Squid
Squid article by John Staten
Calamari - Loligo Squid
I personally believe that squid are thee most under-rated fishing bait out there.
Not to everybodies liking but I hate to be without it. It can be fished by itself or as a cocktail with just about anything. I prefer to use it with black lug or on it's own as one BIG bait to attract the cod.
Calamari squid is a good cod bait especially one or two mounted on a large hook but I think the Loligo squid is recognised by most anglers as the squid to have. Loligo squid (unwashed) is most affective because of the abundance of squid around our coastal waters and so the fish see it as a natural food, and of course (unwashed), it retains all it's properties without having anything destroyed. Frozen Calamari squid can be bought at most tackle shops in 1lb or 5lb boxes.
The ink inside the squid is the thing that gets the fish, a bit like the effect of the coral inside a crab I suppose. There is a bit of a debate about which type of squid fishes best but I must admit I do like the baby squid that normally comes over from China. You can either tip off with one whole squid or use a few to act as one big bait on a pennel rig. Also with a squid bait, it does resist the crabs for a while longer than either mackerel, herring or a worm bait being a lot tougher and it does make for a good 'tipping' bait.
Often during the winter months I will use whole squid on a hook and make a big, big bait, cast at distance it will often sort out the little' un's from the big 'un's. It does tend to get less 'bites' but bigger fish. I fish the steep shingle beaches of Norfolk and Suffolk more often than not over winter using two rods, one cast at distance like I have just described and another cast short possibly set up as a 3 hook flapper, with various smaller baits. Using two rods isn't always practical on the likes of the N/east beaches I used to fish when a young lad, being shallow surf type beaches meant you were often chasing the tide out every few minutes and then getting chased back yourself as the tide turned. Using one rod was enough, the less gear the better.
You can of course use squid to 'wrap' other baits in. I often cut and wrap a piece of squid around other baits such as mussel, unused lugworm from a previous trip etc making a nice sausage shaped bait bound with some elasticated cotton and then frozen down ready for my next fishing trip.
Most of us think of squid as a 'boat' bait or for winter fishing for the likes of cod and whiting but bass as we all probably know are becoming more and more popular as a sporting fish and one a lot of anglers drool over, trying to find them by using various methods such as popping, using jigs, lures of every colour and description, live baiting for them, using worms and just about every other method they can discover.
One very succesful method is to wrap a sand eel in a slice of squid and secure the squid with a bit of elasticated cotton, leaving the head and tail of the sand eel protruding. This method helps to protect the eel and it should keep a lot longer on the hook before having to change it. Use a small weight on the end of your line, you can get small spinning weights which prevent the dreaded line twist. A hook snood as long as possible to comfortably use to a decent sized hook, add your squid wrapped bait, most species have larger mouths than we tend to give them credit for, use as you would a plug or a popper and away you go.
Happy fishing.
| Author's Resource: Article by John Staten on Squid. You will find other related pages about Sea Fishing Bait at www.whitbyseafishing.com Copyright 2011 www.whitbyseafishing.com Webmasters may include this article on their fishing website but the article must be published with the author's (resource box) and copyright information included. |
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