Mixed Bag and Prizes Too

[RobS]

This weekend was our annual Moriches Anglers women and kid tournament. We had quite an assorted catch: Fluke, seabass, searobin, blowfish, porgy and a octopus.

We were drift fishing and Elle was snagged, as soon as I went to run up on the line I realized it was moving, thought maybe a very big skate but it was true dead weight. It turned out to be an old vinyl bag that was covered in growth. When I was bringing it over the gunnel my older daughter, Grace, yelled that it was an octopus. We all basically ignored her because the bag had a bunch of straps hanging so we figured she was a little confused. Nope, she was right! It was clung to the bag

I have been fishing & diving these waters for 20 years, my father for almost 40 years and we have never seen or heard of this.

I kept it alive and dropped it off to the live bait guy on our creek who we are very friendly with. He has an aquarium in the house but knowing him he'll sell it to a pet store. I guess I should call him today as the kids want to go visit "Octi", as they named it

There was no category for largest octopus so the club president (Elle’s Grandpa ) made a prize for most unusual catch. So Elle got her unusual catch prize, Grace won kid’s 2nd place and my first mate Erika won women’s 1st place. It was a good day!

On the rod

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Elle and her catch

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Most unusual catch

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The Anglers

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And of course the day would not be complete without the eel relay race!

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[JackK]

Wow, that is just too cool. I have never heard of an octopus being caught either. Nice catch Elle!

That is one cool fish tank addition. I had a 100 gallon saltwater reef tank for years and had seen one person who was able to keep an octopus. He showed me a video of someone taking a gold fish and placing it in a baby food jar. Then they held the jar in front pf the octopus and showed it the lid being screwed on. They placed the jar in the tank and the octopus went over and unscrewed the top to get the goldfish. I forget where the video came from but I'll bet it's probably on you tube now.

[Pitou]

Way to go Team TOY-RIFIC . I love the baton race ... pretty slippery!

[RobS]

Over the years I had been very involved with the Moriches Artificial Reef Program raising money, locating, and coordinating the cleaning, transporting and sinking of old de-commissioned vessels for our reef. I became friendly with local members of the NYSDEC marine/fisheries group. They also used some of my underwater shots for their website:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/about/81994.html

http://www.dec.ny.gov/environmentdec/25463.html

Anyway, I emailed them with the octopus info and pics and received this:

Good to hear from you & thanks for sharing your very cool find. How deep were you fishing when you caught the octopus? Am thinking it was out in the ocean. Was it near the Moriches Reef?

I have my "feelers" out for more information on octopus in local waters. While they are not common in NY waters, they are also not rare.

A colleague who heads the DEC Finfish & Crustaceans Unit provided the following information on octopus after a brief discussion.

Common Octopus, Octopus vulgaris
1.5 - 2.0 month planktonic stage
Temperate and tropical seas, 1 - 200 meters deep.
Up to 1.5 years old.
They are cryptic, but not that uncommon.
Have been caught and brought up in lobster traps.

Will forward more information when I receive it.

I also emailed the IGFA and they advised that they have been known to inhabit the east coast of the US as far north as Connecticut.

It likely drifted in on the bag from the ocean as we were fishing the incoming tide just inside the inlet. The red dot is where it was caught.

[RobS]

Jack I know what you mean, they can fit anywhere, move anything, etc. My friend had one in a tank, it was SMART and STRONG. For a second I thought I would put it in the livewell as the livewell was already going with our live baits but I figured it would escape somehow, so it went into a bucket so we can keep an eye on him at all times..

[hetek]

Did it squirt ink?

I was talking to a gent at my marina the other day (the Albin 30FC's western neighbor) and the conversation turned to "damaged bowrail" somehow. Apparently, years ago, there would be swarms of octopi or squid in the marina (can't recall which) and the local fishermen would climb over everyone's boats to net them. Yup - they bent the guy's bowrail, but he said almost worse than that was that his boat was covered with ink. He wasn't thrilled about cleaning it all up.

[RobS]

He did, he inked almost immediately and then he sprayed water from the bucket. If he inked my boat again it would have been time to start pulling out some calamari recipes to try on Octi !

I know what you are referring to, I worked out of Soundview Scuba on CR48 for years and they used to talk about the squid along the docks at Greenport.

[Homeinstead28]

cooooooolllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RobS]

cooooooolllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That must have been Laura!

[RobS]

Took the kids back at Saturday, another action packed mixed bag: Short fluke, keeper porgy, northern kingfish, searobin, seabass and an endless catch of blowfish. But of course the day would not be complete without another rare catch, this snowy grouper. Haven't seen this "tropical" here before. We were anchored up with a chumpot of clam.