How to catch squid

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by skrilla

Some good input posted, gotta try that jig sabiki rig setup. What I was taught about squid jigs/ganions is they mimic egg sacs that float off their beds. This causes a reaction for squid to grab and reanchor them to the bottom. Not sure if they resemble anything in their diet. When they're not wide open I slow it down to mimic that egg floating action and usually hang at least one. But yes when wide open under lights snag away!

Right on.

I catch a lot of pre-spawn squid with the sabiki. Smaller immature 3 to 5 inch ones. They work great. I got my largest Yellow on pre-spawn a four inch squid.

You're right on about the egg sack idea. Scientists have observed that some female squid protect their eggs, there are some species where the females carry around the egg sacks for months. I've caught a lot of squid during the spawn by dropping a jig right down to the eggs then slowly reeling it up like it's a eggsack drifting away, it definitely works.

The first squid jigs mimicked eggsacks, now they are also making jigs that look like shrimp and other things squid will eat. The sabiki works when they are not spawning I've caught squid with them far away spawning areas sometimes from balls of squid suspended just under the surface or way off the bottom. The sabiki works on spawning squid as well but I'm not sure if that's because they are trying to feed or just kill anything that might be trying to eat their eggs.

I first used a sabiki jig combo because I was in a hurry, and did not want to take the time to rig up a squid ganion, but it's now become my go to setup, and the only times I'll go to a ganion is when I can't get them with a sabiki jig combo, or if they are so thick it's too much trouble using a sabiki.

I guess I should add that I remake my ganions replacing the standard stiff heavy mono with 30lbs fluorcarbon. I know it sounds stupid but squid are extremely visual, just look at the size of their eyes vrs the rest of thier bodies. I know it makes a difference because I've had days where my fluoro ganions outproduced stock ones by maybe 6 to 1 or more.