Open Ocean Squidding?

[woodshooligan]

Hi guys,



I recently got into squidding in Woods Hole, Mass and after some practice ended up catching about as much as the regulars down there. I'm out in the middle of the Atlantic (literally: http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=8581) for a bit over a month right now (on a research cruise), and started to notice squid during our measurement stations.I didn't bring any of my squid gear on board, but some of the crew are letting me use their rods and there are a few of the 'commercial style' lures (that I have had no success with in Woods Hole) on board, 1 glow-in-the-dark one and a few white ones. The thinnest line I have is about 12 lbs mono. I wish I could go out and get a few yo-zuris and 6 lbs test line (though there are some REALLY big suckers I see next to the ship at night when we turn on our working lights).



What's the basic technique here? I've been trying the same as from the dock - Throw out a bit, let sink, hit it about every 15s or hit it as soon as you feel a hit from a squid. So far I've had absolutely no success and only a few squid inspecting it and then swimming away uninterested.



Should I try to modify the lures in any way? maybe add some eyes? Maybe paint it pink? <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



Any ideas would be appreciated, it's fun to go squidding while I'm on watch, but it'd be more fun to actually catch a few.



Thanks

[Gilligan]

Hi, I don't know about where you are, but I have caught many squid 50-70 miles out from the Vinyard at night while pursuing swords. We got bored sometimes at night, would put on the stern light and jig squid with two foot tubes and all we had for jigs were the weighted treble hooks one uses for snagging bunker. I'm sure there are squid available all over the seven seas, but many will be too big for 6lb test. There is a reason you see so many squid jigs in the 5" and larger range available for sale on the internet, you need the larger jigs for the larger squid. Jigging two foot tubes can be great fun, and we used to get a bit drunk and have squid fights by pulling them up fast then pointing them at each other and let me tell you, they really ink when they're that big, I think you may just need to go below the ones you see. We caught them with sometimes over 75 feet of line out. I think they don't see as well deep as they do near the surface, and can be more easily fooled. I am also sure you must have seen times at the dock where surface squid ignored all jigs, but if you went deep you would hook up. Keep us posted about your deeeep water squidding!!

[Gilligan]

Oops!! Forgot to mention that the large Humbolt squid in the Pacific are often jigged between 200 and 400 feet deep!! Thirty pound test on standard boat rods works fine for large deep squid. If you are golng real deep you may need to add a little lead to your jig or put some below it. Go deep when way offshore.