Squid On Topwater Lures

[monch]

Fished at one of my local wharves at port hacking on saturday morning hoping for some kings to be around and some other small pelagics. Brought along 1 week old frozen squid but planned to catch bait on the day as well. High tide was around 9am with a barometer in the 1030's, slightly overcast and breeze pushing inshore, had high hopes.

Arrived abit late close to 7am and the better areas of the wharf were already taken Set up in my own little spot and deployed the squid strips in less than ideal areas but good enough. Pickers finished off the squid but I managed to get 2 yakkas easily, 1 mars bar sized and another around the 17+ cm mark.

Saw some fish boiling up every now and then fairly close to the wharf (what i later found out to be frigates) but couldn't get any interest from them with the 1.5g halco twisty and zappa55. Bridle rigged up the smallest yakka and sent him out close to the wharf to see if anything wanted a free meal. The frigates swam right past the yakka, no interest at all. Had a hit and a few follows from 1 on the tiny metal but nothing more. The frigates were darting around the pylons about 1m below me, their backs slicing through the surface of the water. If i was extremely fast with the net i might have reached them, didn't bother though, was scared i might fall in from all the desperate net waving that would eventually happen.

Gave up on the frigates and decided to cast pencils into the shallow weed banks that i could just reach with the wind at my back. Baby tailor were there once again. I tried a really quick straight out retrieve and 2 brown shapes followed it in at high speed, then i saw they were squid! Wow, never knew squid could move so quick. Immediately stopped the lure and the squid slowed down, had a look and grabbed it, i struck and the hooks set WOooo squid on a pencil.

Rigged up the squid and sent him out live on the kingy rod with a 2 hook sliding snell on a paternoster. It managed to stay alive for a good 5 mins before it got demolished by pickers.

I needed another live squid so once again out came the zappa 55. Managed to hook another squid doing a reallyyy fast and constant walk the dog. Once again it zoomed in, i stopped the lure right at my feet and it took it. Both squid were about 15-18cm hood length. Both of the squid would have chased the lure about 10m from the weed beds to right at my feet, aggressive buggers.

Sent out the squid live again, had a small run on the baitrunner but the fish dropped the bait. After waiting abit, i checked the bait, squid was dead but still intact. Sent it back out and about 20mins later i had a very fast but short run from a fish, nearly gave me an overrun on the reel but the fish also dropped the bait and didn't come back .

By noon i decided to leave. Even thought it had been overcast, the action died right down so I released the 2 yakkas and kept 1 squid for bait that i got using the conventional method, ie a squid jig.

[prawn*]

good effort there i usually get them down gymea baths on metal vibes 2! ahahaha

[bassboy888]

Great squid, and on a zappa too, they seem to be accounting for so many species, I think I should probably pick a few up.

[DGF]

squid on surface lures nice who would of though maybe you should make a pencil lure with barb hooks instead of the standard

[Langa]

I've caught squid on a popper at night, it was very dark and scared the hell out of me when this thing I caught started squirting water at me as I dragged it up the wall.

[ssymmetri]

that's awesome!

a mate of mine fouled 2 the other night with soft plastics,

lthey are just lazing on the surface and he aims then strikes

[brendong]

Excellent effort mate...I managed one whilst walking the flats at Gray's Pt on a Suga Pen once, so they will defn take a pencil.....I recently watched a Yamashita DVD and they actually utalise the walk the dog technique using quiet light squid jigs on the surface....suprised the hell out of me.

[Basil D]

it just Proves how aggressive these creatures are, insane indeed.

[sanger]

Awsome getting squid on a walk the dog!

[johnny doi]

awesome mate.my mate has got a few on stiffy poppers & i got i on a 10-12cm shallow diving hardbody in the hacking too.

cheers johnny.

[Andy Loops]

I was reading a fishign report from Croatia earlier this year and from what I could understand they exclusively troll for squid using what looked like rapala cd-9s or something similar.... maybe a new craze about to take off in Australia hey haha

[PPSGT]

I haved caught squid on maggots set for garfish (hooked in the beak), high speed spinning for salmon of the rocks with metals, live baiting in 60m metres of water,

while trolling with a paravane and pulled them out of the water on a hookless teaser

I have even seen one dropped from a 5 metre jetty, smash back into the water and grab the jig as soon as it hit the water again.

My last sqquid mission back in Adelaide at Christmas, i threw 10 casts at a school of 10 squid and pulled 8 out of the school

I have seen a 5 year girl throw a squid jig on a handline from shallow beach, and without getting her feet wet threw and throwing it no more than 2 metres got a big squid on her first cast

It never ceases to amaze me how they can be caught

Can wait to catch one on the downrigger

Jason