Freezing hands, frosty breath and difficult fishing conditions convince many anglers to take a hiatus from fishing, but for us and a growing number of like-minded anglers, it presents an exciting opportunity – eging for squid.

In recent times, squid fishing has been gaining a lot of traction in New Zealand – and it can really provide that fishing fix! You may well have encountered and unknowingly witnessed squid fishing activity on a calm winter’s night. Perhaps you have caught glimpses of people fishing from breakwaters under the streetlights or bright LED lights floating around in the darkness, or maybe you’ve seen jetties and wharves stained with black ink.

Due to the squid’s odd life cycle – they live for only a year – timed with their main predatory fish migrating into deeper waters, the squid come into the shallows to feed and breed during the colder months. The main species of squid caught inshore in New Zealand is the broad squid or southern calamari.

Squid are more readily targeted in winter, which explains the surge in the number of anglers fishing for these creatures.

After realising what was going on, curiosity got the best of us, and we decided to give squid fishing a try. A background in land-based fishing, coupled with a passion for lure fishing – micro-jigging and soft-baiting – made for a natural transition to the art of squid fishing. Although a lot more challenging than expected, once the secrets were unlocked, the addiction quickly followed.

Sharing this interest and passion between three enthusiastic anglers led to the formation of a group called Eging for Squid, which aims to share our adventures and love for squid fishing.

Squid fishing is a specialised form of lure fishing that provides a unique experience in that it revolves around intricately manipulating a form of lure called a squid jig or ‘egi’. This lure resembles a prawn or baitfish and comes in vast range of colours in various sizes.

There are several methods to catch squid but by far the most productive is through a technique called ‘eging’. This involves casting the jig out to cover as much water as possible, then letting it sink to as close to the bottom as you dare before violently whipping the rod two to three times while winding in the slack, before letting the jig sink again and repeating the process. In a way it is similar to soft-baiting.

Although simple in theory, to enjoy regular success at squid fishing requires a certain degree of finesse. There can be no denying that there is a small learning curve and at times eging can be a bit challenging, particularly at the start. Like all forms of lure fishing, or learning any new sport/pastime, it takes a bit of time and effort to develop the muscle memory to fine-tune this technique. Initially, you will snag on countless pieces of weed or come up empty.

But there comes a point when a piece of snagged weed suddenly has a life of its own and starts to pulsate, sometimes rather violently. This is confirmation a squid has hooked up and the feeling of success is truly euphoric. One cannot ever get sick of that feeling, and to this day, we still get a kick out of every hook up. This, for the most part, is what accounts for our addiction to eging.

Did we also mention that broad squid are considered a delicacy, rated up there with crayfish? It is one of our favourite types of seafood. You can’t go wrong with fresh calamari as there are so many of ways to cook it. One of our favourite recipes is lemon-pepper squid, which is very simple to prepare and tastes amazing. Although not recommended, broad squid make excellent bait as well.

Measuring the success of squid fishing is mainly determined by how consistently they are caught, as opposed to their size or the number caught in any one session. In a way, squid fishing and fishing in general is like playing poker. On a lucky night, anybody can have a winning hand, just like catching the biggest fish or the most fish. But over many thousands of hands played, the better poker player will have a much higher win percentage.

The same applies to squid fishing. On many nights, fishing can get particularly challenging because squid can get quite shy and refuse to take any offering. In these instances, it is crucial to get the combination of technique, jig colour and size right. It makes the difference between catching a feed or going back home emptyhanded.

It’s these challenges and the technical nature of the technique that continues to draw us towards squid fishing.

Just when we thought we knew all there was to know about squid fishing, we were proved wrong. Gen Sato from Auckland tackle outfitters Yeehaa Fishing Tackle grew up squid fishing in Japan, the country where the art of eging originated. After many years of developing and refining his knowledge and craft in this area, his understanding of squid fishing is mind-boggling to say the least. It was a real eye-opener when we realised there was actually a large knowledge gap in the way we fished for squid.

After many hours of absorbing his words of wisdom, we changed our approach and put some of these new learnings into practice. Needless to say, the results were immediate. Our catch rates were significantly better and our perspective on squid fishing started to evolve.

What we realised through all this was that there is still a massive knowledge gap around squid fishing in New Zealand. Outside the introduction to the technique in its most basic form, and some knowledge around the colour and size of jigs, there are still many facets of squid fishing that have only been touched on in the most superficial way. Knowing these facets in detail can be the difference between catching nothing, and catching good numbers on a consistent basis.

Despite the common misconception that the approaches used in Japan are not suitable for our less aggressive squid in New Zealand waters, we found that there are still a lot of things that are applicable here to increase our catch rates. As such, it is in the team’s best interests to fill as many of these knowledge gaps as possible through experimenting with new approaches and pushing the boundaries of what is considered the norm of squid fishing.

We will be exploring many of these facets in future editions in the hope of increasing readers’ catch rates.

	July - 2018 - Jun Park, Ben Tupaea and Rudee Lim New Zealand Fishing News Magazine. Copyright: NZ Fishing Media Ltd. Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited