Time to dig out the rain gear and heat up the fry daddy! The Squid are in! Thoes of you who love callamari { I think that's how you spell it?} should head down to the edmonds pier. They are getting some pretty impressive catches of these lovely bivalves. It's very early so this could be the beginning of a great season!

W.C.

What exactly do you use to catch squid?

A bright light and a squid jig. I have two buddies who catch tons every year off the piers in Downtown Seattle. I think it is pier 67 that alot of people jig from, and there are electrical outlets to plug your lights into.

Squid aren't bivalves! Clams and mussels are bivalves. Squid are cephalopods with octopus and like critters.

I have squijigged in Edmonds a couple times. It's fun when they're "biting".

Dems good eatn, too.

But I'm still a rookie and would appreciate any "tips".

Is incoming tide best?

Slab...here's a tip for you:

Plant your corn in the Spring

Slabquest, I've jigged squid more than most. The best time to jig is when the squid are in! Really, after years of jigging that is my conclusion. I would say to avoid ripping tides, but otherwise high, low or in betweeen -- it is good when the squid come. Clear and cold, foggy and warm, rainy or snowy -- it is good when the squid come.

My other advice is: You can easily jig too fast, but you can't jig too slow. If you want to catch more squid, slow down your presentation. Then slow down some more!

You really don't have to yank hard to set the hook. A slight snap of the rod tip will do the trick. Go down extremely slowly and keep your line tight. When you get good, you can feel the squid touch your jig. Novices randomly go up and down and catch squid randomly.

I like to use a very sensitive graphite rod with spider wire. The spider wire is great cause it is very sensitive and yet it is strong enough to bend the wires of a jig when it is stuck on a rock or something.

If you want to learn to catch squid try to stand next to an old Korean and mimic what he does!

I have a few squid gigs (lures) and a boat in Edmonds. I am wondering how deep to jig. Are they at or near the bottom or suspended at certain depths.

I want to give it a try- BTW anybody use fresh squid instead of hootchies for salmon?

To me it seams like it would not be very fun. It would be like getting a clump a seaweed on you line right?

Yeah, 'cept seaweed doesn't taste as good!

But then again, seaweed doesn't get ink all over the place either.

Squid aren't about the fight........they're about the meal afterward.

Not anly are they great for eating but they are great for bait when the ling's and but's get going again this spring. Often the best depth to catch them is any depth. Squid are shadow hunters. They sit out of the light and wait for one of the bait fish that are attracted by the plankton that your light attracts to slip into thier stike zone. Some time the best way to get them is to swing your jigs into to dark and S-L-O-W-L-y jig your way back to the lighted section of water. When you really get into jiggin these guys you can have fun making your own jigs too. Kid's love this type of fishing.

Wolley,
Your'e right, I must of had razor clams on the mind.

They also make great crab bait. We used to do well inside the hook in P A.

its good to hear that they are showing up. i usually jig in the redondo/des moines area, but never this early. i will have to cruise through and check things out this weekend.

does anyone have a report from the south sound piers?

No, sorry........ You look at the jig and it is similar in shape and size to the squid you are catching. When the school together like that and attack the jigs, it is during a mating frenzy if the biologist was telling me straight. That is how they mate, by grabbing hold of each other. If they were feeding, you could throw anything at them and catch them. Only the jigs seem to work......

MC

Good Job, Master Caster.....that's why slow jigging works.....they get caught up on the jig because they wrap themselves around a potential mate.....not because they are trying to kill anything.

Wrong, these squid are actively feeding. Size and color of jig matters this time of year. Pink, pink/white, white, blue/white, green/white and orange/white work well and represent the colors of prey. Also smaller is better. I've seen the National Geographic episode where commercial jiggers drop lines of jigs into millions of spawning squid and use large jigs that represent female squid. But this is not the case for Puget Sound. Besides the majority of these squid (that I'm catching now) are still sexually immature. The female egg sacs are all very tiny and the sperm "needles" haven't developed yet in the males.

Dan S,


"The creature's pure, raw power was beyond belief. What was this?...his 5th run? 6th? The veins on the old man's arms and legs looked as if they would pop through the skin at any moment. The heavy rod was doubled over -- the reel screamed for mercy. Man and equipment were pushed to the breaking point.

All of the other jiggers on the fishing pier reeled in their gear and stood around the old man to witness the battle.

After a standoff that seemed an eternity, line was slowly returning to the reel - one inch at a time. The old man heaved and pumped, heaved and pumped. Exhaustion replaced adrenelin -- again. Just when it seemed hopeless, the mighty squid, with his siphon pumping furiously, broke the surface of the water..."

Excerpt from "The Old Man & The Squid" by Ernest Hemingway

Awesome, Slab. "The Old Man and the Squid" is a literary classic we should all know and love.

How big do the squid run? Like the whole little ones or more like the kind you have to slice up? And, how many hooks per line is typical? I'm thinking about taking my son.

I think the regs say three jigs per line. I never go more than two.

The light rod with the spyder line is an excellent tip.

you truley can feel them grab on to the jig.

Use the first time to learn the ropes. Ted's has some of the better jigs.

It can be a real blast when the squid are in. Sometimes you can look down and see a school go buy.

No electricity at edmonds. They used to allow generators. They shut that down because of the noise and fire hazard.

I have used a wagon to tow a couple of batteries and used a twelve volt fog light. Just hang it over the side. Lantern on a rope will also help.

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.