Squid fishing either by land-based casting or squid jigging from a boat with squid jig lure is a unique style of fishing and becoming more and more popular at this time. A lot of anglers have been having fun squid fishing so far at this time. Squid is a member of the cephalopod class of mollusks, these invertebrate are active predators and also almost every predators in the oceans heavily preys upon them. From shallow waters to deepest abyssal plains, it has about 300 species of squid has been identified.
Squid has long body, large eyes and tentacle with soft-bodies. The squid and octopus can camouflage itself while most of species can emit cloudy ink to distract the predators such as fish, sharks, sea birds, and many more. Squid itself is carnivorous feeding on tiny fish, vertebrates and cephalopods capturing by using their rapid of arm tentacle.
Find out Squid Fishing Charter & Spearfishing for Squid
Squid, Cuttlefish & Octopus Species
Squid, cuttlefish and octopus has their own species. The fish sometimes called inkfish has about 800 species have been identified. Mostly the species can grow no more than 60 cm but the giant squid can be reached 13 meters. The largest species of squid is colossal squid which is can be reach till 495 kilograms weight (1,091 lb).
Squid:
There are quite lots of species of squid known more than 300 species. Here are some of popular squid:
- Arrow Squid
- Humboldt Squid
- Bigfin Reef Squid
- Striped Pyjama Squid
- Giant Calamari
- Colosal Squid
- Japanese Flying Squid
- Vampire Squid
- Cock-Eyed Squid
- Glass Squid
- Bush-club Squid
- Grimaldi Scaled Squid
- Whiplash Squid
- Market Squid
- Octopoteuthis Deletron
- Hooked Squid
- Glacial Squid
- Giant Squid
- Octopus Squid
- Firefly Squid
- Sharpear Enope Squid
- Flying Squid
- Whip-lash Squid
- Bobtail Squid
- Joubin’s Squid
- Neritic Squid
Cuttlefish:
- Common Cuttlefish
- Flamboyant Cuttlefish
- Australian Giant Cuttlefish
Octopus:
- Mimic Octopus
- East Pacific Red Octopus
- Day Octopus
- Atlantic Octopus
- Giant Pacific Octopus
- California Two-Spot Octopus
- Larger Pacific Striped Octopus
- Carribean Reef Octopus
- Smoothskin Octopus
- North Pacific Giant Octopus
- Coconut Octopus
- Seven-arm Octopus
- Atlantic Pygmy Octopus
- Flopjack Octopus
- Blanket Octopus
- Blue-ringed Octopus
- Sothern Sand Octopus
- White-Spotted Octopus
How to Catch Squid & Squid Fishing Technique
There are several squid fishing methods depend on the spot and condition. The recently popular techniques known as Eging with special rod, reel and lure. The traditional methods are still can be used such as hand line fishing. To get successful catching the squid, you need to use the squid jig depend on the condition of the spot either you can use floating type jig, shallow or deep type.
Best Technique to Catch the Squid Land Based: Piers, Jetties, Beaches & Rock-walls
Land-base squid fishing is among the popular and cheapest way to do it. This condition is require casting techniques and long rod.
Squid Casting Technique
Squid can be caught near jetty, atoll and near the beach or island with coral reefs condition. If you fish near jetty or the beach, casting technique is the popular style of squid fishing. You need to throw or cast the lure to certain distance and reel it. Once in a while you need to jerk the rod when reeling, this to make the lure seem to be running from the predator and it will attract the cuttlefish to hunt. You need to do it again several times during retrieve the line with some rhythm. Here some of casting squid technique:
Slack Line Jerk: this technique is one of the most common technique to catch the squids. You need to cast the squid jig and wait for few second till the jig reach the bottom. Then do the slack line jerk by jerking and lift up the rod up and down and slack or stop few second to let the jig slowly sinking again and repeat it again till you need to cast it again. This technique to make the jig bounces.
Slow Roll: This technique is simply by cast the jig and wait few second to sink it and then slowly retrieve the line. This technique is suitable for beginner.
Walking the Dog: Walking the dog is another variation of technique by jerking 45 degrees sideways angle. Jerking the rod while retrieve constantly.
Squid Fishing from a Boat & Kayak
Fishing from a boat or kayak will catch good numbers of cuttlefish and squids. You may find shallow reefs areas, weedy spot and sometimes sandy bottom. For this condition, jigging is one of best technique. You may also casting to attract the squid. In this case, the boat require better lighting and you also need luminous jig with special color.
Squid Jigging Technique
To catch the squid from a boat, casting and squid jigging technique is better to do. You need to cast the squid jig out from the boat, but still in the circle of the light. Wait for the jig slowly sink all the way to the seabed and then jerking the rod by lifting up and down while reeling a bit slack for few times. Then allow the squid to sink again and repeat again of jerking up and down the rod till you need to cast it again.
Traditional Squid Fishing Technique
Traditional fishing technique are also one of the best way to do for commercial. The local fisherman using the net and using the lights. For small scale traditional fisherman, they prefer to do handline fishing and bottom fishing to catch it.
Deep Sea Squid Fishing
Deep sea squid fishing is other great way to catch big size of squid. It has special squid jig design for it. For commercial, fishing deeper offshore waters for the squid has widely opportunity to catch larger one. 15-20 meters and 30-50 meters.
Fact about Squid:
- Travel in Schools
- Hundreds of species
- Aggressive
- Quick swimming
- Feed on tiny fish
- Most active at night
- Attracted to light
- Lives at 15-250 meters depth
- Larger Squid can weight up to 1,000 pound
- Humboldt Squid is the most aggressive and even can attact a shark
- Only Sperm whales feed the giant squid
- Colossal Squid & giant squid are the largest ones.
How the Squid bites
Unlike the fish, the squid usually bite the jig from bellow. Squid doesn’t fight much but you will feel a bit heavier. You need to reel it and do not slack the line. It hook right on tentacle first generally and sometimes it can be escaped off the hook if you reeling hardly. The choosing of the right rod is also one of the reason to successful squid fishing. At this time, many fishing rod manufacture has produce special squidding rod.
Choosing the Gear
You may use just about many fishing gear for squid. But there wide range of special design fishing tackle for squid.
Squid Fishing Rod: there are many rods called eging rods design specialized for the squid fishing rods. It is light and length about 2,3 meters to 2,4 meters (7’6 to 8’6). It is design for both land-based and from a boat. The material of the rod is graphite blanks much better with flexibility of medium tapper. The flexibility of the rod is required to maximize the lure action resemble of natural movement like a shrimp and tiny fish when jerking and retrieve. The flexibility is also required to reduce of the occurrence of escaping the squid from the hook because the squid tends to pulling back like jerking when the squid hook up as well as emit the ink from its mouth. In the blank rod has 4-5 ring guide. You may choose the ring guide of tangle free such as Fuji K-Series Tangle Free special design for fishing with braided line to prevent the inevitable wrap of the line around the rod guide. Here some of the best Eging fishing rods:
- Samurai EGI Rod
- Daiwa 20 Emereldas Air AGS
- Yamashita EGIDO EGI-OH Limited Edition
- Major Craft Crostage EGI
- Shimano Sephia BB 20
- Okuma Inked Special Squid Fishing Rod
- Storm Gomoku Ikasumi EGI
- Abu Garcia Veritas Egi Special
- PENN Conflict EGI Squid Jig Rod
- Maguro Calamari Rod (Indonesian Product)
Reel: just the same like with the rod you may use spinning or baitcasting. You need to choose the saltwater fishing reel size between 1,000 to 2,500 with the ratio of 5.0:1 or 6.0:1. There are also special built egi reels with lightweight reel and smooth drag performance.
Recommend EGI Special Reel:
- Daiwa Emeraldas LT
- Daiwa Emeraldas Air
- Daiwa Emeraldas MX
- Shimano Sephia SS
- Shimano Sephia BB
- Ryobi Tuberniti
- Daiwa Luvias LT
- Wing 98 Double Handle
Other Reel Recommended:
- Shimano Stella 2,500
- Shimano Stadic Ci4 2,500
- Daiwa Aird LT
- Shimano Twin Power
- Shimano Nasci FB
- Penn Fierce 2,500
- Shimano Stradic FL
- Shimano Sienna
Line: for the line, you may choose the thinner braid line for minimize the stretch, better lure action and better distance cast. For example for the lure of 6,25gr to 16,5gr (mean size of 2.5 and 3.0) it is better to use 0.6 and 0.8 braid line. The larger size jig you may use the bigger one for the strength like PE 1 & 1.5.
Leader: to catch the squid, the leader must be longer and use the fluorocarbon as its invisible in the water to prevent the squid or cuttlefish seeing the line. Use the thin leader 8 – 15lb with the length of 1 meter to 2 meter.
Squid Jigs: Squid jig is one of the most successful part of squid fishing ranging from best action of lure, color selection, reflection and luminescence.There are many squid jigmanufactures produce best squid jigs, having different design and coloring. The weight and sinking rates can be varied depend on the spot condition ranging from shallow estuaries to deep waters. The popular squid jig manufactures are Yamashita, Yo-zuri, Daiwa Emeraldas, Evergreen and many more.
Size: Every squid jig manufacturer has their own features, size, action and color. The size normally from 1.0 – 4.0 (2gr – 25gr) depend on jig manufacture and the target squid to catch. Normally most anglers use the size of 2.5, 3.0 and 3,5. This size can be used to target specific size of squid, for example 2,5 jig size to catch the squid less than 500g, 3.0 for more than 1kg and up to 4.0 for the bigger ones.
For example: Yamashita EGI OH Live Search (Rattle)
This model is sensitive to squid with emit light of the glow creates the differences in the light and darkness will attract the eyes of squid.
| Size | Weight | Sink Speed | Length |
| 2.0 | 7,0 g | 5 sec/m | 60mm |
| 2.5 | 10,5 g | 5 sec/m | 75mm |
| 3.0 | 15,5 g | 3.3 sec/m | 90mm |
| 3.5 | 21,5 g | 2.8 sec/m | 105mm |
Yamashita EGI OH Live Search (Rattle) is basic shallow type with the selection of color suitable for clear water such as orange, blue, muddy condition such as red and many more. Yamashita EGI OH Live has UV Reflection.
Another example: Yo-Zuri Aurie Q
Yo-Zuri Aurie Q has stable diving that attract squid. It has round trick hook, snagless sinker, multicolor, cloth wrapped and glow in the dark.
Color: The squid, octopus and cuttlefish are colorblind or only able to see in greyscale (black and white), but their weird pupils may let them to detect the color and the color of their background. That how they use their eyes to see, watch for predators and catch the prey. It’s mean choosing the right colors and action will make them attract to hunt. Like what color do fish like the most and best lure colors selections, the selection of squid jig color to use can be the difference between success and fail.
The selection of the right color to match with fishing conditions:
- Dark night
Under foil: Red, orange, etc
Cloth wrap: black, dark purple, etc
- Moon light
Under foil: exotic brown, plum purple, etc
Cloth wrap: brown, violet, etc
- Dawn/Dusk
Under foil: purple, grape purple, etc
Cloth wrap: light purple, pink, etc
- Cloudy day
Under foil: blue, green, etc
Cloth wrap: orange, white, etc
- Sunny day
Under foil: silver, gold, etc
Cloth wrap: gold, lily white, etc
- Clear water
Brown, dark green, pink, blue and natural color
- Murky water
Red, violet, rainbow, highlight green, etc
- Deep water
Red, orange, pink, etc
Type of squid jig: there are many types of squid jig lure based on the conditions.
- Floating type: to catch the cuttlefish on the surface or in shallow water.
- Super Shallow: this type is suitable for very shallow water.
- Basic Shallow: this type is suitable for shallow water less than 3 meters.
- Shallow: this type is suitable for shallow water less than 5 meters.
- Deep: this type is suitable for deep water up to 5 meters or in a bit strong current.
When to catch Squids
Best time to catch to catch the squid at night because it swims to surface to feed and it attracted to a light. The right time to catch them during the high tide. You may also fish them at full moon night and use the bright light on boat to attract them come up to surface.
See Also:
- Fishing in Bali
- Fishing in Indonesia
- Fishing in Malaysia
- Fishing in Singapore
- Fishing in Brunei Darussalam
- Fishing in Jakarta
- Fishing in Kuala Lumpur
- Fishing in Langkawi
Where to catch squids
Catching the squid is the interesting things to do during vacation. If you are in Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore you may check the squid fishing in the destination below:
There are still lots of best places to fish around the world especially squid fishing. It is great and fun to catch. But you need to check the fishing regulations in some area like in Singapore, Australia, United States and others, because they have fishing regulations.
