Egi Squid fishing technique

[frozenpod]

I don't know where most other people fish for squid but most of the squid fishing we do is offshore in 5-20m of water.

In the deeper water we use 4.0 jigs and often add an extra weight to get them down in the deeper water. The deeper diving jigs should help for this application hence why I bought them. We have also caught cuttle fish in the deep really rocky areas as well.

Aside from specically squid fishing we pretty much always have a jig out whilst drifting for flathead as well. Just put it out and leave the rod in a rod holder, whilst we don't catch many this way (compared with working the jig), we still average to snag 2-3 in a day. Hence working the jig to some degree certainly produces much better results.

[ecofreak]

It should be noted that a Calamari can move at speeds of up to 55km per hour and that a 35cm hood squid can pump more than 60 liters of water a minute and create the same thrust as a 35lb minn kota, they are incredibly fast, even head first they can move in short bursts up to 20 km per hour, one of the benifits of not having restrictive bones in your body and live in an environment that allows for greater flexibility. I have trolled for squid using an alternate technique taught to me from some friends in Japan. Squid are very fast.

The fast action of lures that the Japanese use was designed to catch Calamari squid not Arrow squid, Arrow squid are not as cammon in Japan as many would think, however, plenty of Aori squid or commonly known as Californian squid that you buy in a box for snapper bait are caught using light egi techniques which is pretty much a 2.5 or smaller sized jig fished the same way you would a larger jig for Calamari.

I fish my egi in varied water depths from less than 1 meter through to about 35 meters and all with an aggressive action only choosing slow models in the shallow water and fast sink in the deep. There are hundreds of deep water jigs in our market and have been for some time, eco gear were the first to get on the tip run style jigs with the flash and dart max jigs over 10 years ago, since then you now have Gan Craft deep's, evergreen deep, sumizoku Haramitsu deep, Yamashita DD Spiders and the list goes on. There is not much you can not get here design wise that you can not get in Japan, color and shape wise there is heaps you can not get here but from my trips to many Japanese Tackle stores and various tackle shows overseas we can get our hands on the same style gear.

Timber jigs were only stopped in production because they are not consistent, some sink fast and some sink slow, when they are water logged they are heavy and fresh from the box they are light, so the varied sink rates were not reliable, they also suffered a lot from damage wet wood not very hardy. This and manufacturing price was the only factor in why they stopped making wooden jigs, the only reason I know that is the guy who used to make the wooden jigs told me that last year when I was in his factory south of Osaka.

When you learn the correct methods used by a violent jerk of the rods or a more aggressive yank of the rod you can slow it down as much a you want or speed it up as fast as you want, generally it just depends on the action you want imparted on your egi sharp and tight dart or slow and wide. I take my squid fishing pretty seriously and have spent considerable hours with the companies that make the lures and the guys who build the gear to suit the style in various countries around the world, I use various actions imparted by the rod to catch squid but the method of getting the jig to dart never changes and the whole point of the design of the jig is to get it to dart with a violent jerk of the rod.

[Bartnmax]

Hey Paul.
Great to hear from you again mate.
More excellent info there. Always enjoy readin your postin's.
Thanks for sharing mate.

Bill.

[frozenpod]

Great post, very good info there but I am still not having success with agressive methods.

After several squiding trips we are either working the jigs incorrectly or the squid were not all that interested.

I will keep at it but I am yet to be convinced.

[ecofreak]

Great post, very good info there but I am still not having success with agressive methods.

After several squiding trips we are either working the jigs incorrectly or the squid were not all that interested.

I will keep at it but I am yet to be convinced.

I will have to get you out on my boat one day to see if we can fine tune your action to be more productive and see what it is you are doing or not doing for this particular style not to work for you!

[CarlG]

Great post, very good info there but I am still not having success with agressive methods.

After several squiding trips we are either working the jigs incorrectly or the squid were not all that interested.

I will keep at it but I am yet to be convinced.

I will have to get you out on my boat one day to see if we can fine tune your action to be more productive and see what it is you are doing or not doing for this particular style not to work for you!

I`ve taken most of what Paul has written on board, and I find it works great for me. I do most of my squid fishing at Sorrento, so I have to alter the method to suit the big tidal currents down there, but on the whole, I`m a big believer.
I definately agree about the speed of the buggers, jeez they`re like greased lightning in any direction.
If you`ve any doubts about the action of the jig, and the power required to really make it work well, just chuck it over the side of the pier, let it drop down, then try pulling it up through the water with different types of action. When you really jerk the rod hard, the jig moves really erratically, if you just pull up without much effort, the jig doesn`t have the same erratic motion.

[frozenpod]

Great post, very good info there but I am still not having success with agressive methods.

After several squiding trips we are either working the jigs incorrectly or the squid were not all that interested.

I will keep at it but I am yet to be convinced.

I will have to get you out on my boat one day to see if we can fine tune your action to be more productive and see what it is you are doing or not doing for this particular style not to work for you!

Thank you for the great offer, I would love too.