The newest of the new guys..LOL

[mizm05]

So I'm the new guy in town.  I'm normally on the rivers targeting salmon/steelhead, but with the lack of rain this year, all of the runs are late coming in, so there is a lull right now.  So a buddy told me about squidding, I tried it a couple times with little success, but I like it!

 

So...I've quickly figured out it isn't as easy as the youtube videos make it look.  I've done my research and I've got adequate gear...or maybe I don't?  I'm using an 8 foot Lamiglas rod in 8-12 lb rating with a med/fast action.  Very sensitive rod, but I still have a tough time knowing whether a squid is on my jig or not.  Sometimes they bend the rod and have some weight to them, but last night I was just reeling up and had one on the jig and I never once felt him.  

 

I know one issue I need to correct is my line.  I'm running that blue power pro braid because that's what I use on the rivers and I was too lazy to spool up one of my other reels.  While I do use a 10 lb mono leader, I'm wondering if that blue line above it might be scaring off some squid.  I'll change that and see if it makes a difference.

 

For jigs, I have various sizes and colors, weighted and unweighted, all of the glow and I have a UV flashlight to charge them up.  I noticed last night that the people having the most luck were using really small jigs, but the ray of spikes was really wide...gonna look for some of those at Auburn Marine today.  I've been running 2 jigs, and had some questions...grouped below.

 

I'm also having depth issues.  I never know whether to run a cannonball weight, or just leave the lures as is.  I don't see the other guys running weights, so I haven't either.  Well, I did try last night but just ended up snagging a couple times and it cost me a couple jigs.  From what I've been told, you wanna fish the bottom and just off the bottom in most cases.  My issues seem to come from hitting bottom for too long.

 

So...I do have a couple questions even after researching and trying it a few times.

 

1)  How do you cast and jig?  How far out do you cast?  How long do you let it drop before you start jigging?  When jigging, short pops or long pulls?  Just jig it for a while, or short retrieve between jigs?  Ok....that was multiple questions, but all in the "technique" category.

 

2)  Gear:  If I want to stick with braid, should I just use a darker color braid instead of the blue color?  Or just spool up a spare reel with all mono?  Jigs are expensive, so if you know of certain ones that work really well on either Redondo or Des Moines, I'm all ears.  I'd rather not waste money on jigs that don't produce as well as others.  Should I run a corky float above my swivel?  Seems to help me know when I've hit bottom because the float will come to the top of the water once my gear is sunken down.

 

3)  Time:  Some say it doesn't matter, all the way to the other end of the spectrum of following tides, weather, sun up, sun down and a million other factors in between.  General rule I've been following is try to get there an hour before high tide and try to catch the incoming tide until a few hours after high tide.

 

4)  I guess this is also technique, but how the heck do you feel those little things and know when to keep the pressure on and bring it up?  I've only caught 4 squid in 3 outings so far.  Two I could definitely feel...the other 2 just happened to be on my jig when I was retrieving my gear.  

 

I think that's it for now.  If anybody is willing to show me the ropes, I'm a quick learner.  I'm an experienced fisherman, just new to squid.  I'm more than willing to put in my time and I'm a nice guy to hang out with so we'll have some fun.  Looks like Redondo and Des Moines are going to be my two "home" piers.  Which brings up one last question.  If you get to Des Moines before 10pm when the parking lot closes, but stay past that, can you still get out of the parking lot?  I would hope you wouldn't be stuck in there until 5am.

 

Thanks all, and Merry Christmas!  See you guys out there...I'll be one of the few white guys!  LOL...not racist.  In fact every time I've been out, I'm in awe while I watch and try to learn from the Asian guys.  Simply amazing to see how they do it, which I still don't fully understand because I believe I'm doing pretty much the same stuff they're doing.  But obviously I need to tweak something.