Fished Q'cliff this morning for 2 meduim, 1 small squid taken on a variety of jigs.
Everybody's favourite seal was back but he didn't hang around for long!
Well done Jimbo and cheers for the report, how long were you fishing for?
Fished for about 6 hours...it was a hard slog.
There was only one other bloke there and he had a couple of very, very big squid.
Does it fish alright during winter??
I haven't fished Queenscliff a whole lot, Supersquid is the man in the know, but I think it fishes alright. The best time is during sep-dec when there are a lot of those very, very big squid around.
Hey Jimbo
Queenscliff does fish ok in the winter for squid but you will find alot of the old regulars dont fish here because its too cold
If the seal is around its good and bad because if he is there means that there are squid about the bad thing is he eats them and scares them off and will also pinch them off your jig
If you can bare the cold I find a rising tide around middnight and a s/sw wind of about 10 to 15 knots produces the goods I find it good at that this time because most people have gone home and you have the peir to yourself.
I have caught good bags of squid from here at 2 or 3 in the morning when it freezing cold aand about 4 or 5 degrees and no one around, the key here also is to move around if your not getting a bite.also stick around for the run out tide in the shallows your sure to get on to a few.
Thing about fishing for squid here in the winter is they might be on the smaller size but they are about. dont fish directly in the light but fish where the light fades into darkness
Thanks for the info guys.
Went down again last night for a grand total of 2 squid in 6 hours. First one caught within half an hour and was the length of my hand...good bait size. No more interest till the sun came up and I caught what I would call a large squid. Made it all worth while. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
Both caught on silver whiting. No matter what I do I can't catch them on artificial jigs. I change sizes and colours but can't get them interested. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' />
[quote name='jimbo' date='Jun 4 2005, 06:42 PM']Thanks for the info guys.
Went down again last night for a grand total of 2 squid in 6 hours. First one caught within half an hour and was the length of my hand...good bait size. No more interest till the sun came up and I caught what I would call a large squid. Made it all worth while. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
Both caught on silver whiting. No matter what I do I can't catch them on artificial jigs. I change sizes and colours but can't get them interested. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' />
[right][post="5032"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]
Jimbo sometimes they wont look at a lure but will strike at a baited jig
this can change and the next night they wont touch bait and only take certain colored lures, it always pays to take a few fish like pilchards or silver whiting for bait, Ive out fished people who were just using lures a lot of times simply because I was using baited jigs and I still reckon baited jigs wil always out fish lures
hey folks,
a quote from the reports at fishnet...:
"....Reports of large Squid up to 1.8kg have come from around Queenscliff and Portsea on the rising tide with smaller sizes in good numbers from Frankston down to the entrance. Yamashita squid jigs in the smaller sizes are proving most successful in pink and blue colours..." - (report dated 24th june 2005)
can anyone with experience at queenscliff and portsea region confirm whether the big fellas around this early ? havnt been down to portsea in ages myself, but wouldnt mind checkin it out if the bigger ones a hangin' about;-) i'm definately looking froward to the spawning season again, which im guessing must be around september.
cya
Hey calamarine,
im not sure if it is true or not about the 1.8kg squid but it is most probable. i was fishing in corio bay yesterday, wednesday 29th. and we had a good fish. Lots of little flatties and whiting. We ended up catching about 10 good whiting about 35cm between three of us.
i also hooked up a real nice aarow squid of about the 2kg mark <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':woot:' /> . i didnt get to weigh it but its cone was about 40cm and all up it was about 55-60cms, it was the biggest ive ever caught anyway <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol' /> . it was a nice catch and pulled pretty hard. Just before we started to head home me whiting rod went down and i pulled in what happened to be a nice little gummy shark that was also at the 55cm mark. It was good to see one again but we let him live another day as we already had a nice feed <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blueboxbullet.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':ink' />
Cheers,
Matt <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' />
I cant confirm the reports but the reports by Geoff Wilson on Fishnet I find very reliable as Geoff confirms these reports personaly
The squid have been good around the bay all year and while I havent been out myself of late I have followed up reports and found them to be 100 percent accurate. Queenscliff is supposed to be fishing really well but as always if your fishing the peir then it can be very hit and miss and you can lift you chance by fishing the right times and the right places on this peir
I suggest a rising tide either around dusk middnight or very early morning with a S/SW wind of approx 10 to 15 knots will produce the goodies here
STOP PRESS
Observing the weather outside it raining cold and the wind is southerly
Perfect conditions for squid at queenscliff even more so that the peir will be all but abandoned, you have to be crazy too be out there tonight but as my favorite saying goes you have to be a bit crazy to get the squid in winter
Supersquid
You almost inspired me to head down to Flinders in these miserable conditions!
Luckily I came to my senses. Today is similar to the last time I headed down even though it seems like there more persistent rain today. Rain doesn't worry me if the winds are light. Last time the BOM got the wind forecast completely wrong.
Again today the '5 to 10 knots' looks more like 20knts according to south channell wind orbs. (South Channell is most accurate for Flinders)
See
[url="http://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/~awatkins/bay.html"]http://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/~awatkins/bay.html[/url]
If anybody knows where to get a more accurate wind forecast than the standard BOM please let me know.
Good luck if you went out.
Hi Guys,
Hit Queenscliff early this morning to see a heap of largeish squid moving around.
Dropped 4 in the first hour (pretty crap I know), all good size, then landed a nice one with a hood of 28cm. Went quiet for a while till I noticed my ugly stik with a mighty big bend and bouncing away. Bugger me it was heavy. After a nerve racking lift I was looking at a PB for me. A montster (to me) with a hood of 44 cm.
Might have another crack at 'em tonight. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/beer_mug.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':woot:' />
thanks for the report jimbo! well done catching the big squid!
Went again this morning 2am to 8am.
I caught 4 all up from 25cm to 30 cm (hood), but I had to chase them. They wouldn't touch the static silver whiting jigs I usually use but for a change went after a pink imitation. It was exciting to see them circle and entice them to strike with a little movement of the jig.
Speaking to others the pier really fired early last night 6pm but then died right off. There was only 2 other squid caught while I was there.
hey all
I fished Queenscliff peir on sunday night and while I got there a bit late there were quite a few very very big Cuttlefish landed, these big buggers were huge Ive never seen them that big before, the peir was about at 50 percent capacity so there was plenty of room given it was the holidays
I then drove around to St.leonards where the tide is about 3 hours behind the heads, as soon as I dropped a lure in I hooked up and in about 90 minutes had a bag limit of squid of all sizes the biggest being around 1.5 kilo I worked the whole peir catching only two in the same spot the rest were caught working around all the lights. all in all a good night
[quote name='Mr_snapperman' date='Jun 30 2005, 06:03 PM']Supersquid
You almost inspired me to head down to Flinders in these miserable conditions!
Luckily I came to my senses. Today is similar to the last time I headed down even though it seems like there more persistent rain today. Rain doesn't worry me if the winds are light. Last time the BOM got the wind forecast completely wrong.
Again today the '5 to 10 knots' looks more like 20knts according to south channell wind orbs. (South Channell is most accurate for Flinders)
See
[url="http://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/~awatkins/bay.html"]http://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/~awatkins/bay.html[/url]
If anybody knows where to get a more accurate wind forecast than the standard BOM please let me know.
Good luck if you went out.
[right][post="5184"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]
Try [url="http://www.ozwind.com.au"]http://www.ozwind.com.au[/url]
G,Day all
Did a quick trip to St.Leonards tonight 20/7/05 and did the old bag limit trick again
as usual the pier was desserted and the bag took a while to get working all areas of the peir but most where caught arond the second light and the light at the concrete extention. all squid where around the 500gram to a kilo range and I had lost a few also. I fished here a few weeks ago and also got a bag limit which also took a while
If you have the time and can put up with the cold then grab a meduim sized pink lure and have a go, I tried all other colors without success so pink seems to be the flavor down that way. I did spot quite a few very small squid near the landing also
Well Im frozen to the bone and off to bed talk to you guys later
<img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/as.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whistling.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wh' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/as.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
Great catch and report supersquid, I think I'll have to have a crack at St Leonards one of these nights. Was the water fairly clear? The size of the squid you're catching is much better than what I've been getting on the eastern side of the bay.
hey Jaz
Yes the water was fairly clean
I dont know what it is around the east side of the bay with the small squid but I have found the Mt Martha rock produce good sized squid once the water warms up
All Ive ever seen at Mornington has been bait sized squid and Ive fished there time and again when the reports come in and Ive never seen anything of a decent size.Queenscliff is also worth a look for squid and there are some huge cuttlefish getting about off the peir of late although I didnt go down there last night.
High tide at the heads is about Middnight tomorrow night so this is what I suggest if you want to go home with some squid
I suggest trying pink as far as color goes as they wouldnt look at anything else but I didnt have baited jigs with me either use a medium sized lure.
Fish Queenscliff till about 12 and if your not doing to well scoot around to St.Leonard where the tide is another 2 and half hours behind the heads this will give you about another two hours fishing time.
Just a point I would like to make is that while I favor the rising tide for squid they do come on the bite during other stages of the tides, it just that I have the best success during the last two hours of a rising tide but have bagged out a low tide at times
Thanks for the detailed reply ss, I will seriously consider Queenscliff/St Leonards tomorrow night.
About the east side of the bay, I fish for squid in a small boat in shallow water quite a lot, and the numbers of squid are great, but the size is usually 15-20cm hoods or less. Brilliant snapper baits, but it's a lot of work to clean small squid for not a whole lot of tucker. I'm not sure how well you'd do with baited jigs right now, I've been having big problems with sea lice while fishing for salmon at Frankston pier with whitebait - they convert a whole whitebait to a perfect skeleton in about 5 minutes - it's impressive, but annoying! I think sea lice are worst when the moon is full.