Andy Morales was fishing the Gimme Shelter 7 Kayak Fishing Tournament in Northern California when he got a surprise catch, a Giant Pacific Octopus. Giant Pacific Ocopus can grow up to 30 feet across weighing hundreds of pounds. They are a fairly rare catch, never targeted on hook and line and are caught mainly as bycatch. Andy reports, 

"I was fishing the Lost Coast at Shelter Cove about a half mile from shore in around seventy feet of water. I decided to try my luck with two whole squids on my rockfish jig. I dropped down to seventy feet or so when all of a sudden I felt something other than a bite. It felt more like a quick snag. After A few minutes of trying to yank up I figured it was a kelp snag. Right as I was about to break the line it started pulling up very slowly. It felt like pulling up two five gallon buckets full of water. As it got closer it started to make color. A GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS! The beast looked like a kracken straight out of a horror film, with its spread out tentacles easily reaching ten feet in total length tip to tip.

My heart started racing and I was contemplating cutting the line when I remembered how much I like octopus as table fare. I screamed over to my fishing buddies for assistance for I knew this was gonna be a grisly task. I sunk my gaff into the beast and it immediately started shooting ink. As my partner BaintNBeer paddles up he has that look on his face like 'what am I about to get myself into?!?'. He sunk his gaff into the octopus and then it was fight on! The creature attached itself to the bottom of both of our kayaks and began to wrap its tentacles around the boats and our legs. We fought the creature for forty minutes before both deciding that the only way we were gonna get him in the boat was to start cutting the tentacles off. After securing my harvest I sat back and thought to myself 'what the hell was I thinking?' The next octo will be released before even coming close to my kayak!"