squid vicious

If I had half a brain, I would have brought a camera. What a funny sight, all these Asians lined up on the bridge to Goat Island in Newport, casting bright pink jigs into the sea and pulling up dozens and dozens of squid.

The squid run once a year in Newport. In Asian circles, the news spreads like wildfire. Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodians, Koreans show up from miles and miles away... some come from New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachussetts. They line their beat up, fancy, new and 0ld cars and vans along Newport's swanky boulevards and walk to the bridge to drop their line in and haul out nature's bounty.

When I was a kid, the squid run was basically ignored. Even though I grew up only a few blocks from where the run takes place, I never heard of anyone fishing for squid. We had mackeral runs which would capture folks attention in those days. No one ate squid when I was a child. And there were no Asian immigrants yet.

Tonight was spectacular. The evening was warm and breezy. We took the kids for dinner at Yesterday's first, then walked down to the bridge and retrieved our fishing gear from the parked car. We found a spot on the concrete sea wall and started casting our jigs amoung the hundreds of others.

Emmett (5) taught me how, as this was my first time. Cast it out, let it sink... don't reel it in too fast. Let it sit on the bottom and give it a little yank every now and then to attract the squid. We probably caught about a dozen in an hour. Nowhere near as many as the pros next to us, who had them by the bucket.

Squid make a strange sucking noise when they come out of the water. They spray you with sea water and ink as they drop into the bucket. They shift from a beautiful spotted brown color to a very dead looking gray within minutes.

And when steamed with ginger and garlic sauce, they make a pretty good snack.