We headed out on Friday 8/31 as we thought (NOAA) the weather would be poor for Sat and Sun. We bucked an East swell and northeast wind to Waynes World and put out the spread. Trolled all the way to the Norfolk with a few bite-offs and short strikes but no fish. In the Norfolk canyon I saw something I've never seen before, which I believe was squid spawning, but I'm anxious to read your feedback on what we witnessed.

There was a milt spot the size of an olympic swimming pool and the water was white with milt in the center.....I mean milky white. It difused at the edges to whitish green and faded to light green and trailed out to the north in 2 plumes. I was in 550ft of water in the tip of the canyon, but my depth finder never registered a depth below 45ft. The fish (tuna I suspect) marks started at 8ft and were solid down to 45ft at which depth my sounder was unable to penetrate the school of fish and find the bottom of the ocean. There were tiny (single pixel) specks all over the screen. My guess is that this was a spawn of squid that the tuna were glued to and slurping down at will. Where the fish disappeared on the edges of the fish school, the sounder screen was completely blocked out with single pixel dots. The bait looked similar to what sea grass would look like on the sounder, and also blocked out the ocean bottom

We tried everything we had in the lure bucket but couldn't get them to bite. I've been frustrated many times in my offshore expeditions (this actually happens frequently rockfishing).....but none surpassed this experience in my life.

Was this in fact a squid spawn (8/31 was near the full moon) I witnessed ?
Anyone ever seen this before ? An unusuall and amazing sight so, I'm interested in your feedback folks. Not sure I'd have spent $400.00 to see it but I would have paid money to see it for sure ! Hopefully Dr. Julie Ball can weigh in and provide some comentary from the scientific perspective and what was going on out there.

Let me know if you've ever seen this personally, and (only if you have) what you think (or have heard) it was.

Robert

It is hard to tell. We fished at the norfolk on Thursday and there was line after line of what we call sulfer lines. From a distance it looks like a real nice temp break but when you get up to it, the water looks milky and greenish. We did have a marlin knock down on the long rigger but did not come back for it. This was right in the middle of one of the sulfer lines. I did not pay attention to what the depth finder was reading.

My experience with sulfur lines are the grey lines in the rips that sometimes hold baitfish the way a weedline would.......but grey not milky white......if not sulfer lines what are these lines I'm calling sulfer lines ?

Yeah I am not sure. It could have been squid. That is the only other thing I can think of.

The ones I have been seeing are Yellow like Pollen but they are infact sulpher lines.White Marlin love to hang around them so when you see them fish hard.