First Attempt At Squidding!

[Squidmark]

Hi Squidders



Hi and compliments on such a comprehensive and useful site!



I went for my first attempt at squidding last night in Sydney (from the land, not a jetty) and was actually just happy that a few squid actually turned up. It was an odd night because I started at 11:30pm and finished at 3:45am so it was long after sunset and long before sunrise.



Here were my observations:



* Squid had no interest in my cheap Jarvis Walker jigs (tried pink, 3.5")

* Squid (and fish) followed my $13 Yakamito j-series jig (pink) but that's all they did. They followed it around but never struck it.

* I can't jig. I ended up just doing a retrieve but even then I have no idea how fast that should be.

* I had a seperate rod rigged up with prawns and as I was reeling it in a good-sized squid actually hooked onto it but fell off. I lowered the prawn back into the water a second later and the squid went for it again. Fell off again and dissappeared. Squid are dumb!



A few questions:

* Has anyone used or even heard of Yakamito jigs? Whilst it got their attention none tried to hit it (I could see them).

* I thought perhaps the squid weren't hungry but the squid that took the prawn made me think that I would have been better off getting a spike and just putting a prawn on it.

* How fast is a slow-retrieve?

* When you jig from a level-shoreline, do you raise the rod and then immediately retrieve the slack line? I can help but think with soft-plastics and jigs that a slow sinking fake-bait gives the fish/squid enough time to get close enough to touch/smell and realise that it's not food.



I'm keen to get out there again and reduce the number of variables but I think in the meantime I'm going to buy a Yo-Zuri.



Cheers

[davidbloop]

When I'm jigging from a shoreline I normally cast it as far as I can, so that the retrieve covers a large amount of ground.



First of all, I try and judge how long it takes the jig to sink in the water conditions. Even if you test it in a shallower area than you are casting you can normally estimate how long it will take to get near the bottom from the speed it sinks.



After that I cast, retrieve the slack line, wait for however many seconds until it gets near the bottom. Now this method that I use I don't normally see other people using but it seems to work for me. I then flick the rod up until I feel the tension of the line. This flicks the jig up a small amount. I then give it about 1-2 seconds then give it another big flick up. I use this method because my theory is that if it is a real prawn, it wouldn't be able to swim that fast over a big distance. 2 flicks instead of 1 would make it look like its swimming to get away, taking a breather then pouncing off again.



That said 1 big flick does still work.



Sometimes if the water is deep I go as many as 3-4 flicks in order to get the jig back up to about 2ft beneath the surface. I then reel in the slack line and repeat process until the jig is either hooked or makes it back to shore.







I use this method for almost all squidding applications, including from an anchored boat and from jetties. If the boat is drifting though, you can just leave it in the water <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':oops' />

[frog]

When squid follow the jig but wont strike 1 thing I like to do is open the bail arm and let the jig sink down a metre or so the just tighten up the line. it looks like the jig is going for cover so alot of the time the squid will grab it on the way down. This also applies when you have dropped a squid.

[Squidmark]

Thanks guys. Plenty of things for me to try. I was being lazy after a while and just doing a slow retrieve but in hindsight I probably wasn't giving the squid a chance to sum it up and make a move.



I'm keen to try marinating it in a bag of prawns too! I'll let you know how it goes.