2017 Rhode Island Squid Report

[BillG]

 

 

i'll plan on staying far away from GI causeway when do you find that the squid fishing normally is pretty good from the causeway? as for the fish finder, do the squid normally run in big schools? like is it going to look like a giant bait ball? can you see them from looking into the water with a flash light normally or are they normally more near the bottom? Thanks for the help!

 

I've only jigged from Fort Adams, Goat Island and on the Navy Base. Generally, I find that the best time tends to be from the week before to the week after the full moon. Sometimes, they come in in April. Sometimes they aren't in until early June. If the water is too cold, it's sometimes still worth going out. You might find some squid, but even if you don't, you might find some sea herring, which are great smoked or fried. Just make sure to pick up a sabiki rig or two, just in case. When they come in, they move in pods of 10s, 100s, or even 1000s. Most will say that they only feed when they are stuck to the bottom. For whatever reason, they will sometimes move to the surface and you will see hundreds of them in the lights but they will refuse to hit a jig at that point. I haven't had luck with this, but I have read that a small (1.5 size) slow sinking jig in white will still get hits when they're on the surface. As far as what they look like, I've never seen them on a finder. That's just what I've heard. It seems that every fish finder I have used has been poorly installed, because they cut out at 3 knots and trigger a fish detection on clutter. One day, I'll get a nice boat and a good finder and mount, tune, and adjust it properly and learn how to use it properly. But today is not that day.