Squid fishing in New Zealand

As we head deeper into winter, chills of excitement go down our spines as increasing numbers of our favourite broad squid are being caught. Day or night, it makes no difference as these tasty morsels make their presence known left, right, and centre, write Ben, Jun and Rudee of Team Eging for Squid.

Early in June 2019, we made the call to venture up north to the Whangarei Heads area to prospect for some new spots as well as to celebrate Rudee’s birthday. During this period when the water is cooling down but not yet to the extent that the kahawai and kingfish schools have moved out deeper, the variety of activity in the shallows is amazing. Some days these fish, as well as those pesky seals, cause havoc chasing baitfish in the shallows. Squid fishing slows drastically then.

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That’s exactly what happened this trip, minus the seal that is. As we were all rock hopping around and casting at promising looking spots with a couple of squids being caught here and there (mostly little), we spotted some swirls in the glass calm water, followed by violent splashing that was coming straight towards the rocks at our feet. A sure sign of kingfish. Jun put his eging set aside and started casting his stickbait and about 15 minutes into it, he hooked up. The fight took a little bit of getting used to after using ultra-light squidding gear. The kingfish peel a lot of line and ended up reefing itself. The next couple of minutes were tense with Jun moving around, trying to change the angle of the line to pull it out. With no luck, Jun opened the bail arm in desperation and let the line go slack. The kingfish eventually swam out and the next round of the fight was on! This time the drag was set to maximum, and after more tug’o’wars a nice kingfish estimated around 18kg was landed! Although we didn’t catch as many squid as we wanted (the action essentially went dead after the kingfish turned up), coming back with a fat kingfish was well worth the 2:00am wake up.

Bringing a stickbait set-up paid off for Jun with a solid kingfish while on a squid trip up north before the winter temperature dropped.Bringing a stickbait set-up paid off for Jun with a solid kingfish while on a squid trip up north before the winter temperature dropped.

Ben, in particular, had been actively fishing the local areas and catching up with other fellow squid fishers, with Murrays Bay Wharf and Tamaki Yacht Club being the primary go-to places. Murrays Bay had been amazing to say the least, with squid between 200 and 800g being caught regularly. Everywhere along the wharf had been producing squid, whether in the shallows or deep. Just as Ben was about to leave on a recent day’s fishing there, he saw a nice squid hovering above the sand in around knee deep water. He quickly threw his jig out and hooked up almost instantly, which resulted in a nice 700g model being added to the bag. Ben also tried the Harbour Bridge which is known for producing some big squid, but unfortunately the action was negative. However, this could be attributed to the high activity of kahawai which work the baitfish at night.

Ben with a donkey of a squid caught right in the shallow part of the wharf.Ben with a donkey of a squid caught right in the shallow part of the wharf.

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The best things about wharves and boat ramps are that they’re super accessible and pleasant to fish, and are typically surrounded by good lighting. With that being said, these become areas where people tend to congregate and there is often limited space. This means there are some basic etiquettes that squid fishers should follow, the most of important of which is not casting your squid jig next to another person’s line (unless they say it’s okay to) when they have a squid following their jig. It is not fair on the angler who put all that hard work in enticing and attracting the squid to that stage. You also risk tangling with the other angler, resulting in precious fishing time being lost. There is nothing more frustrating than untangling lines when a school of squid is passing the area. Bear in mind where the angler’s line is and, if in doubt, ask where their line is before you cast so you don’t cast over it. Simply being considerate of others and having a little bit of common sense is all it takes for everyone to have an enjoyable eging session.

Bright colours, especially pink and orange, have been working great. As iterated in previous issues, we highly recommend bringing different jigs in a range of sizes. For times when the squid are shy, (e.g. they follow the jig in then abruptly back off for no apparent reason or they just constantly tap the jig but not grab it) opt for a smaller jig, giving them a bite-sized meal. We like to compare their actions to our own: if our bellies are content, small snacks look far more appetizing than a full-blown meal.

Thomas and Preston with a feed of squid.Thomas and Preston with a feed of squid.

Rudee, on the other hand, has opted to be a seadog recently and had the joy of taking a member of the community to experience squid fishing from a boat, showing them the ropes and the basic “how to’s”. It was Tristan’s first squid fishing experience, and to start off he was kitted with a basic outfit comprising of a simple soft-bait set up with a size 3000 reel spooled with 15lb braid. Considering they were planning to soft-bait after, this was a good way to minimise gear on the boat.

Launching from Omaha, they drifted over various weed beds close to coastline in the Whangateau Harbour in about 3-4metres of water, and casted around. The squid were very tentative at the start, barely tapping/touching the jigs on the bigger 3.5 jig sizes, so they decided to downsize it to the 2.5 and 3’s and mixed the colours a little. Wham! Take after take and double hook-ups were the norm for the trip.

A good tip for the readers is not to be afraid to use radical colours and to try every colour/size combination until you find what’s working. It is also important to remember that how you land squid is just as important as how you hook them. There are two ways to land them: by using a net or a squid gaff. We personally prefer the net method as you don’t damage the flesh on the squid as gaffs are prone to do. 

All in all, we are absolutely stoked with how squid fishing is going this year for the community. We hope all our readers are getting amongst it as the squid are only growing bigger with every passing day!

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

July 2019 - Rudee Lim, Jun Park & Ben Tupaea
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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