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Biggest calamari you have seen or caught?


Hooked-Up

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Have been doing a bit of squiding this winter and have been getting some good results trying to target the larger models for fun and a feed instead of just gathering kingy candies..

Biggest one today had a 32cm mantle which is what i consider a large model. (but not massive)

Just wondering what the largest ones you guys have seen come out of the harbour or bays of Sydney are?.

Thanks people!

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I got a green eye last week in the hacking... Went 1.9kg and hood approx 43cm... Caught in 1m of water ... Took drag off my daiwa 2500 Advantage It was the biggest I have caught ...hoping now to crack 2kg which I assume is the benchmark!

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An old story from when I was fishing off the Yowie Bay wharf as a kid, some time during the 1960's.

No squid jigs in those days, the way to catch squid was to hook up a dead yellowtail near the tail section with a large hook, as the squid always attacked the head first, and toss it out. If you were lucky, a tailor or flattie might grab the yakka.

When the squid grabbed the bait, it would slowly pull out the line (handlines in those days) so you would slowly pull in the line. If the squid dropped the bait, stop retrieving the line and the squid would usually grab the bait again. Pull the squid in until it was near the surface near the wharf, then with another handline that had a large treble hook attached, throw that line out and jag the squid in the rear. Not easy to do, hanging onto one line with a squid pulling away, and trying to hook the squid with the other line, sometime the squid would see the hook behind it, let go, then swim back and grab the bait again, and the jagging process would start over again.

Illegal to do this now, but that was the way it was done by all my fishing mates at the time.

One day I retrieved a squid, about ready to throw out the second line, and the squid let go and swim a little bit to the side. A big squid swam up to the yellowtail, grabbed it and tried to reef me arm off it was pulling so hard. The bigger squid was about 3 times longer than the first squid, but did not stay around for long and swam off never to be seen again. The smaller squid swam back, grabbed the yellowtail and I hooked it and pulled it out.

I measured that squid at just on 12 inches, which is about 30 cms, measured from the tail to the end of the normal tentacles, not including the 2 long candles. I estimated that the bigger squid was near 36 inches long, which is about 90 cms, again from the tail to the end of the normal tentacles, and the body was 8 or 9 inches across. Other people on the wharf were yelling about the size of the squid.

An old fisherman showed me how to make my own squid jigs, as it was becoming the new thing to catch squid. A piece of bamboo about 15 cms long and about 1cm wide, soaked in water for a few days. Remove from the water, drill a hole in one end to attach the line, wrap aluminium foil around the bamboo several times, wrap some fishing line around it a number of times to hold the foil on, and at the other end tie on 5 or 6 small shank hooks with line. Throw it out and bounce it around like we do today with the new jigs.

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An old fisherman showed me how to make my own squid jigs, as it was becoming the new thing to catch squid. A piece of bamboo about 15 cms long and about 1cm wide, soaked in water for a few days. Remove from the water, drill a hole in one end to attach the line, wrap aluminium foil around the bamboo several times, wrap some fishing line around it a number of times to hold the foil on, and at the other end tie on 5 or 6 small shank hooks with line. Throw it out and bounce it around like we do today with the new jigs.

Bit of genius right there!!!

Sounds like fun the way you caught them back then, probably a 2 man operation lol.

That squid sounds like a proper beasty and thats the answer im looking for.

Thanks for the history lesson in aussie (eging) lol.

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paddled around on ski on dusk and landed a2.2kg calamari in sydney about 15 years ago,weighed at the butchers the next day.have caught hundreds this way.Telling no lies I hooked agiant one night and played it for over 10 minutes.Every time I got it in it dived beneath the ski.Iwasnt about to do anything stupid and let it go when it took off to tire it. About the7 or 8th time it dogged it under the ski it drew the line in and it drew in the line and cut it with its beak..A big smart squid.A cuttlefish you say?Inever caught a single cuttle in many hundreds so Idont think so.Only ever encountered that one biggie and one bitten off trace in 20 plus years.Happy fishin wizza

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