The carpark was empty and no one was to be seen so I had the entire place to myself, 'Sweeettt' I thought!
After abit of a slow start, I moved to the middle of 'pier' and first cast saw me lure in three small squid with the feistiest of the bunch hitting the size 3.5 Harimitu jig hard. A quick hoist up, jig detach and back in the water saw no.2 come on board. The third one was marginally bigger but had taken off, probably due to the amount of ink in the vicinity had deterred it somewhat. Various casts and jig changes later could not tempt it back. This was going to prove a common trend for the night
Squid no.1 - check out that ink spray! (no.2 and 3 not pictured)
I then moved to the end of the pier and as always, there was the 'school' of squid that tends to congregate under the light. I saw one slightly bigger than the rest and thought 'Yeh he'll make good bait' so on with a 1.8 jig and it wasn't long before I had no.3. I tried there for a good 30-40mins, using various colours and brands for nothing so I made the move back to the middle where I caught the first two. This time I was using a Harimitsu 3.5 jig in orange with a red foil.
A couple of casts in and my 4lb Nanofil line gave the tell-tail signs of a squid hit; the line shot out and the tip swifly raised, all felt through the rod right down to the reel. A quick jab of the wrist and this one felt slightly better. While winding the squid in, I shone my headlamp out further and luckily the hooked squid brought he's mates along. Both of similar size and both wanted a feed, hopefully. After releasing their mate into my bucket (lol) I went for number five, of which found residence at Bucket-ville as well but no.6 much preferred the sea and I failed to locate a new home for it.
During this stint, another (local) fisho rocked up and got four small calamari in quick succession in the shallows. I gave him a plastic bag as he had forgotten to bring some along
It was now getting abit late but my headlamp still had about an hour of run time so I tried everywhere again; shallow, middle and deep both sides. I ended up in the deeper section and using the aforementioned jig, casted out and like before, managed a decent hit. An exact repeat of the events occurred, only the squids were bigger. A couple of careful lifts later and I went for squid no.8 and this one was a notch bigger than the previous two but, just like the before: it too decided to scoot off.
With a good bag I decided to call it quits. The below photo was taken with the flash from my phone, the headlamp died as I was about to take the shot lol They aren't huge but they did go down a treat!
And a few tips for guys wanting to try out squidding/Eging:
Try and vary you jig colours and sizes. I generally will use a bigger jig as squid are highly predatorial; they only live for around 3-320 days and in that time will grow to 6-7kg and spawn multiple times so it's not uncommon for small squid to hit jigs as big as they are. Some colours work better than others in varying conditions, it's just up to you to find that go to colour. If you're fishing with a mate, split up and work the polar opposite to your friend and see what is working
If night fishing, a good headlamp works wonders. Not only is it a visual aid but it can assist in 'spot fishing' for squid where the next guy can't see them and you can (if you can make out the silhouette of a squid in the deep). That and seeing 'followers' of a squid you've already caught
Personally I like to fish light, in terms of rod and reel. You'll to be able to cast further, for longer and feel more (for the tentative bites).
