(Editor's Note: This story first appeared on Laguna Niguel-Dana Point Patch, early morning, Thursday, Jan. 3.)
UPDATE: Jan. 8., 10 a.m.: The count is now at 1300+ according to Dana Wharf Sportfishing. More boats will go out Tuesday night along with 120 passengers, says General Manager Donna Kalez.
UPDATE: Jan. 6, 10:45 a.m.: The total count of Humboldt squid caught to date is more than 800, according to Dana Wharf Sportfishing. Click here for the latest video.
UPDATE: Jan. 6, 9 a.m.: Odd-looking squid keep on appearing. In fact, more than 350 Humboldt were caught in less than 45 minutes off the coast of Dana Point on Saturday night, upping the count dramatically since the first sighting.
DANA POINT, CA -- Some things squishy and quite large have been seen by passengers dotting the waters off the Dana Point coast shoreline the past few nights, and we're not talking swimmers who ate too many Christmas cookies.
Jumbo-sized squid or Humboldt squid which aren't that common in Dana Point, started appearing late Wednesday evening, Jan. 2, when Capt. Brian Woolley took the "Sum Fun" boat out on a run, according to Donna Kalez, general manager of Dana Wharf Sportfishing. A handful of passengers, including Woolley's daughter, Abby, 9, caught around 12 squid total, mostly in the 3-to 5-pound range.
Then on Thursday night, Capt. Woolley took the boat out again with 10 passengers aboard; they caught about "100 more that were quite a bit bigger," Kalez said.
Dana Wharf Sportfishing has been known to catch them up to 20-25 pounds, Kalez added.
The last big squid run was in Sept. 2011, Kalez said.
The squid have been appearing 3 to 4 miles from the harbor and about 2 miles off the beach.
Trips leave nightly until further notice at 5:30 p.m for $25.00 go to
danawharf.com/fishct.html and send us your photos if you get lucky.
