Hi guys. Just want your advise, how do you rig your squid jig? I have some fluoro stick where do you put them on? (Close to the jig ??)

Also what's the best time to catch em?

I went to rye pier yesterday I saw few squids underneath the pier and around but they didn't take the jig. Water was clear and calm. Thought I must have done something wrong.

What I did was I put the jig straight on the line with a clipper.

Thanks heaps

I've had some good success down that way on the squid recently, got 5 at blairgowrie pier on sunday and have been doing well at portsea pier before then!

I simply clip my squid jig onto a clip swivel (for easy changes between jigs/colours) The clip is attached to 4lb-8lb fluorocarbon leader (about 1m) which is attached via an albright knot to 6lb braid!

Simply been casting out towards the weedy areas and allowing it to sink before slowly retrieving with a few twitches of the rod on the way in! Occasionally the squid have been smashing the jig a fair way out from the pier, other times they will follow it all the way in til the jig is virtually under the pier! When this happens, i open the bail arm and let the jig sink slowly, the squid usually nail it on its way back down, then you simply have to wind it up, just be careful of the squirt, saw a lady get inked in the face the other day, was pretty hilarious

Also I have found that a lot of the times when squid are just hanging below the pier, they aren't really feeding and will be very hard to catch, not sure if others have experienced this at all, I also don't attach any glow sticks on my line! I just rub on some Ultrabite gel which contains pheromones and glittery specks!

I have had best results on a 3.0 daiwa "clicker jig" in the pink (rainbow) colour, and a yamashita, size 2.5 in an orange colour!

Hope that helps in some way mate, just the way I do it, i'm sure others will have their own techniques that work for them! Just try to watch what the locals do and copy, they fish the piers there everyday and know what they are doing!

Everything Juz said is spot on.
However as for the squid next to the pier, you will find they are either attracted to the lights ( if at night time) or they have been attracted by other fish being reeled up to the pier.

These guys can be caught fairly easily. Chuck a jig out BEHIND the squid, and try and retrieve it slowly past them. At firs t they will probably dart away, but then let it sink a bit, and they should come back and smash it.

Cheers

Awesome advice from Juz. I’m a little different. I use loop knots so i make my leader about a rods length because i slowly cut bits off for jig changes. I only ever use glow beads for bait rigs, never jigs but each to their own. You can get glowing jigs or there is an egi spray that glows (30 bucks though). Supposed to be one of the best sprays though. I prefer quick rips and long drop time for squid. They take this on most days but sometimes smaller more subtle rips are required. My dad holds his rod side on close to the water with small rips and he does well. I haven’t used anything but Harimitsu for ages and won’t fish anything else unless i have to. Everyone has their own opinion and favourite jig but for me these jigs are simply the best. Use some sort of spray. I use stimulate but have been told that the Egimax wipes the floor with it. There is a night one and a day one but pretty expensive like i was saying. Good luck.

Yer forgot to mention to switch up the retrieve until you find one that is working for you! Definitely try the quick rips through the water as Craig suggested, has accounted for some good squid, especially at portsea pier!

I also forgot to mention that in deeper water ( or when the squid are holding deeper) you can use a paternoster set up. Have a small sinker attached to 1-3 feet ( depending on how deep you are fishing) of the lightest line you have ( in case it gets snagged you will lose the sinker and not the jig). On your main line have a clip swivel hanging off the end. Attach the sinker line to the first eye of the swivel, as well as the main line, and then just clip the jig onto the swivel. Some people like to have some line ( 5-10cm_ hanging off the clip swivel and then attach your jig, But i have found it doesn't really matter, especially when using fluorocarbon leaders.

Cheers

Thanks guys will try all of the methods mentioned here. That egi sprays sound interesting. I'll find out more about it at my local tackle shop.

I am goin back there this friday night but the weather says it will be raining little bit.

What sort of weather ciondition is the best to catch them? Heard they only bite on calm clear water ?

Thanks again

Edit: one more thing, what does "quick rips" mean? How do we do that?

Weather wise, I haven't really found a better or worse time to catch squid, although the best session I've ever had at blairgowrie pier was right before a storm was coming, between the 2 of us we caught about 16 in 40 mins before we got blown away!

I have caught them in choppy and calm conditions, although I do prefer calm and clear only because I can follow the jig and can see if any squid are following it as it approaches the pier/rocks!

Quick rips basically just refers to quick jerks of the rod at intervals which allows the jig to quickly "rip" through the water column vertically and allowed to drop back down again towards the bottom! I'm assuming that's sort of what the other guys meant too, but that's my understanding of it!!

Hi there,

in SA all the pro's use YoZuris. They put them on handlines and chuck them out and let them sink to the bottom and leave them. When the line goes tight, they retrieve their squid.

I use this method sometimes obviously it doesnt work if youre drifting.

I never use a clip or swivel of any kind just flourocarbon striaght onto the jig. Only ever yozuris. This outfishies cheapy jigs without flourocarbon on swivels approximately 10-1.

cheers
fanto

One thing to add, you will increase you catch rate if you let the jig hit the bottom between rips, you will also lose more jigs. Squid like to pick it up off the bottom.

I normally do pretty well on cheapy and expensive jigs, make sure cheapy ones are similar shape/balance to the expensive jigs. Prefer neutral browns/purples mostly but most colours work.

Good Luck,

Yobs

Yeah, if you are using clips for easy change of Egi lures, use the tiniest you can find.

If I am not wrong, G Factor and myself are using Decoy round snaps. The size 00 ones are rated 30lb! Don't know how true is that but everytime I snag a jig, the leader parted at the knot where I tie to the snap. The snap never opens up.

Small snaps will not inhibit the natural action of the jigs.

yep dogtooth, I love the decoys, use them for all my lure fishing. They are strong as hell, have never had a fish open one up

its worth using a landing net when you get them to the pier - first the jig can pull out of the squids flesh and more so if you try to lift it out of the water

the squid it will in most cases squirt its ink as soon as its in the net so by keeping the squid in the net in the water a few seconds it will unload it's ink
saving you or others from at time quite a mess

the last thing with the ink if its a female squid that has inked in the water the chances of a couple of quick catchs straight after are good
they will be males chasing the smell

cheater

I normally just tie my jig to my main line with no clips or swivels.
But if I am drifting quick than I will use a swivel clip just to weigh it down a little and if it still not sinking quick enough than I put a little split sinker a few centimeters in front of the jig. But 9/10 I will just tie directly onto jig. Remember that all my fishing is done of a boat, so dont think this would come into play on a pier.

As for using a net, unless its a tiny squid, I always use the net, but once in the net, I get it out of the water asap, squid will squirt once and no more ink, where as if you leave the net in the water, the squid will squirt ink again and again.

I usually have a few rods out at different depths whilst drifting, Ive tried to use a spray before and for me, they didnt do anything, but ive heard alot of people say they are a must??? each to their own I guess.

If boat is drifting too fast, I put out a bucket on a rope to slow boat down.

If boat not drifting fast enough, than I do retrievals just like the guys on a pier, with a few fast twitches here and there.

If all my rods buckle at once, I quickly drop anchor and fish that spot with retrieval action. When action dies of its back to the drift.


Dr Drift...

Hey nice one mate, didn't know that but it makes sense when i think about it!