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Tuesday, 12 June 2007

Squid on a jig... trust me - this works!

A few months back I was chatting with Victoria's Hobie dealer, Scott Lovig and as is often the case, we were discussing ways and means of targetting Snapper. Scott came up with an idea that I had actually considered trying in the past. When he reminded me of this idea I decided to try it out the next time I went fishing. The suggestion was to use an off cut off a Squid to use as a surrogate soft plastic. Kind of a real fake, so to speak. Why not... Squid is a pretty tough flesh and has the handy attribute of holding onto a hook nicely. It's also kind of rubbery, which gives the fish something to grab onto. And because it is fresh squid, by rights, it should also taste damned good as well. Looks like worm, tastes like Calamari... hmm...

Squidplastic - beat that Squidgy's!

So in undertaking the experiment, I chose a smallish bullet-nosed style lead jighead and fitted it with a smallish Squid tentacle, as pictured above. I liked the idea of this concept when I first thought of the idea and was encouraged when Scott came up with it himself. But when I saw that little rubbery tentacle resting on the hook I just knew it would catch fish. Sure enough, I hooked up on the first cast, on the drop (as is often the case with pinkies). As you could imagine I was pretty pleased with the result and will be adding this strategy to my arsenal. I can see it being useful in certain scenarios.

So far I've only tried this a few times and only with tentacles (as I tend to eat the rest). Scott suggested that it would be possible to craft some pretty interesting surrogate soft plastic lures out of Squid flesh. If I get any bright ideas for other ways to go about it I'll be sure to try them out and report on the results - perhaps I could come up with some nice designs from the wings. I'd be interested to know if there's anyone else out there who has tried this tecnique (or any variation of it).