Squid encounter: face to face with thousands

[Jon Schwartz]

I haven't posted on here in awhile but I recently had a really wild encounter with some squid and I figured I'd share some photos. Short story, I was accompanying my friend who is an expert kayak angler, and the goal was to get some underwater white seabass pics. We met our goal.

Later on in the day saw a ball of squid on the surface, so I dove in and got some neat pics of the squid. They were fleeing the white seabass and yellowtail that were eating them down below, and the mackeral and birds were feeding on them at the surface. I was probably the only thing in the water not eating them!

They didn't seem to mind my presence- in fact, they started using me as shelter- and so I grabbed one.

It didn't even struggle, so I put it in my mouth, and took a self portrait. My friend was nice enough to give me the big white seabass he caught. I ended up capsizing my yak in the am when I got in to photograph the WSB and I lost a rod, but the fish and pics more than made up for it.
Have a great 4rth of July,
Jon Schwartz
Fishing Photography and Stories

[seapower]

Glad to see you back! Those are some awesome, crystal clear pic's! Did I say awesome? Frank

[Jon Schwartz]

Frank
Thanks for the kind words!
Yeah I really lucked out in many ways, particularly the way the water was so clear. Unusual for where I was!
I haven't been around because I have been super busy with my teaching career; due to budget cuts in CA I had a 39 member 4/5 combo class and I has never taught either grade. On top if that I was going to night school for another credential. Other than two fishing trips with my students I hadn't been outside for almost 10 months!
I am almost done with my credential and soon plan to be back traveling to bluewater locations for some more fish photos.
The squid pics were just a fluke, but I'll take what I can get!
Cheers
Jon

[gottaflylee]

Congrats John on capturing a a rare find, well done.

[Jon Schwartz]

Lee,
Thanks!
Here's the pic of me with the squid in my mouth. Check out my cheapo mask- my good one was busted so I used my daughter's 12 dollar one. It was half full of water!

[Squidnation]

Awesome pic Jon. On friday we saw thousands of squid being pushed to the top by schools of yellowfin. It was incredible. Looked just like these. the ocean turned rust for a few minutes.

[Jon Schwartz]

Squidnation,
Cool! Where was that?
Tuna and squid in the same pic would have been awesome!
J

[Avenger]

Those are great pictures Jon, thanks for sharing.
Love the colors in that third one.

[SharkJP]

Those are some VERY impressive pics...and thats another example of why i love pink squid

[Jon Schwartz]

Thanks man!
Funny thing is, divers are in that are all the time but they don't get those pics, one, because the water is murky where they are down deep, and two, squid aren't usually near the surface so they'd probably never bother to hang there anyway.
I was actually in the water in Kona at night one time when they were chumming with live squid next to the boat. Probably among the stupidest things I've done. In contrast to La Jolla, there are a lot of giant redators in Kona waiting to gobble you. I got some cool pics though! They actually do a lot of handlining for ahi/yellowfin tuna there with live squid. Pretty wild experience to see guys using an 8 foot section of mono tied straight to a big circle hook, and a big 'ol section of nylon rope bought from home depot tied to the mono. Showed me right there how silly it is to get all worked up about having the latest tackle.