Squid chain critique please

[BYRD]

Folks I made a squid daisy chain yesterday afternoon. A video of the chain is below. This is my first solo squid chain so I'm sure something ain't right. I think the music at the end displays my feelings. Let me know what ya'll think!

4237

[sportfishingusa]

You got the hang out if BYRD!! nice little rig there..

A few pointers...

1. shorten that baby up.. i like to have about 3 feet to the first squid and then about 10 inches from bottom of skirt to the head of the next squid..

Use nothing less on them than 130lb since something can hit the middle and you want a little extra.. there is also another was you can do it do make them jumpy squids..


I could want you thru it but would need to talk to you about it! lol

Anyway.. other than that the hook is good. go with like a 7681 or something in a 7/0 - 9/0 would work for those squids

you hit the nail on the head with the floats at not only to hold form and stop from moving down the leader it also heeps them afloat!

All in all perfect job just heavier leader and shorter it up a bit!

YOU ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION! LOL hahah


GOOD GOING BUDDY!

[shoefish]

Looks pretty good Byrd. A couple of comments, and take them for what they're worth- some thoughts from some dude stuck in a cube somewhere who wishes he was rigging squids.

Length- while I don't think that 12' is obscenely long, it may make sense to tighten up the length depending on who you're going to have fishing with you- the shorter the better if your crew has limited experience leadering a fish.

Spacing- if you are going to be running this behind a bird, you won't need that initial 6' spacing, you could tighten up the space between squid, and then lengthen the distance between the second to last and the last squid so it looks more like a single squid that is falling behind the pack.

First squid- if you are fishing off a rigger (not a bird) a lot of guys are doing a reverse dropper for the first squid so it will dance and jump out of the water better.

Last squid- a lot of guys up here will crimp a snap swivel in the second to last squid up here. This is done so that if your line gets chaffed up a bit, that you don't have to re-rig the entire thing (especially if there's a good bite going on), you can just switch out the stinger. Plus you can switch out different color and types of stinger (plastic, meat, islander, whatever), leader size, etc. The draw back is that you have a potential weak link in the line at the snap (as long as you know how to crimp well this is mimimal).

Anyway, just some thoughts....

By the way, I can't wait for that nice new (kind of ) rig to get some tuna blood on it!!!

[Water Damage]

cool deal man - looks good. As said above I would go with a little heavier mono, those squids are big enough the heavier leader will not hurt the action. If you want to do it "normal" then you will want to shorten it up, again about as advised above.

That being said, I have not seen a squid chain like that (that long or as big a spacing) before. NEVER be afraid to experiment!!!! Ya never know, you might want to tie one up shorter and then run it opposite this one and see which produces - it can;t hurt to try it for part of a day. I know the teasers we use are the craziest looking things you will ever see. Some folks see them and kinda roll their eyes, much like I probably woulda done had I not been willing to try something out of the norm. Now, I can't imagine fishing and not running one of these chains - I have had more fish come to these things than anything else I have ever run.

basically all I am saying is try it, experiment, and fine tune it to what works best

[30' PURSUIT]

NICE JOB. I BUILD MINE SHORTER THAN YOURS WITH HEAVIER LEADER MATERIAL BUT, THERE IS NO SET RULE. I CRIMP ON A BALL BEARING SNAP SWIVEL AT THE END OF MINE SO I CAN CHANGE OUT THE HOOK BAIT.

[WAHOONBOX]

I TIP MY RIGGERS TO YA DUDE.

WHY? BECAUSE YOU ARE JUMPING IN THIS RIGGING MESS HEAD FIRST ! YOU PROVED TO THE WORLD YOU AIN'T SKEERED BY DOING A TOTAL REFIT OF YOUR NEW BLOOD VESSEL! YOU DEFINITELY AIN'T SKEERED AND I LIKE IT!

LENTGH..........I KNOW VERY FEW WEEKEND GUYS IN THIS DAY AND AGE WHO CAN AND WILL TAKE TAKE WRAPS ON A LEADER AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO WITH THIS LENTGH OF RIG YOU HAVE .....

FOR YOUR BOAT.....YOU MIGHT SHORTEN UP THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE SQUIDS A BIT (THEY APPEAR TO BE MOLD CRAFT) .....ON A BIG BOAT I THINK THE DISTANCE YOU HAVE IF FINE IF ONE HAS THE NADS TO HANDLE THE LEADER.... I LOVE TO TAKE THE WRAPS MYSELF!

THE HOOK......I THINK YOUR MOST TARGETED SPECIES WILL BE TUNA WITH THIS RIG SO I WOULD GO WITH A 9/0 ..POSSIBLY 8/0 DEPENDING ON SQUID SIZE....7691 OR 7691 SOUTHERN TUNA STYLE MUSTAD......(JUST MY WAY AND NOT THE ONLY WAY)


NOW STFF RIGG YOUR HOOK DUDE! ...ELECTRIC TAPE...OR SHRINK TUBE...AND THEN WAHOO PROOF THE MONO LOOP THRU THE EYE OF THE HOOK WITH A PIECE OF #8 OR #9 S/S WIRE AND THEN CRIMP THE WIRE ALONGSIDE THE MONO

NEXT

BEHIND THE NEXT TO LAST SQUID....I WOULD INSTALL A SIZABLE BARREL SWIVEL150#.......THIS CAN SERVE AS YOUR " SQUID STOPPER" AS WELL......NEXT: ADD THE LAST SHOT OF LEADER SECTION WITH THE SQUID AND HOOK ATTACHED (IS THIS CLEAR TO YA?).................THIS WAY IF YOU NEED TO "REDO" THE HOOK SECTION LEADER.....IT IS EASY TO CHANGE OUT


YOU CAN ACTUALLY HAVE DIFFERENT COLORED "TRAILER/SQUIDS" PRE-RIGGED AND READY TO INSTALL AS NEEDED BY JUST A SIMPLE "RE-CRIMP"


THE SQUID COLOR YOU CHOSE IS AWESOME!!!.....AND DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PUT A RED OR ORANGE SQUID ON THE TAIL-END OF THIS ONE AS WELL


ONE MORE TRICK HERE AND I'LL SHUT UP..............INSTEAD OF A USING PLASTIC SQUID ON THE LAST BAIT....SOMETIME YOU SHOULD TRY PUTTING A NAKED SWIMMING /CHIN WEIGHTED BALLYHOO ON THE BIZNESS END....USING SPLIT BILL BALLY OR INLINE RIGGED BALLY WILL WORK




I EXPECT THIS THREAD TO BANG IN WITH OVER 100 REPLIES!


THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO MAKE US A VIDEO!

ROCK ON!

[BTH284]

One thing I always do when making squid chains is increase the distance from the second to last squid to last squid about 1/2 more than the spacing up the entire chain. Then go with a different color squid on the last like Box mentioned or a differenct colored float in your case.
If you have ever seen squid in the wild or on videos when stressed or excited they will change colors back and fourth. I am sure the final squid would be stressed if it could not keep up with the school. I use 200-250 lb mono on all my squid chains. This gives it some shock absorbing ability when it gets grabbed ahold of.

Another thing I do when building teasers is go completely against the norm of small stealth sized coastlocs. I use a huge one that gets hidden inside the squid when the leader is pulled tight. The reason for this is ease of opening when needed to re attach a naked hoo or trailing bait in a hot bite or rough conditions. You can also use #16 rubber band and attach one of your rods with a bait to the back of the chain swivel. Kind of like a mini rigger bait. This recommendation to do this came from an extreme source.

Everyting else mentioned here is good info. Good job on the rigging as well.

[Squidnation]

Hey Bird - Beautiful Chain. Those are 12 in SQUIDNATION MAULERS that tim gave you. I am surprised he parted with them because he told me that those clear squids are his favorite.

I think I heard you say that you had a bead inbetween the crimp and the float. If so, perfect! The reason for the bead is to keep the rough edge of the crimp from wearing through the float. Nice size float as well. One thing you did not mention was how you crimped your crimp. Make sure that you put a small piece of mono in the crimp along with your main line. Crimps are made to secure a loop so if there are not two pieces of line in that crimp it may not hold or it may crimp unevenly. Another thing you want to make sure of is that you don't overcrimp those stops. Overcrimping is a very common failure point of daisy chains. These stop points are not getting any direct fish pressure they are merely holding a float in place. The entire chain is getting pulled by the fish on the end but those crimps are just trying to stop the float and squid from sliding back.

Next- Beef it up to about 200lb test. I learned this from many of the Oregon Inlet charter boats who troll my chains and Bars. They prefer 250 to 300lb on the chains and bars because larger diameter line will not twist and "kink" nearly as much as thinner diameter line. Remember the who idea on these chains is to cause a ruckus so stealth is not a necessity here.

I would also use a swivel on the last squid so you can change the hooked bait out frequenty. Those are sturdy squids and rarely tear but nothing is safe when there are wahoo around or slashing Blue Marlin as well.

Great Job - and thanks for posting it up.

Bill

[gradywhite273]

Im glad you put them to good use byrd. Looks very nice, most things have already been said so no reason to go over them, The squids are Squidnation squids, if im not correct, the same ones my teaser is made out of.

heres a pic of capt jay blount, wiring a bill that came up on them.

[Squidnation]

those be the ones big dog. Are you gonna be at the OC Marlin Club flea market this year? I am getting my grab box ready! I am gonna sell tickets for the Cowboy vs. Gradywhite jousting event. But i'll remember not to put any hooks in the grab box this year