I lived on Puget Sound near Seattle for four years. As soon as I got to know my neighbors, they told me to buy a wetsuit and taught me to skin dive. After about three years, Jacques Cousteau arrived in the
Calypso for some shipyard repair work. He appeared on TV and explained that he and his crew were delighted to spend some time here because "Puget Sound is home to the largest octopuses in the world."
I just about wet my wetsuit. Nobody ever told me that, and I had been swimming around with them for three years!
Actually, they are so shy that they are almost impossible to see, let alone catch. They do make great chowder, though. The most common method is "bluestoning" where you take a cloth bag full of copper sulfate crystals and put it on a stick. thrust that into a crevice where you think there's an octopus hiding and out he comes, and you grab him. Or vice versa.
They cannot stand the copper sulfate in the water.
Before you try this in Lake Michigan, I should point out that it's COMPLETELY against the law.
Suburban gourmand