Got Tako?

Howzit Guys?
Here's a pic of a tako I caught a couple days ago. We catch em at low tide sometimes when we are lucky, from their holes under big rocks.
They are delicious! I was wondering if anyone else has any tako pics they could post? or if anyone has much luck in HI catchin em?
We pound pieces flat with a dimpled hammer then soak em in egg and then coat em with flour/fry mix and then fry them in hot oil into crispy fritters like calamari kind. mahalos for checking it out.
Aloha,
AK Andy

Spider man rules. My kid has a spider man shirt too.

Nice Taco.

nice one andy i bet they get pretty large up their huh...do the locals eat em too?

Howzit HYPA?
This tako was a medium sized one, maybe a little bigger than the average ones that we catch at the beach, could be about 6 pounds, but sometimes we get real monsters that are 6 foot long and really do seem twice as big and are well over 10 lbs and as long as I am tall (5'7"). Those big buggas make a few meals and feed a few houses and come from deeper and more often get caught in our crab or shrimp traps we put down on buoy lines in 200-500 foot. They seem to be more where soft bottom edge comes to hard rocky bottom ledges. These medium and small ones come from holes where they live and hide under big rocks and we can only get to the entrances about a dozen days a year when we get really low tides (our tides drop 14 vertical feed about every 6 hours). You can tell if they are at home if you see the little bone piles and skeletons of their prey that they leave out at the entrance to their lair. These tako are by far one of my favorite foods.
You ask if locals eat them, I assume you mean Native Alaskans, well many of them do brah, but it seems just as many of them don't- I live in a small village of 75 people and no stores here and a ton of city and storebought food gets flown in, about 95 % of the people are Native Alaskan Alutiiqs, we are like one big ohana though, I've lived in this bay for 15 years, built a cabin on a nearby island before I got invited in, I'm like a local haole guy (a "milikansuk" in Alutiiq)- my given name is "Aziqtuk" (good one) and I have the privilege and honor of living here and being accepted, I also provide the most home caught meats and fish to those in the community who eat it. Very few avid hunters here, but me and a couple of the other middle aged guys. Too much western foods got too popular and too easy, it seems the newer generations eat less and less of these yummy subsistence foods (tako, clams, mussels, crab, shrimp, deer, goat, moose, sheep, bear, ducks, grouse, fish, and seal). Grocery stores (and microwaves) make it too easy and less work. But a few of the kids and my boy like to go and are real good eaters and enjoy the excellent foods we catch. We call it "Gazuk"- eat it raw. Or "Munyuk"- meat cooked at the beach. My ohana takes pride in living off the land and sea, and plus we have 5 greenhouses and a walk in smokehouse that holds 4 deer or about 100 salmon. Our freezer is almost always full and we eat really well. Not a lot of prepackaged and processed foods in our pantry- but we indulge and buy bulk rice, flour, salt, pasta, and canned goods. I'd trade pound for pound halibut or salmon, moose, or deer for some of that excellent fat wild HI pork though if I could figure out a way to ship it cheaply without it spoiling. But Braddah, I love tako the most though and get to eat about 5 or 6 of them a year. Lots of clams here too, plus shrimp and crab. We live on an island, steep mountains, really a lot like HI, but in winter it's colder and darker, summer is incredible, several local smokehouses all filled with salmon at the same time, I live in south central AK , so it's coastal rainforest here. Around here the neighbors don't get all goofy on you or get upset if they see you cut up meat at your garage- dogs are carrying around fresh bones all the time. City people don't last long and subsistence practices are widely accepted.
Look out brah, I can go on and on, plenty of time to write too much, I can talk story about hunting and fishing and subsistence foods all day, it is the meaning of my life, Mahalos for reading.
Aloha,
AK Andy

Another recent pic of some tanner crabs- funny my boy has his other Spiderman shirt on.
What you call these kind? Ohikis? or are ohiki just the little kind?

Here's the biggest prawn I ever caught.

Howzit Bradda Andy,

Yeah my Bradda thats how cuz live off da land!

But Back to Tako or He'e as we call it in Hawaiian. I dont have any pics to post but yeah I was born and raised hunting and diving. We hunted on Saturday and dived on Sunday every weekend growing up and most of the diving was for He'e. We dived for fish too but I really loved diving for He'e the challenge is what draws me they are truly the masters of disguise. As you say you can find them mostly in holes with rocks and/or debri from their catches like crab or lobster shells etc. piled outside. Those are the easy ones to find you can see them from far especially if they are larger ones. But there are others that hide so well and to find them is an accomplishment to say the least. I was blessed to have a Dad that knew how to hunt and dive and taught us at a very early age how to live off da land and for that I am forever grateful. Unfortunately Im the only out of five boy's who still actively hunts, fortunately another brother has kept up with his diving so we go out together from time to time to see if we still get da "eye" but we will never come close to my Dad in finding He'e he was MEAN!!! but me and my bradda still try. My Dad is half blind and he still catch more den us I will take some pics the next time we go out if we hook up. 1-2 pound is small (with 1# being legal size) 3-5 pound is avg. good size kine anything over is considered big and den get da big bugga's over 10 pound kine. Nothing like the ones you guys get from the deep but big for us

I like da big ones that not sked of you when they see you they come out of the hole instead of going in the hole. Wen you go fo tickle dat bugga fo bring um out he grab da spear and push um outta his hole dem bugga's is strong its a rush when you find one big one good fun too. Sometimes I just kickback and watchem how dey change color fo blend in den ruffle dey skin and make um look bumpy like da seaweed its really cool den sometimes wen dey see you or you touch um wit da spear dey change dark chocolate its cherry. Mahalo's for posting dis its given me da bug so looks like I gotta call up my bradda and see what he doin dis weekend.

Aloha's!!!

wow andy thats impressive if i ever get up that way i hope you dont mind me swinging by for some hunting......how are those larger tacos are they super spongy can you smoke em and it still come out tender?..you ever herd of yuk ...(IM not sure if thats how its said)..but my anty lives in anchorage and told me that theres a dish there were they barry a fish head in the ground and right b4 it decays they eat it.. is that true?

Howzit Koa?
Right on Brah- really nice to hear about other folks catchin and eatin "He'e". (up here they are called "Amiquk" which means "devil fish") I too was really lucky to get raised huntin, fishin, and trappin, every weekend and even sometimes before and after school. That's how we got our good foods. I was blessed to have Grandpa's on both sides that were avid outdoorsmen who lived off the land and taught me. Back then times were tougher and they had no choice. I think we may be heading towards tough times again, so I hope to teach my boy how to have "the eye". Yeah Brah, I know exactly what you mean how your Dad catches em more, it is a trained eye, but also it's like a 6th sense, some people just got it more than others. Keeping trained up helps and starting young helps hone the skills to spot what you want. One old timer native friend of mine in a village north of here ( on the mainland ) is THE octopus guru of Alaska- man that guys has a freezer full, he really catches a lot of em. When I go up and visit he gives me one out of his freezer because he knows I appreciate it, plus I bring him smoked salmon. Sometimes when he goes he comes home with 3 or 4 in one trip. I am lucky to catch one out of every 4 or 5 times I go hunt them. I get more in funnel entrance traps when they sneak in and start eating my prawns. It sounds like your he'e are the same sizes as ours, I bet you got huge ones too out in water way too deep to dive in. Our water is way too cold and deep to dive much, just can wade in low tide spots. I also notice the big ones are bold and really seem smarter, and are incredibly strong. I heard story about a big one here under the tide pool rocks in his hole when many years ago a guy reached up in and grabbed em and then it was too big and it grabbed on to him back, and held him there until the tide came up and he was stuck there until water got too deep and he drowned. They found his body with arm in the hole after tide went back out....Yikes! Maybe that's why they call em devil fish here, So I quit reaching way up in the holes unless I see it's a small one. That's cool you guys look for the bone piles too, once you know what to look for it is obvious.
I too am blown away by them changing colors- these ones get all red when they are angry, I see em turn solid white and all chocolate black sometimes too, also to look like kelp and sandy bottom. One time had a huge one we caught in a seine net and put on the boat deck, the hatch cover was black but the floor was white and that one was laying half on black and half on white- and then had a color change with a line down his middle - it was so trippy, the black half of him was over the hatch cover and the white half was over the floor deck - AMAZING! He was blending in to his surroundings. They are a master of disguise to say the least. He knew he was caught and was using master camouflage capability hoping we would lose sight of him. It was really Freaky and awesome to see. Wish I could blend in like that in the woods when hunting.
To catch em we stick a long stick way up in the hole and if it moves then we can tell one is in there, but sometimes if it is a smart one then he will spook from that and crawl further up in and not come out.- the biggest ones seem to fight back, the little ones try to escape. I keep my fingers away from the beak. I catch halibut up to 200 pounds and often find whole he'e or half digested ones or beaks in their stomachs, so I think they get hunted hard- makes sense to me because they taste so good.
anyhow, Way cool to hear from you about he'e and mahalo for posting and I would really love to see a pic if you get a chance. makes me hungry just thinking about them and makes me want to go catch another one. I still have some legs in the freezer. Good luck when you go, i bet that is good fun, I hope you catch lots.
Aloha,
AK Andy

Hey Hypa,
yeah braddah- you would be welcome to come - we got spring black bear hunting coming up May/June.
Your Aunty in Anchortown was right- that stink head is a true story, but more of a traditional dish out in Western Alaska where the Yupiks and Eskimos live - we got a couple Yupiks and Eskimos here in the Vil, but nobody here is that desperate for food these days and we have other good stuff we can catch in winter. I've heard Inupiats do that same stink head thing way up north by Barrow too. In winter time they have very little subsistence foods they can readily catch. I had heard that years ago around here they did "stink flipper". Which is when they take a sea lion flipper ("Weenuk") or s seal flipper, and put it in a hole in the ground and cover it with grass, and then in winter pull it out and eat it. I personally would call that "YUK"!
I think many years ago when food was scarce during deep winter that they had to resort to going out to the spots where they had stuck the fish heads in the ground and then eat them as a last resort before starvation, it sort of softens the bones and into jellatin, there are still some old timer elders who do that today, but I have heard it is an acquired taste. If I was starving then I'd sure try it too. But I work my butt off all summer drying and canning fish, because I like how it tastes. One thing about the stink head is that the way it used to be made was safe and with the grass over the hole the gasses can escape and it's all okay to eat, even though it's rotten. But a few years ago some people died from making it a modern way, they put it in tupperware, and others had put it in 5 gallon buckets with lids on top, other's did it in garbage bags too. This made a anaerobic environment and allowed botulism and salmonilla to grow inside because the gasses can't escape- there have been a few times since while I been in AK when people died from making it that way, so now everyone that still makes it does it the old way with a hole in the ground and cover with grass, some use 5 gallon bucket but leave the lid off.
As for Tako:
I have had the big he'e pickled before. It is cut into chunks and jarred with spices and vinegar and onions - it gets nice and tender that way if kept long enough in the pickle. I actually ate a few pieces of that at a neighbor's house last week. I had some at a different neighbor's a few years ago that was still chewy and rubbery, I think they didn't put enough vinegar or keep it long enough before they shared it.
I never have tried smoking it - it is so Ono when pounded and fried though- so it rarely gets made any other way at my house.
Aloha,
Andy