23-12-2006, 01:04 AM
Hi Gents,
back from the the last of this years survey (another 10 days to do in the new year). Hopefully the weather will remain as good as it is at the moment (high pressure, light winds, sunny and very cold).
We have had a result! Not massive amounts of squid but on two seperate nights in very different areas, at anchor and under lights I think I might have shown that commercial handlining for squid at night might be possible in the uk.
On Monday night, after drifting over an area in Falmouth Bay that produced a mixed bag of squid (both L.Vulgaris and Forbesi) through the day, we dropped anchor and fished into the night under the lights. Through the sunset and into full dark we had some steady catch rates on rods, after full dark I started using handlines, 3 with 2 jags on each, from around 2000hrs to midnight I caught probably 5 or 6 times the amount of squid as the other 3 rods combined, mostly in a 2hr period.
On the Tuesday morning we lifted the anchor and steamed east where we conducted three drifts from which the largest squid to date was caught (a 51cm L.Forbesi specimen of about 3.5kg). Several other lines connected into very big squid but were unable to bring them of the seabed.
We then steamed further east again ending up at anchor east of Plymouth harbour on ground we had no information for. Not knowing what to expect I was delighted when my first drop on my first line (I used three again) produced a L.Vulgaris, again I caught several times more on the handlines than those on the rods.
Time off now for Christmas and the New year, I have a plentyful supply of fine Czech Pilsner and abottle of Danish schnapps in the freezer, hopefully my hands will have healed (damn those jags are sharp) by the time we return to it in January. Probably around the 10th, in time for the neap tide, when we hope to explore the deeper water to the east of Brixham, an area we know the trawlers are catching around 250-400kg of squid a day.
Happy un-Christmas to any pagans following this thread.
Jon
back from the the last of this years survey (another 10 days to do in the new year). Hopefully the weather will remain as good as it is at the moment (high pressure, light winds, sunny and very cold).
We have had a result! Not massive amounts of squid but on two seperate nights in very different areas, at anchor and under lights I think I might have shown that commercial handlining for squid at night might be possible in the uk.
On Monday night, after drifting over an area in Falmouth Bay that produced a mixed bag of squid (both L.Vulgaris and Forbesi) through the day, we dropped anchor and fished into the night under the lights. Through the sunset and into full dark we had some steady catch rates on rods, after full dark I started using handlines, 3 with 2 jags on each, from around 2000hrs to midnight I caught probably 5 or 6 times the amount of squid as the other 3 rods combined, mostly in a 2hr period.
On the Tuesday morning we lifted the anchor and steamed east where we conducted three drifts from which the largest squid to date was caught (a 51cm L.Forbesi specimen of about 3.5kg). Several other lines connected into very big squid but were unable to bring them of the seabed.
We then steamed further east again ending up at anchor east of Plymouth harbour on ground we had no information for. Not knowing what to expect I was delighted when my first drop on my first line (I used three again) produced a L.Vulgaris, again I caught several times more on the handlines than those on the rods.
Time off now for Christmas and the New year, I have a plentyful supply of fine Czech Pilsner and abottle of Danish schnapps in the freezer, hopefully my hands will have healed (damn those jags are sharp) by the time we return to it in January. Probably around the 10th, in time for the neap tide, when we hope to explore the deeper water to the east of Brixham, an area we know the trawlers are catching around 250-400kg of squid a day.
Happy un-Christmas to any pagans following this thread.
Jon