DAMN, Are those thing Fake or Real?

[Bite Me]

A question for you blue water guys.

We've all seen all kinds of things swimming on the surface. Turtles, flying fish, dorsals that belong to one critter or another even an occasional Mola Mola.
The only squid I’ve seen, at least in my neck of the woods have been at 30 feet or more with a tank on my back. If I'm not mistaken, and I probably am, most squid are deep water critters in the day time.
Question is, why do we pull squid chains that swim on the surface? Some folks even umbella rig em to make them splatter and flutter and create all kinds of rukas. Is it because they look like natural squid or it because they are making a commotion that brings in the fish? If it is the later, couldn't the same effect be accomplished by dragging a bunch of sprite bottles?

Question is, Has anyone ever rigged their squid chain to swim deep and if so to what success? Obviously there would be trailing hook bait here. Or made up deep swimming squid dredge to mimic a squid ball?

[Good Stuff]

It's a good question

[whitey]

Last year I made a dredge of 9 inch shell squid and pulled it on 1 side and a mullet dredge on the other side. We pulled it for 3 trips and raised 1 white on the shell squid dredge to every 3 on the mullet dredge

[JMS-ILM]

The only squid I’ve seen, at least in my neck of the woods have been at 30 feet or more with a tank on my back.

i see you are a local. this summer, ride straight across from the WB boat ramp and toss a cast net around in front of the docks there in Hospital Creek. you can occaisonally load the net with little 4-5" squids. the flounders will murder them fished on a carolina rig.


interesting question though...looking forward to where this thread goes!

[Deep C]

Man! These questions are good ones... The reason for the squid on top is they look to have been seperated from the main body and in panic mode. Fish can't resiist a panicked bait. The dredge with mullet resembles a natural ball. Its as simple as that...
I watch the sailfish and live baits close down here. A lot of times they rise and the bait doesn't react. That often results in the fish just going back down. On the other hand I will often see a pod of several sails rise. The one bait showing the most "oh shit" reaction will often draw the whole pack and they will actually fight over who gets to eat it. Only after that one hot bait is gone will they fan out to find the others...

[Bite Me]

Deep, I was hoping you would chime in. The water clarity and wildlife in your realm is world class. Have you seen squid on top?

How about a deep squid dredge (the bait ball) followed by a deep squid chain?

[Deep C]

I see squid on top only when they get busted loose from the pack and their in a world of "Uh Oh!" I don't see as many down here as I do north like in the canyons... I live to see em on top because that's where its about to go offff!
If I do a squid dredge its with hollows. The harder more real shaped ones with those "ears" don't drag so well... As for a deep teaser of any kind I try to stick to fish patterns as I just havn't raise much on the sunken squid... I say not much but there are times especially around tuna that it can be a real benefit...

[BTH284]

He has seen squid being balled up by tuna before out of OI.
I will let him elaborate to the noise they made and what it looked like.
Pretty much whenever prey or bait fish get balled, up the predator fish pin them against the surface just like backing something in a corner, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide!

[shunt]

I will never forget it. I think it was father's day weekend. I do remember that it was the day of the Great White OJ Simpson Bronco chase. The best part of the trip was hearing V.P.'s commentary about old O.J.

Actually come to think about it the best part was the 40 to 60 pound yellowfin we tore up. V.P. asked us if we wanted dolphin or tuna. Jamie (the mate, and now captain of the Phideaux) STRONGLY suggested tuna, so we listened. We headed south. About mid-morning, I was last in line, so I went up top to pick V.P.'s brain. We saw some commotion off to the side that looked like bonitas. We had been picking up the tuners under the bonitas some earlier, so we turned towards them. As we got closer, it all "went off" as Deep C said. It looked like depth charges going of. The big yellowfins had a group of squid balled up on the surface. From the bridge, you could see the tuna come flying up from the deep and bust the bait. The squid, water, and tuna would explode, the squid would ball back up, and then the tuna would get 'em again. The squids were all sitting vertical in the water with their "heads" stuck up above the water. They looked like the were trying to jump on top of each other to get out of the water. At one point we got close enough that you could hear the squid making a high pitched squeaking sound. The squid were lit up so bright red that they looked fake. V.P. started a wide, loose circle around the chaos, as soon as he cut it and the inside lines started settling, every reel on the boat went off. We had a party 5 and I remember all of us and V.P. were fighting fish at once. 5 guys left the dock, each one with 48 quart coolers full enough of meat that there weren't much room for ice.

[Bite Me]

Must have been a hoot. Red screaming squid, who who have thunk it. Do you think that they were screaming about the OJ chase? LOL
Just out of curiousity, do you remember what baits you were pulling? Were the tuna selective or just worked into a frenzy to hit anything?