by Steve “Tuna” Tornovish
All right, folks, grab a seat and let me tell you a strange tale. It’s a typical Nantucket tale, no doubt about it. And it involves squid, as more than a few great island tales do.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning in October a couple of years ago. I was standing at the top of the steps of Summer Street Church before the service. A young woman, impeccably dressed, approached me and asked, “Hey, you’re the fishing guy, right?” Well, yeah, I guess I am, amongst other things. I cautiously confirmed my fishing guy status, wondering where this conversation was going next. I was promptly hit with a question that I never saw coming. “Do you want some squid? I have about 25 pounds to give away.”
Wait, what? Church, a lady in a stylish sun hat and her Sunday best, and a significant amount of squid? I had to know what this was all about. My new friend introduced herself as Jocelyn Wong. If you don’t know her, well, I’m here to say that you should make the effort as Jocelyn is an absolute hoot! She told me that her friend Jeremy had invited her to go squid fishing a couple of nights earlier and they caught a bunch of the “…elongated, fast-swimming cephalopod mollusks with eight arms and two long tentacles, typically able to change color” (thanks to Microsoft Bing for this definition). Jocelyn confessed that she was having so much fun playing squid games that her catch far exceeded her need. With this being Nantucket, Jocelyn was able to parcel out her excess squid catch for both culinary and bait purposes in fairly short order. I still chuckle about how taken aback I was to be asked such a question at church by such a lovely lady!
Truth be told, I should know that lovely ladies enjoy squidding (a Nantucket verb if there ever was one). For years, the wallpaper on my cellphone was a picture of my lovely daughters, KD and Anna, squidding on the Lisa Lynn, their aunt and uncle’s fishing boat. The picture was from June of 2013. That meant that KD was 15 and Anna was 12 when the picture was taken. To this day, my daughters enjoy recalling their (too few) squidding adventures. KD told me, “I loved squidding. It’s low-commitment fishing. The squid do a dance when you lift them up!”
Ah yes, the squid certainly do a little boogie-woogie on their way up and out of the water when they’re snagged on what appeared to them to be an easy meal. And this is where the problem lies with squidding. Squid utilize their unique ability to emit a large cloud of dark black ink to help them evade predators. Thus, when a squid is hooked, there’s a good chance that anything in the immediate area will soon get a significant blast of squid ink. And squid ink is very difficult to remove from nearby objects, such as white fiberglass boat hulls. Once the squid ink dries onto such a surface, it’s no fun at all to remove.
The inadvertent inking of boats has led to a lot of signage being posted on the Town Pier that, um, discourages squidding. Understandably so, I must say. I know boat owners who have had a lot of negative experiences with both squid ink splattered on their boats and, even worse, squidders actually boarding the moored vessels when squid fishing (a mostly nocturnal activity). Yes, the few have made a mess for the many.
Early spring and late fall are prime times for squidding, due to the abundance of squid in our harbor and the fact that the majority of the boat slips are empty at those times. I recently geared up and headed down to the docks. The gear was relatively minimal. A quick stop to Nantucket Tackle helped me become the proud owner of a couple of Yozuri squid jigs. These jigs are about two-and-a-half inches long. The jigs don’t have hooks on them: instead, they have something that resembles a tiny basket of sharpened metal pieces. The squid see the jig floating like an unsuspecting minnow. The squid approach the jig from below. The squid’s tentacles reach out and grab the jig and become impaled on the needle- like metal basket.
“It’s an easy way to get kids to get a bite, and it’s very visual, unlike the typical salt water fishing that we do.” Rafael Osona had posted some pictures of a recent squidding adventure with his two boys, Rafael and Sterling, along with four of their buddies. “We were just taking the opportunity to go have fun and enjoy the Nantucket stuff we love so much. It’s a shoulder season activity for us. We enjoy eating the squid and the kids still enjoy using squid for bait (scup and stripers) so it’s a great opportunity to stock up on food, bait, and having fun doing it!”
Oh, by the way—there’s a fantastic new late season fishing tournament that was put together this year: The Big Bass Brawl. This tournament is for the hardy late-season fishers. It ran from October 24 to November 17. Anglers would submit pictures of their three biggest striped bass (measured by length). This tournament was developed by Bobby King, an avid beach fisher, along with Matt Peel. Nice work, guys! The inaugural tournament winner was our squidding buddy Rafael Osona. He had himself a night in late October, catching his three winning fish in about a half hour of striper madness! Dr. Greg Chotkowski, another beach fishing madman, caught the last beach striped bass of the year on November 10. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to Bobby and Matt for finding a way to get folks bundled up, off the couch, and out onto the beaches!
Now, let’s get back to squidding. Squidding is a lot of fun, it’s great for kids, and it provides the main ingredient for a wonderful meal. And it may be the coolest first date activity on Nantucket. Just sayin’…
Steve “Tuna” Tornovish is a Nantucket native who has spent his life fishing from the beaches of his beloved island. He loves to introduce clients to the joy of fishing with his Nantucket Island Fishing Adventures: stevetuna.com