ‘walk on water’ as I looked down to see several three- to five-foot black tips zipping by me.”

Klassen eventually settled down enough to cast his popper, whereupon he set his hook into a seven- pound trevally.

He would have landed it too, were it not for the two large sharks darting out of the shadows and snatching it from the hook just as Klassen was bending down to grab the leader.

“I can only describe this last trip down under as being the “Extreme Games” of surf and shore fishing,” he says, adding that he later had several close encounters with crocodiles.

FILLING THE VOID

The Outdoor Channel announced that “Monday Night Fishing” will debut Dec. 28. The three-hour stretch of programming, beginning at 6 p.m. on the West Coast, will begin with “In-Fisherman with Al Lindner,” followed by “Tom Mann Outdoors,” and “Fishing Expeditions” with Ronnie Kovach, Keith Warren’s “Texas Angler,” Babe Winkleman’s “Good Fishing,” “Fishing with Jimmy Houston” and Tim Hartman’s “Prime Time Outdoors.”

“Normally in the first quarter [of the year], there is a void, due to the conclusion of ‘Monday Night Football,’ ” Wade Sherman, Outdoor Channel vice president, said in a news release. “This year the void is even bigger, due to the NBA lockout.”

Kovach, a prominent Southland fishing authority, is perhaps overly excited about getting a chance to showcase local fishing across the nation.

“I guarantee ‘Monday Night Fishing’ will be more exciting than a John Elway two-minute drill,” he said.

And the Rams will win the Super Bowl.

SURFING STRIPERS

One of the most exciting bites off our coast is only a stone’s throw from shore. Surf fishermen in the South Bay are reporting fairly consistent action on . . . not perch, croaker or corvina but . . . striped bass.

The prized game fish, available locally in only a few landlocked reservoirs linked to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, are suddenly being caught by anglers on Torrance Beach, Hermosa Beach and the Redondo Beach Pier.

“Where did they come from? I don’t have a clue,” says Pete Wilkowski of Just Fishing in Hermosa Beach.

Actually, they’re probably just wayward stripers that made their way out of San Francisco Bay and down the coast, according to Steve Crooke, a Department of Fish and Game biologist.

Crooke points out that fishermen hoping to keep the stripers they catch must have a striped bass stamp-- $3.70--affixed to their fishing licenses.

“Otherwise they have to throw them back,” he said.

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FISH REPORT, PAGE 13