Egi Squid fishing technique

[Bartnmax]

In my experience I have found that EGI methods of fast jigging can help attract cala attention and make them a little more active but very rarely does it actually result in a hook up.

When the Japanese use that agressive style of jigging it's not so much the jigging that gets the hit from the squid but the drop.
The jigging attaracts the squid's attention & the squid then tend to hit when the egi is dropped.
Just jigging without allowing sufficent drop time will often result in no hookups.
The trick is to keep contact with the dropping egi so as to feel the hit without makiiing the dropping egi seem un-natural.

[frozenpod]

True but the jigging EGI style still results in a relatively fast retreave.

Cala's most of the time don't have the speed or the interest to catch it.

[Bartnmax]

True but the jigging EGI style still results in a relatively fast retreave.

Cala's most of the time don't have the speed or the interest to catch it.

Disagree strongly with this one.
I reckon there's more than ample evidence that Calas most definitely are caught using this technique with regular & consistent results.
They simply don't try to catch the jig as it's being ripped & they aren't meant to. The ripping only attracts their attention & get's them fired up to strike, it's the vital drop back when the squid actually striked. That agreesive ripping style only results in a 1+meter retrieve before the drop back occurs. The first rip brings the egi off the bottom, whilst the 2nd/3rd actually make it swerve from side to side. So the actual distance the jig is retrieved is not all that long at all. The strike comes during the 3-10 second drop back (depending on dept of water & sink rate of egi, etc). The squid aren't trying to catch the egi on the retrieve & they aren't meant to.

Also, as far as squid not having the speed to catch it is concerned, squid actually swim faster than any of the invertrabrits. They are known to achieve speeds in excess of 20-30kph over short distances, so they certainly do have all the speed they need.

Bill.

[cheaterparts]

True but the jigging EGI style still results in a relatively fast retreave.

Cala's most of the time don't have the speed or the interest to catch it.

Also, as far as squid not having the speed to catch it is concerned, squid actually swim faster than any of the invertrabrits. They are known to achieve speeds in excess of 20-30kph over short distances, so they certainly do have all the speed they need.

Bill.

jusy watch how quick they move up to a bait or jig these fish are not slow

its easy enough to catch squid while trolling weed beds with a deep diving HB while trolling for snook
they are quick enough to catch a HB and there is no stoping the HB for a squid to catch it

[frozenpod]

Which direction do the move quickly?

I have seen squid move very quickly hood first generally away from objects squirting water and sometimes ink but head first they move quite slow.

[Bartnmax]

Fact is that the agreesive style of jigging was actually pioneered by the Japanese for catching calamari.
Hard to argue with over 400 years of experience.
Again - it aint the agressive rip that hooks the cala, it's the slow drop back when they strike.
It doesn't matter one bit how fast that egi is ripped as long as it attracts the squid's attention, it's when the egi is slowly dropped back that they will then hit.
They don't hit it when it's being ripped.
The whole idea that cala aren't fast enough to catch it is completely wrong.
They are amply fast enough to catch an egi slowly sinking for 3-10 seconds.

[frozenpod]

Bill I am well aware they catch the jig when it is sinking, this has never been debated.

From what I have seen the cala are slow.

One of the reason they now use plastic jigs compared with the wood jigs is the plastic jigs sink slower thus easier for the squid to catch.

Either way the above 2 cents I posted is what I have found works best, base on my experience. If it works for others great and if it doesn't work for you thats all good too.

[Bartnmax]

Bill I am well aware they catch the jig when it is sinking, this has never been debated.

From what I have seen the cala are slow.

One of the reason they now use plastic jigs compared with the wood jigs is the plastic jigs sink slower thus easier for the squid to catch.

Either way the above 2 cents I posted is what I have found works best, base on my experience. If it works for others great and if it doesn't work for you thats all good too.

Not quite right ,mate.

The plastic ones can actually sink faster than wood depending on the surface design. Some are designed to sink slowly (shallow water designs), whilst others (designed for deeper water) can have much faster sink rates than is possible using wood. Plastic does not have the natural bouyancy that wood does. It need to have air pockets built in to create bouancy. If a jig were made purely of solid hard plastic then it would sink fairly rapidly in comparison to wood. Plastic is also easier to get very smooth surface finshes on than wood. Wood takes a lot more final polishing to get the same quaility of finish.

But sink rate is not the only criteria with regard to jigs. It's creating the correct action that is most dictated to with regard to design. If you compare say the Gancraft 'Egijya' with it's cloth covering to the Gancraft 'Uo-Jya' with it's sleek surface finish, they are obviously meant to work differently under varying conditions.
The Egijya will offer greater hyro-resistance & hence move in a wider swerve pattern, whereas the 'Uo-Jya' will move faster & sink more rapidly.

The main reason plastics are used is the same with regard to the majority of products used today - it's cheaper & easier to manufacturer. Calamari are definitely not slow creatures. They can swim surprisingly fast.
They are oportunitistic though in that they won't bother with something that's not to their liking.
If it don't look right to em they often won't touch it. Other times they might 'taste' it using their candles, but may still not bite. Often these types of explorations are missed by a lot of anglers that just assume their jig is caight up in weed & hence don' strike when they should. Also, you'll find that many larger calas won't bother touching smaller jigs, purely because they ain't worth the energy expenditure. Yet a smaller cala will definitely have a go at a large sized jig. So what this means is that most people will 9 times out of 10 have better success with 3.0-3.5-4.0-4.5 sized jigs as opposed to using the smaller 2.0-2.5 size jigs.

You are right in that arrow squid are usually far more agressive than calas, but calas are anything but slow when it comes to getting a feed.

[frozenpod]

Hi Bill, good post lots of good info there. Regarding the speed I have never seen squid go fast head first. Best case when they are super agressive just after spawning they will go at the jig sort of side on hood first then stop and do a 90 deg turn then go head first to grab the jig.

This is not a common occurance in my experience. Days like this it would matter what jigs you use or approach. You would get a squid a cast or worst case ever second cast.

I haven't seen the deep diving jigs in Australia but I bought 2 when in japan earlier this year. I have tried them and they are well suited to fast current applications but they are probably of little use in PPB.

I didn't do any back to back testing with wood jigs but they are certainly heavier and faster sinking compared with the standard plastic jigs.

[Bartnmax]

Hi Bill, good post lots of good info there. Regarding the speed I have never seen squid go fast head first. Best case when they are super agressive just after spawning they will go at the jig sort of side on hood first then stop and do a 90 deg turn then go head first to grab the jig.

This is not a common occurance in my experience. Days like this it would matter what jigs you use or approach. You would get a squid a cast or worst case ever second cast.

I haven't seen the deep diving jigs in Australia but I bought 2 when in japan earlier this year. I have tried them and they are well suited to fast current applications but they are probably of little use in PPB.

I didn't do any back to back testing with wood jigs but they are certainly heavier and faster sinking compared with the standard plastic jigs.

Yeah squid in general don't travel 'head first'. Usually the travel 'hood first' into a position where they can attack.
All they do in life is eat, breed, & be eaten so they're pretty good at procuring food & wasting the least amount of energy to do it. Males generally only mate once in their lifetime whereas females may mate up to 4 times.
They usually only live for around 1 year & genrerally double their weight/size roughly every 20 days, so they don't muck about doing anything they don't need to.

Most people over here have really only discovered 'Egi' fishing over the last 5 years or so, even thoiugh they may have been squid fishing for years, so generally 95% of it is still carried out in reltively shallow water.
However, there are a few people working the deeper waters & starting to get in touch with what's required there, & we're now starting to see more specialist deep water 'Egi' appearing in tackle shops.
The sink rate is also dictated by the weight that's attached to the Egi as well as it's design. You can get reletively heavy smaller Egi & comparable lightweight larger Egi. We're really pretty well spoiled now as far as tackle is concerned. It's now more a matter of learning to use the gear properly under a variety of conditions.