Last Friday and Saturday I went down to the nearest National Park Wattamolla to check out some squid action I've been hearing from friends and not to be disappointed, I managed to land 5 on the day. However on the following Saturday it was lil too windy, so I left there quite early, right after I landed one aircraft carrier. Unfortunately I made the mistake of leaving the squid in the water secured in the net, but check out the pictures to see what these stupid eels done to it yourself.
Oh I forgot to mention, I actually landed 7 in total but two got away because I left my bucket near the water when the tide was coming in. IDIOT!
Today's blog is about a two little boys who wanted to become a member of Innky Dasquid Adventure.
This story that I'm about to tell you started two days ago on a bright sunny day somewhere near Cronulla. Yes, there was a boy name Innky DaSquid, Hammer hand and Midas touch who all loved squid fishing. However, to be good at something it takes time, practice, and lots of reading. Fortunately, for Hammer hand and Midas touch, they had Innky DaSquid, who knew all about the art of squid fishing aka eging.
Jokes aside, for last two days I went out squidding with the boys to show them how it's done. And after $40 worth of squid jigs (egi) I now can say confidently, they are now what I would classify as level one Innkers.
Great BBQ boys!!
* Right - Great shot of Hammer hand by Midas touch on the right. Yep, you don;t wanna see his face.
* Left - Who freaking wears Burberry Polo shirt to squid fishing? FOB!
* I'd also like to thank Midas touch for saving my bag and T-shirt! Thank you so much, I just love it when my white T-shirt is soaked wet!!!
Weapon: Rapala T-Spec, Lox Iriduim Egi and some cheap a$$ rod and reel.
6 in the morning I woke up to a WhatApp message from Dr J, reminding me about our morning squid session. This was little odd, since my plan was to get there just about 1 hour before the complete low tide around 9:30ish, but after a few messages from Dr J with the pictures of the squid he caught, I found myself making my way there.
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Well truth be told, it was actually about hour and half later, because I got there about 9am, but when I got there Dr J had already landed four innkers, so our day looked quite promising. And by 10am, using Yamashita Range Hunter 2.2, I managed to land four small size squid and decided on a little break, while Dr J was marching right ahead with 5 or 6 underneath his belt.
Soon after about 30 minutes of rest and Dr J signifying he had landed another two little one's, I decided to continue my quest to catch something over 30cm as we were not landing any big size innkers. And my hopes of landing something over 30cm came quite quick, matter of fact, on my first cast right after the break, and I landed another three more pretty much ten minutes apart. However by this stage the water was getting quite choppy, so we decided it was best we move back to the area where Dr J originally started.
Once we got back to where Dr J originally started his day and not to forget getting hit by a freaky wave out of nowhere, Dr J managed to land another two, and another one for myself. It was at this point I decided to call it a day and the time would have been very close to 12. However, once again like a true trooper Dr J kept going.
At the end of the day I think we landed total of 20, and a little video of me catching the squid we caught using nothing but my hands but it's best you check out the video yourself.
About a week ago, I found out Daiwa released a new style of squid jig called the Emeraldas Nude and the moment I found out about them , I couldn't wait to get my hands on'em. Well, today was my lucky day, cos I managed to get a few from my local tackle store. Actually I got three different colours and I took'em for a spin.
Well, I won't say much about them because you can see for yourself from the youtube video and from my pictures these egi's mean serious business. My session started just after 5pm today and ended at 8pm with 7 innkers as a result. I must to say, Daiwa Emeraldas Nude worked really well for me, but I did notice that I had to jig a little more aggressively. I do however need to mention that I caught most of them after the sun went down too and these egi's aren't even lumo.
I give these Daiwa Emeraldas thumbs up and I can't wait to try'em early in the morning to see how they go.
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.
Ever heard people say give a little and take a little? Well, this Saturday session proved to be one of these. To say we caught 15 between the two of us might sound a lot, but losing five egi's sure hurts anyone's wallet.
Will I do it again? Well, my answer to that is yes and no. Yes, because I landed 8 squids but losing 4 high quality egi's really digs into your wallet. After all I just mention it no less then second ago but here I am mentioning it again, so I hope you can really feel my pain. Although I must say, I don't believe it was all in vain, cos now I can give people advice on how to avoid such a financial downfall.
My new tactic is simple, use your best egi's to attract the squid and once they start to land or you feel that you have attracted a school of squid, start using your budget one's. Now, this tactic only applies to those who are familiar with their local fishing spot, as in you have a very good idea of the water depth and where about the seaweeds lie on the bottom. If you haven't figured that out yet, you should go with the budget egi's until you are familiar and then apply the tactic mentioned above. However, if money is not your issue, hell yeh use your Yamashita's, Yo-Zuri etc.
This is based on my personal experience as a land based innker, but if anyone else has another tactic I'll be happy to hear about it. Matter of fact, I will be conducting my own self experiment with few egi's to see if I can reduce the amount of egi's getting lost in the seaweed in my future blog. For example, I'll be posting some diagrams of what I might try before I had out and report on it's results and I hope this will help other land based innkers from losing their egi's.
Anyway enough of what I'm going to do, I hope you're having a great weekend n happy Innking!!
