Just got back from our church's fishing club charter aboard the Western Pride. We opted for squid like the rest of the fleet as the sand bass numbers were down. I'd never squidded before but was prepared with my rain suit. We tried down laguna way inside for a flurry but they shut off. A long ride outside was the ticket as the rest of the fleet found a new spot. We went past them quite a ways to fish lesser impacted squid--the others turned out to be on a slow pick. The bite was full speed and I can't even begin to tally the numbers we got. Many folks C and R'd after bagging enough. I thought that was very cool. So, fresh calamari steaks are in order soon. They bit everything but the best was the lightweight squid jig with a small torpedo sinker about 10-12 inches under. I got the bigger units by freespooling down deeper and usually was stopped mid drop. Or once down, I'd reel up real fast to generate a strike.

Cooking--I did mine in large pieces (I'll cut them smaller next go). Pounded with meat tenderizer mallet, patted-on lemonpeel zest, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and then coated with bread crumbs and pan-fried. Came out very yummy.

Good Going Fongster On The Calamari! I also got my first giant squid this weekend off San Clemente Pier. Fried the calamari with batter and spices...it turned out like the stuff I get at Harpoon Henry's in Dana Point...excellent!

I reheated the leftovers for calmari tacos tonight--so killer. For future cooking, I recommend to folks to lightly make cross cuts both directions and on both sides all over the meat to maybe help the curling issue. Kinda like scoring the bottom of a shrimp to make it butterfly flat.

Also, it's key to pull off or scrub off any membrane you find (in addition to the skin) as some of it cooks up into a rubberband like piece that is unappealing when eating. I found several small stretchy pieces while trying to bite off a piece--just pulled it off.