Catching squid

[captkev1]

Can you guys give me some tips on catching squid? Last year in the canyons we had them at that back of the boat and tried every squid rig we had to catch them with no luck. Best we could do was net them with a small mesh striper net.

[jwalker]

Never saw one until I moved out west, every boat in the fleet carries one as squid is primo bait out here.
Takes a little getting used to but if the squid come into range you can scoop enough bait for the fleet in one sweep..
Need a great light source (spotlights/Hydro) to get em up, a good sounder to find them and then 2 guys that can use the Crowder Net and your good to go.

It is 2 long bamboo poles with a net strung between them, as soon as you have the squid up, you slide it tight down the freeboard and start pulling up catching them as they try to dive...

[Fish Biz]

Hey guys, Try baiting your squid jig. If your chunking with butters take a whole butter and scrape from the tail to the head and get some skin and meat on the many pin hooks on the jig. Be careful that you don't slip and drive them pins into your hand ( trust me it hurts). It represents a squid that has grabed something to eat and the others try to steal it. Try it we have pretty good luck with it. Thanks Tim

[Dockrat]

we either dip net them, or take a chunkin rig, (flourocarbon of course, cuz the squids cant see it) and take a chunk of bait and throw it out on a handline (like 10-15 feet of flouro to get distance) and then tease them in and dip net them, or if you get lucky, they latch on to it and just throw them in the boat really quick.

or the old cast net works really well

[Sea Cure]

Sometimes a small mesh net works great if they are up in the lights eating chunks.(Note:they love spearing)

Last season we had the best luck going down to the bottom for them. Most of the time we set up in 400-600 feet of water. We rig a daisy chain of about 3-5 squid jigs on a 30 w/ about a 16-20 oz weight and drop it to the bottom. Jig it a few times and you will feel it start to get heavy, then crank it up. The key to this is a glow stick on the top of the chain. We usually use the Yo-Zuri Squid jigs. Braid line is a must becaise the mono stretches to much at that depth and its hard to tell when you have extra weight on the line. It's been done w/ mono but harder. Oh yea, by the way, reel like hell. Tuna have hit the squid on the jigs on the way up. Thats always interesting!!

It takes a little geting used to this method, and a guy who has a strong arm. Good nights we have caught 2-5 squid a drop all night, filled the livewell and had a charter take 5 gallons of fresh calamari home. Sometimes the tuna will only eat the live squid if there is a lot out there, so be ready to do whatever you have to to catch it.

Live Squid probably accounted for more than 50 tuna for us last year. Good Luck!!!

[giantfan]

I was doing the same thing with the daisy chain of squid jigs.

I was using the yozuri jigs that have the fabric type covering and I put some the that jelly sent on them. I don't know if it helped that much but I figured that it couldn't hurt.

The thing that supprised me was that even during day light I was getting them off of the bottom. I had never caught a squid during the day.

Some times the jig would get covered up before it hit the bottom and would stop.

It's tough work pulling up 5 monster squid from 600 feet down all night long.

[capt. jakeg]

If you cant get them to bite a squid jig at the back of the boat, take a sabiki, mash the barbs on the hooks down, and put some tiny pieces of bait on it. Put it about 20 ft under the boat and pretty much anything around will eat it. This summer I was catching 2 or 3 tinkers and 2 or 3 squids every drop.

[captkev1]

Ok great info guys, so say i catch a few, what is the process to keep them alive. Iv been told to keep them in a bucket, let them ink, then transfer them to another bucket for a while to calm down, then into the live well. What is the process on your boat?????

[Captain Rich Adler]

Take a bucket, drill a bunch of holes in it, put a sash weight inside, wrap a foam noodle around the top with wire ties, put the lid on with a hole big enough to put additional squid through the hole,and hang it overboard. The squid will ink out and not foul your livewell and not mess up the cockpit!

[Double D]

For cheap jigs that are as good or better than yozuris - www.squidjig.com (I like the tiger prawns)

I find the larger squid usually come off the bottom. They make great trolling/sword/flounder baits.

Can't bring myself to eat them after dealing with them live, nasty little buggers.