Squid, it's whats for dinner

Every morning I take Tucker to the beach for a romp and a swim.  My favorite beach area is in the Village anchorage out by the lighthouse.  The water is very clear and there is a shelf right off the beach that is teaming with sea life.  Many of the mornings I have gone over there people have been fishing right at the tip of sand spit, out over the shelf.  Most people fish with just a simple hand line and a hook.  They catch the fish and just toss them up onto the beach or dig a hole in the sand.  No real need for lot’s of tackle and equipment.  Mostly they catch barracuda, rock bass and one or two other fish I haven’t been able to catch the name of.  The one thing I have noticed is that they all use squid for bait.
One day when I went over to the beach there were a couple of Mexican guys fishing, using squid as bait with the hand line. So I chatted them up, practicing my Spanish.  Turns out they were Mason’s out fishing for a meal for latter in the day, they were going to make some kind of fish sauce/stew.   One of the guys walked over to the truck and called for me to come have a look at what was in his bucket.  He had a huge squid!  He asked if I would like some.  I said sure, thinking I would get a small piece to use as bait.  He looked around for a knife but couldn’t find one so with his hack saw he chopped me off a hunk o squid aka calamari.  I was so amazed at the amount.  He told me to go and make ceviche!   I took it back to the boat, it weighed in at 5 lbs. So far I have made ceviche, fried squid and put some in the freezer for later.  I combed through all the cookbooks on board and figured out how to clean and cut it.  It was actually very, very good.  It was very tender.  I think it was a Humboldt squid.

I think I have started a morning routine of putting Tucker in the dinghy and heading over to the point when I see people fishing.  On my way over I stop at SV Victoria Rose for a cup of coffee to go.  They have a pump pot of hot coffee.  I then pull up on the beach and wander over to the people fishing.  This morning the two guys were fishing with a hand line.  Tucker got all caught up in their line, I kept trying to get him out but he thought I was playing "GET YOU".  Like I said before I've been working on my Spanish so I think the guy told me to take my drink and go back to my boat.