Ready to elevate your squid jigging game? Look no further! This comprehensive guide delves into squid jigging, covering everything from rigging your gear to mastering the perfect technique. Rigging: Learn the ins and outs of setting up your squid jigging gear like a pro. From selecting the right jigs to tying the perfect knots, we'll walk you through each step to ensure your rig is optimized for success. Technique: Discover the secrets to effective squid jigging technique. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned angler, our expert tips and tricks will help you refine your approach, maximize your catch rate, and confidently reel in squid. Join us as we embark on a squid-jigging journey like no other. Whether you're a novice angler eager to learn the ropes or a seasoned squid hunter looking to up your game, this video has something for everyone. After you watch the video shop squid jigs here. 

Video Transcript:

I'm captain Max Dispoto from East Coast Charters I'm at the Saltwater Edge today to talk to you about my favorite way to kick off the saltwater season and I'm going to go through the basics of squid

fishing is something special for our area not only are they the first arrivals on the saltwater side of things but they're accessible for everyone you can fish for them from Shore you go on a headboat and catch them that way or you can take your own private boat out not have to go far from Shore to catch them there's also good reasons to fish for squid they're very plentiful so it provides a sustainable meal for you and your family they're good it's a good way to stock up on bait for the season you could freeze them afterwards and it's just good fun to go out with your friends and catch them after a long winter of sitting inside let's talk about what you need to get into squid fishing good news is about squid fishing you really don't need much if you have a light tackle inore setup that you use for stripers Al bass for the rest of the season you're already halfway there after that grab some squid jigs leader and you're basically good to go my go-to squid jigging Rod is the Shimano taliva type J 6ot light paired of a Shimano spheros 5000 reel you can go down as low as a 3000 4,000 size reel really whatever balances the rod right and for a rod you want a light Rod because you're really only going to be using two three maybe up to four ounces of weight when jigging squid so you want it light enough to see the bite but also heavy enough to hold the weight that you're using because of a lot of our squid fishing is done here at night I like to fill my reels with 20 lb Power Pro super slick V2 in the color moonshine moonshine glows under UV light so you're able to see it I use these UV light strips um usually when squid fishing at night you're using underwater lights or above water flood lights to attract the squid so you have some sort of power source you could hook these up to and then I zip tie these to my T-top a seat and when these are on you're able to see your line in the water as it glows now let's talk about squid jigs squid jigs are different from any other lure that we really use cuz they don't have hooks on them they have prongs on them that the squid come up and grab and the prongs can't latch onto their tentacles there's many different shapes sizes weights to different squid digs overall it's usually a slender profile some have a slight curve to them like this one some are straight some have a bulky end to represent another smaller squid um but overall usually small weight on it or floating and then the prongs on the back and that's your basic squid jig this specific jig is the Shimano safia clinch jig this jig got introduced to the market last year and like any lure when it comes out yeah it takes time to gain confidence in it you don't want to give up what lures you have confidence in and switch right over to these so luckily for squid fishing we're using high low rigs most of the times two jigs on each rig so I would run one of these on the high or the low and have my traditional jig that I was using before that I had the most confidence in on the other one and it seemed like every time I caught one squid it was always on this one so I kept switching it up switching it up and eventually I gained enough confidence and it really out fishes the other jigs that I've been using so now this is my go-to squid jig as I'm holding this jig you may notice that it looks like it's moving this is shimano's Flash boost technology and what sets it AP part from any other squid jig flash boost is this reflective plate held by two micro Springs that constantly shimmers light off of it when using the lure this shimmering action of The Flash boost gives it a lifelike action and reflects natural light off of it when fishing during the day which is important because squid are highly visual hunters and then when fishing at night using above waterer lights or under water lights in the dark ocean water when any of that artificial light hits it it creates an innate almost instant reaction strike from the squid when that light is reflected off of it now let's talk about the basic squid jig rigging the the traditional squid jig rig is a high low rig using two separate Jigs and a sinker below them so going from my braid I use a small swivel the advantage of using a swivel instead of a line a leader knot is to prevent line twists when dropping these squid jigs down using a sinker the jigs are going to spin and will twist your line the swivel should prevent that from happening going from our small swivel we'll be going to a light fluorocarbon leader I like sticking to the 8 to 12 lb range of fluorocarbon the lighter fluorocarbon gives The Jig more action when jigging them we're going to be putting two dropper Loops in the leader and then a sinker loop at the bottom so starting with the first dropper Loop give it about 12 to 18 in from your swivel little space from your braid and to tie the dropper Loop just double up your line create a loop in the line find the center point of that doubled up point and twist it four to five times and then just run the other side of the loop back through the center that Middle

Point when making these dropper Loops you want to make it just big enough to where you could fit The Jig under but not too long so when you're jigging them The Jig will get tangled up around the line the smaller the loop the less likely it is to get tangled on the line those prongs catching the leader so right there is about the right size that I like for making these squid jigs gives it enough action free enough Freedom enough action but then also won't get tangled as much then going about another 12 in down from your first dropper Loop you're going to do the same thing make a second dropper Loop double the line up create a middle point in that doubled up Point twist four to five times and run the back side of that Loop through that middle

point so there we have our two dropper Loops made swivel two dropper loops and then about 12 to another 12 to 18 in from there just make our Sinker Loop all you could do with that a simple overhand knot surgeons Loop double surgeons Loop not using much weight here won't really get hung on the bottom much it's just a normal overhand knot does the

trick that finishes off your basic high low rig to attach the squid jigs to The Dropper Loop all you're going to do is pass the end of the dropper Loop through the eye of the lure pull the knot through the eye of the hook so it's able to reach around pass it over the

prongs all the way back up and through the eye again and it's attached when setting up a rig I like to do two different colors um this one I have the white and greenish one now for this one I'll do a clear almost Wonderbread color I like to do when starting off not really sure what each day or night is going to bring I like to do one solid color of these Shimano safia clinch jigs then one of the clear colors seems like day to day night to night one one color will outperform the other so I always like seeing what that day or night is going to bring and adjust as the day or night goes on here are our two jigs on the high low rig that we made one solid color up top one clear color down the bottom to see which one for that day or night is going to bring and when I tied the dropper Loop smaller you can see that they still have the action to work The Jig when you're jigging it but also they aren't getting twisted up and the prongs aren't getting caught on the leader if you made the dropper Loops too big you would see more times than not you're going to get tangled but these smaller dropper Loops give the advantage of not getting tangled more now let's get into technique as we were talking about squid fishing being so accessible this is a great example of how accessible it could be this necessarily isn't one of these spots we didn't want to burn any of the actual spots in respect of everyone else that fishes them but any of the public peers docks Bridges you just walk down them fish them try them and figure out where the squid are hanging and can really fill buckets by just coming down to any of these public places now getting into the technique for squid fishing fishing from a pier a bridge a dock or even a boat it's all kind of the same um it's basic I'm going to go into it but there isn't much to it starting off we have our Sinker now on this high low rig and I always start off by going straight to the bottom at night they usually come up higher in the water column but during the day tend more to be down near the bottom but all it is is a slow lift just to get those jigs a slow um a realistic lifelike action just all it is is really giving the the jigs some lifelike imitation without doing too much to it it's almost less is more with this and the boat you could basically just dead stick these jigs if the boat's rocking a little bit but also give it make sure you don't want it sitting perfectly still as I'm working the jigs especially in deeper water and starting off today I'll slowly work it through the water column aside from the slow lifting and dropping motion that you're going to do sometimes I'll add slow reel in between just to figure out where the squid are sitting in the water column some days they're right on the bottom sometimes at night they come up right to the surface so just finding where they're hanging and adjusting to that as the day or night goes on the light action of the rod comes into play with detecting the squid bite you aren't really going to feel a hard hit or a hard thump sometimes you might get a slight tick in the rod if they hit it pretty aggressively most of the time it's just going to be you're doing the slow jigging motion and it's going to feel a little heavy or a little laggy when you're lifting you get the Cadence of it and you're going to feel something's on there it's not really going to be that hard hit and once you feel that you're not going to want to set the hook you aren't going to want to reel up really quick everything is nice and easy with this just slowly reel it up don't rip the spikes out of the tentacles sometimes you'll have the squid only buy one or two tentacles in the spike and if you set the hook or reel it up really fast it's going to rip out of it and you're going to lose it so just slowly reel it up flip it over the rail if you're on a bridge get it in the boat if you're on a boat and you got one aside from the traditional high low rig that most of the time you'll be using when squid fishing the Shimano Sofia clinch jig with its integrated chin weight has opened up a new opportunity and a different way to catch the squid kind of that aligns more with our traditional fishing methods you're able to fish this jig like a single lure on this I just have it tied on to a normal fluorocarbon leader I switched up to a little longer Rod to get casting distance out of it this is the Shimano travala 7t light paired again with a spos 5000 as you can tell I run spos it's I know all my inore setups now they really have become my inore Workhorse reel and for the money you can't beat them um I've used them anything stripers ALB squid and I'm been really happy with them and again this is just another one of my lighter inore setups that I transfer over to squid fishing so for this technique just have it tied on a single jig and when fish in docks bridges on a boat when the squid are up in the lights at night you're able to pitch or cast this jig let it sink down it sinks at about a foot and a half for every 2 seconds so you're able to count it down 10 seconds 15 seconds or if they're right on the surface you're able to work it right across the surface cast it out twitch it like the walk the dog motion this jig works just like a normal lure you're able to catch them like nor any other fish that we fish for rather than the traditional high low squid jigging thank you guys for watching if you have any other questions about squid fishing you can drop them in the comments or contact me directly um if you want to get out fishing squid fishing inshore offshore you can find me through East Coast Charters um find all your squid tackle at saltwater Edge and hopefully the season starts getting going soon