Old man and the squid?

didn't a shark come along and strip that squid to the bone?

master caster,

You are almost right, Later in the spring the Squid will be mating. Right now they are activly feeding, if you don't believe it catch a live herring and put it down to thier level. What you get back will make you glad that you are not a small fish. many years ago I would fish live herring off of the old Bremerton fishing docks for black mouth at night. Many times I would reel nothing but a few scraps of herring. I noticed also that schools of squid would follow what was remaining. Once my freinds and I figured it was the squid robbing us of our bait it was soon learned that you could lure the squid into dipping range of our smelt nets with a struggling herring on a hook. If you where quick enough you could catch more than the jiggers would.

Cool guys, I stand corrected I guess!
I have not fished for them since I was a young fella (bout 20 years ago) and when learning how had asked a fish biologist the hows and whys.
Geez, makes me wonder what those things would do if you were out there swimming and happened through a school?? Not a pretty thought!

Sure are tasty critters though!

MC

We usd to do just about the same when we were kids.Illahee city dock was our squid hole .Still live a few blocks away.We used toss a frozen herring on a drop line with just a #8 or so bait hook through the head.Eventualy one would grab it and we would slowly pull the two in untill the prey was close enough to scoop up with a trout net.Spent hours on our knees playing this game.

Back then there ws nobody working this dock.They would laugh like hell if I went down and re-enacted that show now.They start showing up around three in the afternoon to secure there spots now a days.

We used to make our own jigs with pencill lead and piano wire.To finish it off we just used a wrapping of white waterproof medical tape.Used to fill buckets in short order.

They are damn good eating.I remember me and dad up late cleaning a couple of buckets and my dad getting a bright idea and microwaving one.You could of patched an inner tube with what came out of the micro.You had t be there I guess.

I still have a box of squid jigs.I think I am going to have to pull them out of mothball

Good advice so far.

If you really want to feel the bite, use a graphite fly pole with spider wire!

Don't know about the "feeding" time of the year, but during the "mating" time, DO NOT slack your line after jigging up. Just slowly lower your rod tip while keeping a tight line. Most of the takes will come as the jig(s) are going down and what you feel is the jig being lifted up (less weight all of a sudden) by the squid. Using a fly pole, this pick up is very visible for the kids to "learn the feel".

I am living in Florida now (for another year before returning to WA) and my daughter still loves to talk about the crappy weather we use to suffer through just to catch squid. And when we sat down to plan the family vacation this year, her idea was to go to WA and go sqidding and clam digging!

What do the squid jigs look like? Also how big are the squid?

no ad intended, just googled to it.

http://www.juicyjigs.com/squidjigs.html

Will this work?

I'm sure those "juicyjigs" will work. The last jigs I bought came from Sportco in Fife. They keep them behind the counter so you have to ask for them.I prefer the jigs with the larger wire baskets though. I don't care about color. They all glow in the dark. Again technique is by and far more important than the jig.

The squid in Puget Sound aren't very large. Maybe 8" including tentacles. Once in a while I have found some up to maybe 12". They are not large but they are delicious!

Wish I had a digital camera. I would take some pictures and show you how to clean them.

ET,
Please don't be so humble to recommend an old Korean guy for lessons.
When the school is in, any fool can catch them with just about anything.
The lesson should be learn from the person who is constantly catching the loner squids.
This person got the technique and the favorable jig.