I'm a commercial bait distributor.
90% of my business is selling Argentine Illex squid to the Puget Sound Dungeness crab fleet. Each year the price goes north due to poor catches in the South Atlantic. Each year I tell my my crab fishermen they'll be looking at another .10 -.15/lb increase in price and each year they tell me to shut up and keep importing the Argentine squid , no matter what the price is.
This is what "the good stuff" looks like, the stuff they all want: CHOCOLATE!
So here's a story: last December us sportsfishermen got a surprise opener. It came immediately after a First Nations opener and they tend to carpet bomb the dungeness grounds where I fish. But they use pilchards so I was optimistic they didn't get them all
So the first day, I loaded my pots with spring salmon frames and heads, thinking this was waaaay better bait then their pilchards
I checked my pots after a tide change: at least 15 females, some rock crabs, and 2 male keepers.
I told one of my crab fishermen I had used salmon frames and didn't exactly knock the crab dead
His response:
"Dude, what the hell are you doing screwing around with salmon frames? Let me guess...you got a few keeper males, but a pile of females and some rock crab, right?"
I was impressed----he knew what I caught just by the bait I was using.
His next comment: "So, let me guess again, you have a couple of hundred thousand pounds of Argentine squid in a local warehouse, right?"
I don't like my guys knowing my inventory but I conceded the point that yes, I had enough squid to wad a shotgun.
"Well, get off your arse and go get some and stick THAT in your pot!"
Long story short---I went into town, got a 25 lb block, teased a few squid off the frozen block with a heat gun, shoved them in the pot for one tide change and went to check my pots.
I could not see daylight through BOTH pots. Four limits, minimum. HUGE males, like the size of pie plates, all caught in the exact same place I'd dropped the pots full of spring salmon frames a day or two before
And this was after the First Nations guys had been dropping pots for a week in the same area.
We have an opener tomorrow. Even though I have a bucket full of spring and coho frames from my Bamfield trip last week, Argentine squid is going into those pots.