Squid Jigging in the U.K.

We have had some glorious weather over the last week which has seen me making a couple of sea launches in search of the Spring staple, the plaice. However, when leaving the tackle shop on my way to the launch site last Saturday the owner George suggested I take a couple of squid jigs as they had been catching a few from the shore so it would be something different to try for an hour or two.

Fishing for squid and cuttlefish is becoming more and more popular in the UK but isn’t something I’ve ever tried so I had no real idea on what to do but learning something new is always fun so the jigs were added to the bag for later in the day.

After a fantastic few hours catching dozens of fat plaice, I suggested to Martin that we try for squid. We headed to a bit deeper water, and as I was still tying on my jig Martin yelled out ‘ squid on ‘. He had only hooked one on his first chuck. After that I thought it was going to be easy…. But it wasn’t.

For the next couple of hours, we kept varying the way we fished the jigs, looking for that killer technique. Martin had more success doing absolutely nothing, just letting the jig drag along the bottom as we drifted. I seemed to get more takes just gently lifting the jig a couple of foot off the bottom and letting it slowly drop back down.

When hooked squid don’t give a great fight but are still good fun on light gear. I made sure to leave them in the water until I was pretty sure they had released all of their ink, but still managed to get a face full of water as one squirted me while the camera was rolling. Luckily it wasn’t ink otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been laughing about it.

Over the course of an hour we managed a couple of big squid each, which a few hours later were turned into a delicious dinner fries with ginger and spring onion.

From sea to plate in less than six hours, it may have been the first time I’ve fished for them but certainly won’t be the last.