The Art of Eging. (Land based)

As I recall it wasn't so long ago that I began to explore the art of eging. Yes, eging not squid fishing and there's a good reason why I use the term eging. First, a person who uses the term eging, understands and applies a special style or technique when they are squid fishing. Personally, I call them innkers, a type of individual who understands the importance of owning a specialised egi rod and a reel. It also means that you understand by owning a perfectly balanced egi rod will allow you to absorb any subtle squid strokes in the water and your mind is pre occupied with the thought of you landing a aircraft carrier (Squid measuring over 30cm) 24/7. Ok, maybe that's over the top but you get the picture.

The reason for my long explanation was mainly because today was the first time I took someone out eging with no experience. He was my close friend's brother in law in his late 30's, with some experience in general fishing, however he never come across eging before, so I thought what a great opportunity to share my new wealth of knowledge on eging. Which also brings back memories of when years back Dr J and I went squid fishing together for the first time but I'll leave that story for a another time.

To begin, our morning squidding session started with me explaining how the squid jig works and how important it was to have a good tension on your line at all times. I've explained to him, due to the way squid attack their prey with their tentacles, if you have no tension on your line, you won't be able to feel the grab right away or maybe not at all. I demonstrated this by loosening the line, and by using a stick I tap the line to see if he could feel anything, and from his reaction I knew I got the message through.

Once I got my line tension message though, I moved onto my next topic about understanding your surroundings. I realised that moment how stupid I was to bring him on a low tide day. The reason is simple, when it's low tide our sea water level is low, which in eging terms means you'll constantly have to keep your squid jigs moving or else it will be caught in the seaweed. You might think it's quite simple but for someone who's ever seen a squid jig until today, I knew this wasn't going to be easy for him to do. After all, I still lose jigs every now and then due to same reasons.

In my efforts to help him avoid snags, I've asked him to apply what I call the blind man walking stick method and as soon as I finished saying that, he looked at me with that WTF face. However his reply was even funnier.
"What, you want me to close my eyes and feel the water with my stick, WTF?"
We both lol for a while and then I explained to him what I really meant by blind man walking stick, so he can understand.

The blind man walking stick method is simply casting your squid jigs to the desired area and waiting until the squid jig sinks to the desired depth or in this case to the seaweed floor. Once your squid jig hits the floor, rock or top of the seaweed bed you must flick the rod straight up and down twice or three times even more if you like, to give the jig some action. It shouldn't be be too hard for you to feel the subtle hit on the rod if you are using a egi rod and reel setup, but if you're not, you still can achieve the same affect by keeping a good tension on your line at all times. Every time when you have finished flicking the rod, you will notice that your line will loosen, so start reeling your line back in slowly to keep tension again.


It's crucial that you keep tension on your line at all times, to do so gently reel your line in. This is the most important stage of eging, because most of the squid attack at this crucial moment. The reason being is because squid will be excited by the sudden motion and attraction in the water and if all goes well they will reach out with their tentacles to grab the squid jig. Upon succession you will either have a squid or might have to repeat the same process until you finally land your Aircraft carrier.  I told him you'll need repeat the same process until you retrieve your squid jig and when you do, repeat the same process.

After showing him few examples, it was time for him to go solo and just as I guessed he got his squid jig snagged right way but after about few more goes he was getting the hang of it. To be honest, he actually hook one on his third cast, but it fell short just about about 3m from shore. Soon after that while I was showing him few more examples, he noticed I was also winding my reel in whilst flicking my rod up and down. He immediately wanted learn the technique but I told him once he covers the art of not getting your squid jigs snagged, the next technique will almost come naturally.

Right that moment, a image of Mr Miyagi pop in my head and just like in the movie Karate kid, my friend insisted I should teach him the technique right away.  This is where it got even more interesting, believe it or not, as if it was scripted, I begin to landed one squid after another while showing him the eging technique. Personally, I couldn't believe it myself, for example I was saying;
"Now count to 5 and now flick, flick, flick let it drop."
"Wait and soon the squid should chase my jig and you can tell if they are because you should feel a slight pull on your line, and the top of your rod should blend a little..." and everything would happen just like I said.

It was just amazing, and as for my friends brother in law who was watching me, he was totally blown away. I mean, I used to brag about how I can land so many squid during our weekend get togethers, but to see it all happen right there and then was a slap on the face for him. After all, whenever he held the rod and tried the techniques, nothing happened, but soon as he handed it over to me, it was on! To be honest, I was trying very hard to keep a straight face myself while all this was happening, but after the second squid I thought I better let him try one himself and passed the rod over to him. It was what I'd call a GoPro moment which obviously was missed but I tellya what, Im getting so tempted to just go and grab one.

Our morning session or should I say morning class ended after about 50 minutes due to work commitments, but he was very pleased with himself for being able to almost land one himself and most importantly, experience the feeling of landing a decent size innker. As for me, I got this warm feeling inside which I haven't felt in a while and I was so glad that I can teach someone something which I'm still trying very hard to master myself.

Happy Innking!