United Kingdom - have squid?

[Guest]

Hi again,



I am also curious to know if the UK has good squid fishing. I am going to Ireland for holiday and was after pike but thought maybe they also have squid.

Thanksyou for help again,William

[Guest]

As far as I know it is possible to catch squid on the south coast of England, between Portland Bill and Penzance, during the winter months. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

Hi David,



Thanks for that info.



Do you fish for squid yourself? Do you know if recreational squid fishing is popular in the UK?



Cheers, Glen

[kinmad]

Hello there,

I live in the Uk and have taken it upon myself to see if i can hook a squid or two from the English Channel.I have caught quite a few cuttlefish on baits intended for fish.But never squid.

Although i am aware that squid do exist around the British Isles,I don't know the best times of day or night

or even if they are seasonal or resident throughout the year.

If anyone has any experience of uk squid fishing i would like to hear about it.

all the best!

[glen]

hi kinmad,



if you are catching cuttlefish I am sure you will get onto some squid soon!



hope a local can offer some advice for you soon,



all the best, Glen <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[acc00]

[quote name='kinmad' post='5891' date='Jan 13 2006, 11:56 PM']Hello there,

I live in the Uk and have taken it upon myself to see if i can hook a squid or two from the English Channel.I have caught quite a few cuttlefish on baits intended for fish.But never squid.

Although i am aware that squid do exist around the British Isles,I don't know the best times of day or night

or even if they are seasonal or resident throughout the year.

If anyone has any experience of uk squid fishing i would like to hear about it.

all the best![/quote]



I fish for them from the shore in the Dorset area, but I'm not sure whether theyre causht much further east of here. The season varies a little from year to year, but generally lasts about 6-8 weeks sometime from late september to late December, possibly longer. Find yourself a pier preferably with lights on. I have heard of them being hooked off beaches as well, but have never tried this. They are also caught on the charter boats as well, if you ask the skipper. Dusk and nightime is the time to try. I'm not sure if tide makes much difference as we have a small tidal range here anyway, but rough coloured water seems to put them off a bit. I use prawn style jigs but have seen them caught on baited jigs as well, both these tactics are described in detail elsewhere on this most useful website. The species we catch is the veined squid (loligo vulgaris) and they weigh from 1/2 lb up to 4lb possibly more, and they seem to get bigger as the season progresses. I've also had a few cuttles in the early part of the season using these tactics, so you'll probably get something worth having where you are even if the squid aren't about.

[glen]

thats great info Angus. thanks very much and welcome to the forum.



i find it interesting that the squid season in the UK is so short....over hear in australia squid can be caught all year round <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



welcome aboard,



cheers, glen <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[kinmad]

I have noticed up this end of the English channel there seems to be a big run of cuttlefish in the spring.

They become easily caught then.In fact on route to fishing marks at that time of year it's not uncommon to see hundreds of dead ones floating on the surface(bait sorted).Apparently they have spawned and then died.......if this is correct though i'm not certain.

Looks as though i picked the wrong time of year for squid though <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

Squid (Loligo) are caught mainly in ICES VI, VII, and VIII

[glen]

I found the following info relating to UK squid fisheries -

The life history of squid in UK waters is not fully known. They are thought to live mainly in deep water on the Atlantic edge of the continental shelf, and to move inshore seasonally, probably in association with the breeding cycle. Squid grow fast; Loligo reach sexual maturity 1 year after hatching. The females spawn in then-second year, when the mantle reaches a length of up to 18 cm, and then die. The males reach a length of about 30 cm at the end of the first year, and can be 50 cm long when 2 years old. The life span of squid is seldom more than 2-3 years.



Squid feed on plankton after hatching, but the adults are active predators which feed on crustaceans, fish and other squid. Although some species drift with the ocean currents, the commercially important species are active swimmers and move rapidly through the water by jet propulsion; they contract the thick muscular wall of the mantle and expel water forcibly through the syphon.





The fishery

The potential sustainable world catch of all cephalopods from all continental shelves is estimated to be 8-12 million tonnes a year; if oceanic cephalopods are included, this figure is increased somewhere between 8 and 60 times. Much of this resource is unlikely to be fished commercially, because it is thinly scattered throughout the oceans, but nevertheless the cephalopods are believed to be a major and largely untapped source of marine protein.



Squid are found in waters all round the UK, and are landed in small amounts at most ports. The most prolific catching areas are south west Scotland, the Moray Firth, Rockall and Faroe. The squid fishery fluctuates from year to year, since in such a short lived species it is so much dependent on the success or failure of a particular breeding season. The squid fishery tends to be seasonal, coincident with the movement from deep water to inshore grounds. The fishing seasons are as follows.



North Sea, Moray Firth September-November

Shetland December-February

Rockall June-August

Faroe, North west Scotland All year, but most abundant in December

South west Scotland October-December

English Channel September-December



Squid are caught in UK waters mainly as a bycatch when trawling or seining for white fish; since squid tend to swim off the bottom, the best catches are obtained with midwater trawls or high headline bottom trawls. Nevertheless a high proportion of the smaller squids can readily escape through the meshes of a typical trawl.



Jigging is a method used for capturing squid in quantity in other parts of the world; the Japanese use a mechanical jigger with lights that attract the squid towards a number of lures moving ecccntrically through the water on a power driven belt. The squid attach themselves to the lures and are hauled from the water onto the deck of the fishing vessel. The method is unlikely to be readily adaptable to UK waters.

[url="http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5948E/x5948e00.htm#Contents"]http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5948E/x5948e00.htm#Contents[/url]

[acc00]

Theres a brief article in this months Sea Angler about squidding from Weymouth, Dorset. They have an evening session afloat.



[url="http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/store/item_info.asp?sid=763&si_id=4601&page=features&custid=06@02@200645280@833591730"]http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/store/item...45280@833591730[/url]

[glen]

I found the following info regarding squid fishing around Weymouth -

The other side of the harbour entrance is known as the Pleasure Pier and can also be used for sea fishing although less space is available there. However, this is probably the best place to target squid which are inshore at this point from about the beginning of November. These need special tackle and tactics. The necessary tackle can be purchased and information usually comes free from the nearest tackle store which is the Weymouth Angling Centre in Trinity Road.

[url="http://www.weymouthangling.f9.co.uk/stone.html"]http://www.weymouthangling.f9.co.uk/stone.html[/url]



Here is the cover for the article mention above by Angus (would be great to get the full text of the article!):

Ever seen a rudd of quiddle? Roger Bayzand heads for Weymouth to try his hand at catching a quiddle, better known outside the West Country as a squid

[kinmad]

Hey yeah i read that article!

No luck with the squid yet <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' /> ,but getting one or two cuttlefish.So i,m happy <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> .

will keep plugging away.Have noticed the cuttle don't seem to care if it's daylight or night.

Thanks for the info from one and all <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':au:' />

[glen]

[color="#006600"]REVIEW OF - "EVER SEEN A RUDD OF QUIDDLE?"[/color]

by Roger Bayzand

SEA ANGLER



I have just read a great article about squid fishing around Weymouth, UK. The article was written by Roger Bayzard, who went fishing with skipper Ivan Wellington. Ivan runs fishing tours on a vessel called "Top Cat" and can be contacted on tel: 01305 823 4443. email: topcat [[at]]deepsea.co.uk



Roger explained that the traditional method of squid fishing in the Portland/Weymouth area was to troll a "dead pout" behind a rowing boat. When the fisherman felt the pull of a squid, they would gently retrieve the pout until the bait was on the surface.



The feeding squid act like a beacon, and attract others squid to the area. Such an aggregation of squid is locally known as a "rudd". And since the local name of squid is "quiddle", this is know as a "rudd of quiddle" (hence the name of the article). The squid in the rudd were traditionally captured using a gaff.



In recent times, the use of japanese style squid jigs in the UK is growing in popularity. The squid jigs are fished mid water. The locals are using Zebco squid jigs to great effect.



Roger explains that the main squid run in the Weymouth is in autumn.



The rig Roger used consisted on this trip was a 3 lure paternoster style rig with a weight at the bottom.



In the evening they caught a fair few cuttlefish. The squid were not captured until it was nearly dark.



Roger gave an explanation of the "old Portland" method of cooking squid, which requires long slow boiling. This method is now modernised by using a pressure cooker set at 15 lb. Cooking time is 20 minutes and the squid is served with butter, salt and pepper.



Thanks to our UK friends for sending me the article and thanks to Roger for sharing some information about a topic that is not widely discussed - UK squid fishing!



Cheers, Glen <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

here are some more UK squid spots i picked up from the worldseafishing forum:



- Dorset/Devon coast in Autumn



- Pleasure peir and Stone peir in Weymouth (between end of october and december)



- Oxwich (in late november in the bay near the wreck)

[fishyrob]

   



Hi. We get a lot of squid here in Brighton, East Sussex, from the marina walls. I was catching them mid may, but then we got an unusually large wind, and big seas for five days or so, and they dont seem to have come back inshore just yet. The cuttlefish will be there in large numbers any day now.



I attach a photo of one of these for verification. They do grow a lot bigger, I have heard of them going to 7lb from the marina.

[glen]

hi fishyrob, welcome to the forums.



can you catch squid all along that part of the UK coastline? Would you also catch squid in Worthing, Hove, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Bognor Regis etc?



thanks very much for the info, cheers, glen

[fishyrob]

I would imagine that they are all along the sussex coast. I wonder if they might not even catch them up as far as Dover... They are on the Brighton marina as there is a large chalk reef, where I imagine they are hunting crabs and prawns. They are a pain in the *rse when bass fishing, as they always wait until you put out your biggest prawn before taking it. The way I catch them is to then slowly wind them to the edge (you can tell a squid bite as the float goes down very slowly), where they almost always let go at the surface, and then lower the jig down, and raise steadily. 9 out of 10 times they take the jig. They seem to dissapear in the main summer, and re-appear in the autumn.

[fishyrob]

Hey Kinmad, Lost a squid at the surface last Monday, so it could be worth a go at Brighton Marina at the moment with the jigs if you are still looking to catch a UK squid. (more details in my diary on fishyrob.co.uk)

[kinmad]

Hey you know what,i think i may give it a go on the weekend.When would be the best time to target them from Brighton?The cuttle are abundant off eastbourne right now but can't seem to get them on jigs at the moment.Anyhow it's squid that i got my heart on.