Arts & Entertainment
You've Got to Be Squidding!
Despite living in the Marblehead area her entire life, our photographer had never seen a squid being pulled from the ocean before, and found the experience to be fun, relaxing and mesmerizing.
Squidding, or squid-fishing, has a cult-like, underground following in town - fishing locations are kept very quiet and there is a bit of a hierarchy within this secret group of fishermen.
The group's ideal spot to put in is a quiet dock that has direct light shining out onto the water. The squid are attracted to the light and can be seen from above, darting about in the water like little torpedoes. Their glowing eyes make it easy to track them under the water.
For this story, I met up with Tim and Paul Lynch, two area residents who are avid fishermen and squidding seems to be their latest passion.
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The pair said the largest squid that they have caught from a local dock was about 16" long. Armed with a wide variety of jigs, which come in assorted colors including pink, light pink, green, blue and transparent, the pair set out Wednesday night to pull in a big one.
"We make fried calamari rings, just like you get in restaurants," Lnych said. "A little egg, some bread crumbs and you can fry them in oilive oil."
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Among the fishermen out Wednesday night was a Beverly resident named Tony, who seemed to be the king of squid fishing - he has been a squidder for more than 40 years.
Tony was pulling in a good number of squid Wednesday, and was nice enough to dump out his bucket, stained with squid ink, to show me his catch. Though he warned me to be careful because the squid have teeth that are big and strong enough to "cut the meat out of you."
The longest squid Tony claims to have captured in local waters was about two feet long and went on to explain that the bigger the squid, the more of your finger it will "suck up like a vacuum".
Each squidding jig floats in the water and an interested squid will swim up to and "suck up" the jig. When it is pulled onto the dock, it squirts the infamous black ink everywhere as a defense mechanism - the ink stains and can be considered permanent once it hits a fisherman's clothing.
In Massachusetts, squid fishing can start as early as spring in places like Falmouth, and continue right through October - a light rod, some squid jigs, patience and little peace and quiet is all you will need to go squidding.
Let us know if you are a local squidder and if you are, share a story of the biggest squit you have ever caught. Send along photos if you have them!
