Stonington, CT 2018 Squidders Unite!

[RustyMorr]

Since a new season is about to begin, this is a new forum! 

 

Welcome and good luck...

 

RustyMorr

[alaskanaturally]

Since a new season is about to begin, this is a new forum! 

 

Welcome and good luck...

 

RustyMorr

Good idea Rusty! But why don't we include reports from Galilee also?

[alaskanaturally]

A friend fished at Stonington on Tuesday night. Put in a good effort but got nothing.

[lasker31]

I put in an hour on Thursday early evening (mid to high incoming tide) right after sunset. Despite attracting a crazy big ball of bait fish I didn't see a single squid. The 10 knot wind and showers made for a quick night. I'm going to try again tonight sometime after 10pm when the winds are supposed to die down. The ocean surf has bee up the last couple days so hopefully this will not drive the squid offshore.

 

I did speak to a couple commercial fisherman (deckhands) on Thursday night who had just come back from a squid run with poor results. They said they were switching to shrimp on the next run (Royal Red Shrimp aka Stonington Reds). They said last November their boat had one of its best Fall Squid halls in awhile. I was still spearfishing in November and hadn't even thought about squid fishing, oh well.

 

Oh yeah, when I went surfing friday afternoon I saw a dead porgy on the beach. 

[lasker31]

Just got back from my 1.5 hour attempt at catching squid tonight. Calm conditions, lots of bait, and no squid seen nor caught.

[alaskanaturally]

Just got back from my 1.5 hour attempt at catching squid tonight. Calm conditions, lots of bait, and no squid seen nor caught.

Hopefully, with all the bait around they'll show up soon. Thinking of an experience we had there a few years ago. There were about 6 or 7 of us fishing. From dark to mid-might, Martin caught only one squid and that was it for all who were squidding. At mid-night, the cephalopods  really turned on. In an hour we got about 30. So who knows.

 

We'll be passing through next week and give a try.

[Reel Time]

I've heard the same report from a commercial out of Point Judith.  We will be hitting the mooring field on Friday, if nothing, we'll motor over to Misquamicut where we've had pretty good early season luck.  Keep the reports coming.  I should be able to post on Saturday with our results.

[lasker31]

I fished at the dock from 9-11 last night. Caught one in the first five minutes and the guy next to me caught one just before me and then nothing. On review the outgoing tide was probably a poor choice but going out at 2 in the morning is a serious commitment for me. A handful of others showed up and tried for an hour with no luck. Did see three school stripers swim by which was not reassuring. Early on I had talked to a captain of a commercial boat that was heading out for squid but said most of the Stonington fleet was shrimp fishing. 

[alaskanaturally]

I fished at the dock from 9-11 last night. Caught one in the first five minutes and the guy next to me caught one just before me and then nothing. On review the outgoing tide was probably a poor choice but going out at 2 in the morning is a serious commitment for me. A handful of others showed up and tried for an hour with no luck. Did see three school stripers swim by which was not reassuring. Early on I had talked to a captain of a commercial boat that was heading out for squid but said most of the Stonington fleet was shrimp fishing. 

Thanks for the report. Hey one squid is one squid. Hopefully, an omen of what's to come. We'll be there tomorrow night. If we're not too wiped out by the traffic across the GW and the 400 mile drive, will give it a go. Looks like the high tide is around 8. So we should have a little bit of it before it turns around. Will report when we can get online. Haven't figured out how to do that through the cell phone.

[Gilligan]

If you have a laptop, you can get free wifi at any of the fast food parking lots. Wendy's, McD's, etc. I use them often while travelling. It's free and easy. Good luck up there!! By the way you can avoid the heavy NYC traffic by taking 287 north from 95 (I believe it is exit 10 on the Jersey Pike), crossing the Tappan Zee back to 95 north again at the CT/NY line. Truckers call it the "go around" and use that route often when traffic is heavy through the NYC area. It is 26 miles longer than going straight up 95 but is often faster with less tie-ups. No tolls on 287 except the Tappan Zee which is 5 bucks compared to the George Washington which is $15.

[lasker31]

Me and AlaskaNaturally fished the town dock from 10-12:30 with zero in the bucket. Saw a couple small schools around midnight but they weren't interested in jigs.

 

Oh well.

 

Frances Fleet mentioned doing a squid trip soon depending on weather.

[Fluknator]

Me and AlaskaNaturally fished the town dock from 10-12:30 with zero in the bucket. Saw a couple small schools around midnight but they weren't interested in jigs.

 

Oh well.

 

Frances Fleet mentioned doing a squid trip soon depending on weather.

caught 3 Loligo in new london thu night

[alaskanaturally]

Before that we tried at Galilee for an hour with no results. It was during the day and at the bottom of the tide. Not the best conditions.


Thanks for everything lasker. It was fun eventhough we didn't get anything.

[alaskanaturally]

Stonington from 7-11 last night. 4 others there. No hits no runs no errors. None caught none seen.

[fishermonkey]

Went on Frances Fleet Friday night for squid... got 25... (less than quarter bucket)... couple next to me got over half a bucket... 

[lasker31]

Fished a pier in the Borough last night (not the town dock, a friends dad has a slip) from 10:30-1:30. Crystal clear water and calm conditions gave view to thousands of squid. I caught naught a single cephlapod.  Regardless I found it amazing as you could see them so well that the color changes were visible. You could actually see a squid grab a minnow and eat it. I tried every jig in my possession (which isn't saying much). Weighted/unweighted off the bottom/on the surface Lights on/lights off. A decent sized striper (probably around 30") came through and squid were literally swimming around it. All in all it was a cool experience but frustrating non the less.

 

I definitely think a cast net would have caught squid. Not thick enough for a dip net though.

 

Probably my last try for squid this spring, Onwards to fin fish. I haven't done the fall before so I may give this one a try.

[BillG]

Fished a pier in the Borough last night (not the town dock, a friends dad has a slip) from 10:30-1:30. Crystal clear water and calm conditions gave view to thousands of squid. I caught naught a single cephlapod.  Regardless I found it amazing as you could see them so well that the color changes were visible. You could actually see a squid grab a minnow and eat it. I tried every jig in my possession (which isn't saying much). Weighted/unweighted off the bottom/on the surface Lights on/lights off. A decent sized striper (probably around 30") came through and squid were literally swimming around it. All in all it was a cool experience but frustrating non the less.

 

I definitely think a cast net would have caught squid. Not thick enough for a dip net though.

 

Probably my last try for squid this spring, Onwards to fin fish. I haven't done the fall before so I may give this one a try.

 

Sometimes, that happens. That said, often, this is where the slowest sinking, smallest possible jig works where others fail. Something like the Martinetti Micro Prawn in a 1.0 size comes to mind.

[Gilligan]

Bill is right, sometimes the tiny jigs work better when the squid are finicky. I like the little Yamashita Naory RH in size 1.5 for such situations. Of course sometimes different colors and sink rates also do the trick with any jig. The Naorys are costly but in my opinion perhaps the best action jig available, and usually the smaller jigs need to be used with really light line, four pound flouro is my choice. I also have a couple pacific style jigs with a very wide hook spread and I sometimes use them to snag the finicky ones when they are thick and not too deep. Sometimes when they won't hit if you try an hour later they will start hitting, often when the tide starts to roll.

[alaskanaturally]

Adaptability: the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions.


We’re relatively new to squid fishing. Have only been at it for the past three years in the US. If we learned one thing in that time, it is that you have to be flexible. Well, not really because we see some folks using the same rigs, the same jigs, the same jigging style and they do appear to catch their share of squid. They found a method that works for them and they stick with it.


For us, it is more of game: attempting to figure out what is working best at a particular time. This is a multivariate problem. Many of the factors are know but there are probably a lot that are unknown. The obvious ones are water clarity, water color, Sun angle, jig color, jig size, jig style and of course presentation. The most obvious is: are there squid in the water you are casting into and if so how many per m3 ( i.e. their density)?


Thought I’d have a little fun and develop a probability model of whether or not you’ll get a hit on any particular cast.


Ps=ῤd (Σ(ῤ1-ῤn)/n)=ῤd(ῤw+ῤwc+ῤc1+ῤjc+……………………ῤn)/n)


where: Ps=the probability that a squid will hit on a particular cast, ῤd=squid density, ῤw=The water clarity factor, ῤcl=lure color…..ect.


The equation is a summation of all the factors. If there are n factors involved then the equation is divided by n.

Of course this equations assumes that all the factors are equally weighted.


Hope this doesn’t offend anyone and no one takes it seriously. Just having a bit of fun while not catching squid. However, we know that it does pay to try different things. The last night we were at GIB had to leave early. Only had about an hour and half. After catching a few on bottom rigs with a sinker, they appear to stop biting. Changed over unweighted jigs. The pink ones caught squid but not blue. So that was also changed to an orange with caught well. We got 24 nice specimens in the time we had.


Ruta wants wants everyone to know that this is Martin’s gem. She doesn’t understand it.

[JANZ]

I'm with Ruta on that one.