Dear Linda:
Thank you for your kind comments!
There are two ways that I know with which you can catch an octopus. Both share the same technique of detecting where the octopus is hiding. Octopuses are active during the night, while during the day they stay in a hole waiting for a crab, lobster or whatever is on that day's menu to pass by.
One way requires a tube with a glass attached to the bottom that the fishermen use in order to observe the bottom of the sea from the side of their boat. The other method is by diving or snorkling.
Octopuses are not very tidy. They constantly eat shellfish and crabs and they just throw the empty shells and carcasses in front of the hole. When a fisherman sees a concentration of these "left overs" in front of a hole, he/she knows that there is an octopus inside that hole.
In order to make the octopus come out of his hole, you need a white seagull's feather. You pass the feather in front of the hole and the octopus comes out to attack it. At that time, you either catch the octopus by hand (prefered method of any Mediterranean male trying to impress the females) or you hook the octopus with a trident. The biggest octopus that I ever caught by hand weighed close to eleven pounds. I saw the octopus resting in a metal can and I simply carried the whole can out with me. I was snorkling between the islands of Renia and Delos in the Aegean Sea.
