Circle hook and squid for trolling??

[sanchoco]

I am fishing Cabo San Lucas right now and there are lots of Striped Marlin free jumping but not many of them coming into the spread. I have talked to some of the local captains and they tell me that the fish are feeding on squid and that is why we are not raising them in the spread.

I am working on rigging squid with circle hooks. I have 2 rigging Ideas right now. 1. circle hook rigged in front of the squid, sewing it on with wax line. 2. rigging it like an old time J hook rig with the hook back by the head of the squid. my thoughts area that the squid being soft it should not affect the hook-up ratio of the circle hook. I have made a few rigs with 1/2oz egg leads with a crimp to keep it in position and pushing the leader thru the body of the squid. using the lead to hold the squid in place and sew it on from there.

I will be leaving for Guatemala this week for business and will not get to fish until after the 22nd on may. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Questsportfishing]

take 1 circle hook, use two sleeves and a green bead. crimp on your circle hook and leave a tag end about 8" .. lay your squid down on a nice cool area and figure out where the bead and hook will lay in the squid (I always went through the head sideways and sewed it on with a piece of dental TAPE not floos and sewed it back to the body also..) start the line up through the bottom with a long hollow needle and out the top and sew in the mantle / bead and double line so it stays in there pretty good * a good stainless curved needle works the best.. and you can feel the double line inside the squid. we used 7 and 8/0's to get a better hookup. you can also sew the head to the body and sew the hook in the side. we used a twist pin in the riggers with a bunch of drop back and the reel in gear. we still troll the same way here for swords and daytime gamefish here. * we won a bimini tournament on the Mr Bobb with 3 cuttlefish that way also... but your stripes love them but the kill and drop back have to be light or they swat and leave. I quit the double hooks when we plucked out an eye trying to release a fish.. saves on tackle also...

[sancocho]

1. circle hook rigged in front of the squid, sewing it on with wax line.

2. rigging it like an old time J hook rig with the hook back by the head of the squid. my thoughts area that the squid being soft it should not affect the hook-up ratio of the circle hook.

1. I rig the squid by placing the shank of the circle hook (12/0) right in the top of the fins of the squid for pitchbait for blues and i was using a 14" size squid,

2. i rig the same size squid an hook passing the circle hook in the squid head too but like a said for picthbait,

With my little experience using squid as a bait for billfish I do not think the squid will last much trolling but the marlins really love squids,n be ready for agresive bites ,

suerte,

[Bert Rodgers]

Sancoho there several ways to rig squid. On smaller squid you can use the quick straw rig. Prepair a leader with a snelled hook but don't loop the end. Lay the leader next to the squid and measure so that the hook is even with the squid's eye. Now take cocktail straw (the stiff black ones)and a 1/2 oz egg sinker and lay them against the leader and measure the straw so that on end is at the top of the hook and the other is about 1 1/2" from the tip of the squid.

Cut the straw at your measurment and slide it on the leader, now slide the egg sinker on above the straw and use a plyers to make a slight pinch on the leader..

Use a needle to pull the leader up through the squid. The lead should be right up to the tip of the squid and the hook even with the eyeballs. The straw lets it keep it's shape. Make a couple hitches with floss at the tip of the squid to prevent the sinker from pulling through.

Now put your hook into the head of the squid so it comes out between the eye balls.

These rigs will usually give you at least a 1/2 hour to 45 mins before giving it up.

Larger squid get bridal rigged.

Bert

[Captain Fred Archer]

Sanchoco,

Sorry I got to this so late. Hope it helps sometime.

I saw the same situation down in Cabo. It is a regular one and those who waste their time casting live baits at stripers that are up top warming up and digesting their meals of squid catch very few fish. We had to find a way around that and we did.

The first thing you have to do is put your bait/lures where the fish are feeding, which is down, not up on the surface. The daytime squid are usually only fifty-to-seventy feet down. We reached them and the feeder marlin with downriggers and hollow squids on Spider dredges. The fish seemed to respond better to a straggler trying to catch up to its pod than single squids.

We did not use natural squids for this because they are too delicate and everything out there eats them and just one little fish taking a potshot at one ruins it pronto. And they are very expensive if you buy them either rigged or unrigged. Plus they are a messy, stinky thing to rig yourself and that rigging takes way too much time for my taste. The hollow squids are inexpensive, tough, come in lots of colors and sizes, and are very easy and fast to rig and most important of all, the fish hammer them.

We found that it was pretty much a waste of time trolling single hollow squids, even ones with squid strips on them like the one below on the surface. Not only were the natural squids not up there, the marlin that were were full of squid and not looking for another one.

Here's a bit from the natural bait versus hollow squid of my marlin book. Sorry, but I don't know how to include pictures inside of text.

WHAT ABOUT NATURAL SQUIDS FOR TROLLING?

As it is with ballyhoo, it is literally no contest when it comes to looks, toughness, rigging ease, storage, life, you name it. And cost? Gulp! Take a look and decide for yourself...

SEE PICTURE BELOW

I don’t know about you, gentle reader, but when I look at those prices and take into account that the real squid is at most a one day bait, and one that is very unlikely to last that long and it is a one bite bait, whether that bite is a marlin or a little tuna, bonito, skipjack, or dorado, versus an all-day, all-week, potentially all-season bait, well, there is no doubt in my mind which one I’m going to choose. Add the fact that the hollow squid is so much easier to rig (do it yourself and it will cost you about ten bucks total or even much less than that) than a stinky, slimy, hard-to-rig, delicate real squid and I call that a no brainer of the first order!

WANT SOME REAL SQUID MEAT ON THE LURE?

SEE PICTURE BELOW

If I do, this is exactly how I do it. I slide an egg sinker up into the head of the hollow squid using a special hook rig that the forward part of a squid strip attaches to, and I troll a great looking squid imitation that catches the heck out of the fish, trolls at all speeds, is very tough and long lasting and that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

NO MATTER HOW YOU MAY CHOOSE TO SLICE OR DICE THEM, IF YOU HAVE TO BUY THEM, BALLYHOO COST A HELLUVA LOT OF MONEY
And no matter how you want to fillet it, marlin spreaderbars cost a helluva lot less than a case of ballies and...
They last for years...
You don’t have to rig them...
You don’t need to freeze, thaw, brine and keep them in a cooler...
You can stow them in a freezer bag or drawer...
You can change the size and color of the chasebait in seconds...
They feature fish-raising and exciting pods of teasers...
They troll great slow, fast, or in between...
Trash fish don’t destroy them...
Suppliers don’t run out of them...
They don’t commit blowouticide...
And more, but need I say it at this point?

END OF EXCERPT

[Captain Fred Archer]

Oyay, Sanchocho,

I made a sincere effort to help you out on this squid thing. If you don't buy into or appreciate that, I guess that's okay, but no comment whatsoever for the try?

No bueno, amigo.

Capitan Federico

[bigfishhooker]

I appreciated the info!

Thanks Capt Fred!