Thursday, 25 July 2013

Squidding

The squid is a family favorite they are very tasty and great fun to catch,  whether you're out just trying to catch some fresh bait or looking forward to some salt n pepper squid rings,
winter is a great time to catch a feed, cockburn and warnbro sound hold some great numbers of squid. mangles bay in cockburn sound has to be one of my favorite places to squid, as there is alot of weed in shallow water 1.5-3.0m in close to shore which allows small craft and kayaks the opportunity to get a feed,
or collect some fresh bait.

if you walk in to your local tackle shop you will be confronted with a wall of squid jigs that is very overwhelming to a new angler trying their hand at squiding, the price range of these little lures is astonishing ranging from $2 all the way up to $40, alot of the packages are written in Japanese with names like yamashita yo-zuri being two of the most popular jigs, along with shimano sephia jigs which are a little easier on the wallet.
the reason behind most jigs being designed and made in japan. is that the Japanese love squidding they call it egi and its like an art form to them, watching a Japanese person use egi techniques is something that must be seen to be believed check it out on youtube! the way that they violently jig the squid jig you almost think that if any squid had hold of the jig he would soon loose his head!, but it WORKS and it works well!

i have several different colors and sizes of the shimano sephia jigs and they work great, i use a nice white and orange 2.5 and always catch, i set up the boat along the edge of the weed bank and drift along with the sea anchor out to help slow the boat down. casting with the drift and retrieving the jig back to the boat, with quick short sharp jigs and give the jig time to sink back towards the seaweed. squid hide in the weed and ambush any small fish or prawns that swim by so by keeping your jig in there face then quickly making the jig dart away, really makes squid fire, i find most squid will hit the jig while its sinking and when you go to work the jig again you come up strong with a nice squid.
this is why a nice 6'6"-8' light graphite rod is essential not only does it help in working the jig nicely, but when you hook the squid the rod takes alot of the shock out of the strike and wont pull the jig out of its tentacles.
squid have really good eyesight but are color blind! they actually see UV rays so colored squid jigs don't matter in that sense, what matters is how well they display UV light. as most of a squids prey emits UV lighting.
i recommend  using a quality fluoro carbon leader and no swivel. just tie the jig to the leader with a perfection knot.

cleaning the squid is a job i hate! but i was shown a method that works incredibly well,
get a scaler bag from any tackle shop normally retail around $20 cut the tip off the hood of the squid and the head just behind the eyes, can keep for fresh bait or cut the tentacles off and eat them too!
put the squid in the scaler bag tie it to the back of the boat and tow them around, the ink sacks will bust and the stomach will fall out of the tube, the skin will rub off on the bag, after a few minutes pull the bag in to check the squid, if you leave them in the water to long you will begin to cut and damage the tubes with the bag.
but if you get it right the squid are clean, the house is clean (the wife is happy) and you have a fresh feed of squid!


i hope the info will help get you out on the water chasing a feed of squid!

catch ya next time
corey




No comments:

Post a Comment