As you might know we love fishing. There's just something about it, standing around waters most often during the dusk or dawn casting the line in over and over again until your wrists are aching. And often catching absolutely nothing. Funniest thing is I'm not even being sarcastic here! It gives you time to think, lets your mind wander aimlessly and you start to notice and admire the nature around you.
Even better than fishing without catching anything is actually catching something! One of the yummiest things we have been catching over the years has been squid, because you can turn it into delicious rings and snack away.
Amongst us I have earned myself the title Squid Whisperer. It all started from the very first time we went fishing for squid in Esperance 2020 during the notoriously beautiful West Australian sunset. Josh handed me a rod that he had rigged up for luring in squid and told me how to use it. Whilst he was rigging up a rod for himself sitting on the rocks, I saw something glittering in the clear turquoise waters of the Great Australian Bight, just a few meters from the rocks. I casted my line in and what do you know! On my first cast, and first time ever even trying to catch a squid I had landed a jackpot - a school of squid! I reeled in a relatively big one on the first go but wasn't prepared for the fight. I completely panicked and started shouting Josh to come help me, because I had trouble even holding on to the rod! Worst thing was that we were high on the rocks, and the squid decided to hold on to that rock wall with all it's strength. Josh being the gentleman he is got up immediately and ran to my assistance - to film the whole thing. I must say I wasn't laughing at that point but rather terrified I'd lose the rod - or dinner! But my lovely partner knows me too well and he was sure I'd manage - and that we'd be dying from laughter watching the footage later on. He was right! I pulled in over 30 cm long, shimmering and glittering squid that looked like it had been struck with a rainbow and a glitter box of a four year old. It was beautiful and I was victorious!
As many of our close ones know I prefer a vegetarian diet, with the occasional seafood that we catch ourselves for environmental and ethical reasons. Josh on the other hand has been hunting and fishing his whole life and even though he mostly follows environmentally conscious diet as well he has the guts to take a life to provide for us. I hope I'll get there one day as well, being able to take a life of the being I'll be eating for dinner, because with my values I feel like otherwise I haven't deserved the honour of consuming it - it feels like cheating. I'd love to hear you thoughts about this, no matter your diet! Back to the rocks in Esperance at sunset though: we got a quick shot of the beautiful colours of the squid on the camera, but like most seafood once they die they lose their spark. The magnificent colours fade away. And we kill our catch as quickly as possible. That image will stay in my mind forever though - I've never seen a squid underwater or anyone catching one before so I had no clue how beautiful they are! And the next surprise was about to hit me like a lighting struck - whilst Josh was preparing the first squid I cast my line in again to the same spot and caught another one! And another! I was pulling them in with such speed that poor Josh didn't even get a chance to throw in a single cast anymore. We kept three big ones and let one smaller one go since we didn't really need more than three and returned back to the campsite very happy - we had so much squid rings that we shared them with two other couples at dinner. This whole experience is on film! If you'd like to see it just head to our YouTube channel and check episode 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQxqIfBQDGU&t=8s.
And that is how I became the Squid Whisperer.
-Heli
Ps. They ink.