That’s some ika! Angler reels in quite a catch off Hilo

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – It was a catch of a lifetime for a Hawaii Island angler.

Nikko Eterovich was fishing in Hilo basin around midnight last Tuesday when his crew saw a 33.8 pound “mizu ika” or diamondback squid.

Eterovich says he jumped into action, grabbed a homemade squid jig and caught the giant.

He’s been a commercial fisherman since he was 15 ― more than half his life ― and says he’s never caught an ika this big.

“We’re used to catching maybe half pound squid at most you know the larger ones are around 5 pounds,” he said.

“So we definitely didn’t have the setup for it but the stars aligned and we got lucky and landed it.”

Eterovich sold the fish so he didn’t get a chance to try it.

Biologists say diamondback squids can get up to 60 pounds and typically live for around a year. The one Eterovich was believed to be about 8 months old.

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