do you eat your octo?

[Jencourt]

Some one asked me if we ever catch Octopus while halibut fishing and if so are they big. Got me to thinking do any of you harvest your Octopus ? I cant bring myself to kill such a neat looking creature,but I have heard they are good.

Here are a couple pics of the last one we got. It is the biggest we have seen but I imagine they get much larger??

 

[Fishbreath]

Cool Pictures

 

[trophywife]

amazing creature,life span of only 4-5 years, i will kill the odd one for food and bait.. hood on the barby!!!,, best after freezing for a month, seems to tenderize it,, or leave it in buttermilk for a couple days, season and deep fried.. panfry the tentacle ends with skin still on.

 

[sammyslabber]

amazing creature,life span of only 4-5 years, i will kill the odd one for food and bait.. hood on the barby!!!,, best after freezing for a month, seems to tenderize it,, or leave it in buttermilk for a couple days, season and deep fried.. panfry the tentacle ends with skin still on.

Yep...& even good tenderized and lightly smoked.....

 

[Confused]

amazing creature,life span of only 4-5 years, i will kill the odd one for food and bait.. hood on the barby!!!,, best after freezing for a month, seems to tenderize it,, or leave it in buttermilk for a couple days, season and deep fried.. panfry the tentacle ends with skin still on.

How do you kill an octopus, especially a large one? Having never caught one, it would seem not so easy, for a big one anyway. Do you just pull out the fish bonker, or.....?

 

[Sculpin]

Absolutely eat them. My buddy slow cooks larger tentacles in their own juices with greek spices. He does them in the oven and cooks them on low for 7 hrs. You can literally cut it with a fork when it's done and it is delicious.

 

[Fishin'Zinn]

Holy!!! I would personally be a little more concerned how you release/get the hook out of that huge sumbitch! (Well, I bet they do indeed get bigger then that!) Caught one in the prawn trap before which was really cool, but that would be a little bit intimidating I think!

 

[Cuba Libre]

Tasty beasts

 

[Rum Buddies]

I love octo but everytime I hook one or get one in a trap I can't bring myself to kill it. One of the coolest and smartest animals in the ocean.

Apparently to kill them just jab your knife between the eyes, never tried it though.

 

[jeffywestcoast]

I like Octopus when i go for sushi, in the sunomono....SO GOOD! would like to try and recreate it one day, not much to it..

 

[Tips Up]

Not so easy to kill with a knife.
Put a bucket on the floor of boat beside Octo, they see it as a cave and will back in, put lid on and into the freezer to kill.
Have not harvested to eat myself but would like to try.

Tips

 

[el.Pereh]

I wouldn't. They are extremely intelligent and pretty slow to reproduce. Dungeness and prawns only for me, pretty nice consolation.

 

[Dogbreath]

They are extremely intelligent and pretty slow to reproduce....

Pigs are smart but people eat them all day every day.

Octopus are in fact they are quite prolific-larger Pacific species live up to 5 years but others only 6 months.

Freeze them/boil in Beer for 15 minutes and Chow Down!!

 

[trophywife]

depending on the size, i will cut in about 1" deep between the eyes and make a 4" slice, then cut across between the eyes. cut out the beak carefully and turn the whole hood inside out without breaking the ink sac. made many a mess on deck and slowly getting better at it. the tentacles seem to live on way after the insides have been removed, kinda creepy when the tentacles grab on to ya 6 hours later at the kitchen sink.

if letting go and the hook is up underneath and almost impossible to get at i just cut the leader...

 

[spring fever]

Knife between the eyes is the answer_ filleting knife -not a short one

 

[FishWhisperer]

Dig 2 fingers and your thumb in around the beak and yank it out. It'll die shortly after.

 

[getbent]

I have cut a couple of legs off before for bait....creepy when they crawl about for a couple of hours after for sure.
Some friends of mine with a certain guide in Bam that we all know caught a monster one time...like super huge...hanging onto the boat...both sides, legs were huge!

 

[Gunsmith]

The "KRACKEN"

I have cut a couple of legs off before for bait....creepy when they crawl about for a couple of hours after for sure.
Some friends of mine with a certain guide in Bam that we all know caught a monster one time...like super huge...hanging onto the boat...both sides, legs were huge!

 

[sly_karma]

I confess I'm scared spitless of octopus. Spiders, snakes, rats, whatever.... meh. But those sucker covered arms coming at me from 5 directions at once and that big blooby head, eeueuggh those things scare the bejeebus out of me. Get that thing off my boat, NOW! Shudder.

 

[Karma-Kazi]

I have caught about a dozen off Sooke. Mostly jigging for cod or halibut. Biggest was a wopping 55 pounds caught at church rock.

Cold octopus salad is what we would make cut into small chunks and mix in with homemade coleslaw. Or hali bait!

Pulling the beak out works great. Others I know turn them inside by digging fingers in on either side of beak and forcing insides out the beak. Sounds bad but it works!

-KK