The Squid Discussion Furthered...................

bswiv

Odd coincidence this morning while helping a friend go through a pile of fishing tackle he is no longer using.......stumbled up a squid jig......which is what I charged him for all the help. Never actually handled one before......and there are a lot of other types.....but it sure seems simple. 

They are surprisingly inexpensive.....$5-7 depending on what you buy.

One of you young guys needs to take advantage of the mango bite that will happen on the next moon and do a night trip, a night trip with a squid component!!



 

RevJoeyFitz

Heck yes! Take pics

BottomBumpin

Fla Sportsman has a cool article on a capt in PR i believe doing to for years and makes his own 'Jigs'.  HUGE ones out there

dihrd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=sRtbLyxnMO8&feature=emb_title

This is off cape hatteras in the winter.  Short window when the squid are coming out of the sound.  But I thought it was cool 

John McKroid

dihrd said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=sRtbLyxnMO8&feature=emb_title

This is off cape hatteras in the winter.  Short window when the squid are coming out of the sound.  But I thought it was cool 

The same thing happens on the West coast.  Most of the mainland spawns have been wiped out, but there are runs on squid on the offshore islands.  It can be big money for the commercial boats.  Some boats do nothing but anchor on a good spot with a generator and a bunch of mercury vapor lights shining in the water.  After attracting several tons of squid under the boat, they pull anchor and allow a seiner to come in and make the set in exchange for a percentage of the net profit.  

On the sport boats, we would crowd and scoop it as in the video.  The squids are too busy mating and spawning to swim away.  They lay the egg sacks and attach them to the bottom in a flower pattern that is toxic for the fish to eat.  At the end of the spawn, the squids die providing plenty of food for the local fish.  Live squid can be a magic bait on the West Coast -- making fish that would otherwise have lockjaw, go into a frenzy.

I had a couple of those squid jigs growing up on the West Coast.  They were particularly handy the one year the giant squid invaded the coast.  We were even catching them during the day and would have squirt gun fights with them by aiming the jet toward the guy fishing next to you while the squid was at the water's edge.  

Off Florida, I occasionally catch one by accident on my sabiki rig, find them in the bellies of the Blackfin I catch, but have yet to know or hear of any squid spawns?