Squiding in Sydney

[Evos]

Hey Fishos, 

I'm wanting to tackle a bit more squiding in Sydney. Are there any good spots that people could recommend. I think that La Perouse is good but did anyone else have any spots to suggest? 

[AlbertW]

Hey Evos, @DerekD will probably get around in a bit but heres an excellent article he wrote. Basically theres not really any set spots for squid, you'll just need sand and weed and structure. Have a look at google maps or google earth and it should reveal some good spots.

 

[sashkello]

From what I've experienced - they can show up pretty much anywhere where there is sand+weed (or even in the middle of nowhere), and while it does depend on the weather / tide etc, the element of randomness is very high. If you don't catch anything in 30 minutes, time to move on. If you catch 1, there is a reasonable chance you'll catch 2-3 more within next 20 minutes. At some spots I would see a dozen of them just hanging in water one day, would get one every 2 casts; and then nothing would touch the jig for hours worth of fishing when I come there again and again in hopes of replicating the experience. I spent hours reading about squidding on this forum, watched days worth of videos, went to the same spots in conditions exactly as described, and got absolutely nothing. But along the way I kind of figured out certain things for myself, and I did learn to catch at least something almost every time eventually (and not to be a stubborn idiot and spend hours when I know nothing is there to catch). The key is to relocate quickly if it isn't working, and to not go in conditions which spell misery. Always have a backup plan - take a second rod with a bunch of soft plastics or something like that.

First off, just look at google maps and figure out locations near you with lots of weed next to sandy patches. Explore first on a bright sunny day to make sure you know how the bottom looks and to avoid snags and shallow water. Get yourself a small (1.8 is OK) jig in white. There is absolutely no need to have 20 different jigs, that's a marketing ploy. All squid I ever caught, I caught on three colours - white, black and bright pink. All those striped, shiny, orange, whatever - I'm 90% sure they would work just as well most of the times, I don't think they are picky, but I just find myself coming back to those three and it does end up working, so why bother thinking about colors when there is simply no big difference? A couple of times I noticed that pink scares smaller squid away rather than attracting them, but on other occasions, they seem to be more excited to attack it. Make sure they glow in the dark and get yourself an ultraviolet torch if you're planning to go out in the dark.

Cast along the edge of the weed and maybe over the top if there is enough depth. Talking about depth, it varies by a lot. You can find them in deep holes, or they can hang out meters from the beach right on top of sand. Some people say you should retrieve extremely slow, to be very low over the weed, but I actually found that they are really reluctant to commit unless you speed up a bit. The moment you do, it starts chasing and now grabs it in earnest. So, I do medium speed spin for a few secs, then let it sink, then repeat.

Some people heavily recommend paternoster rig, and I've tried it a couple of times recently, but no luck at all with it, even when spinning works well. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or it only works from the boat while drifting...