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Squidding in Botany Bay


Ponchy

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Hey guys,

It's my first post here, so lets hope this goes alright.

I've been trying to find some squid in Botany Bay for the past few months with little to no luck. I've tried the weed beds opposite of Captain Cooks Landing, with absolutely no luck. Bumbora point and the rock wall off of the surf club in Yarra Bay have produced some, however on very few occasions. The rock wall opposite the surf club has mainly produced arrow squid for me, whereas Bombora point has produced one calamari.

I recently purchased some Yamashita jigs, which are supposedly the best in the game. I have tried them out a few times in the bay, but without any takers.

I have heard that the area in and around Towra point and Towra beach can be productive. Has anyone had any luck around that area?

I'm currently running on a 5.7 M halfcabin, so I think ill be able to travel all around the bay. 

I was just wondering if anyone was willing to offer some advice on targeting squid? I'm not expecting any secret spots, but any knowledge offered would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers.

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Hi Ponchy,  

There are definitely squid in those areas so I think maybe you need to change your approach.  Tell us a little about the amount of time you are putting in and your technique.  How many are fishing with you? 

The Kurnell side is probably my preferred spot in the bay. Around Bare Island ( be aware of the bommie) also produces for me. 

I'd recommend drifting over anchoring.  You should be getting weed on your jigs and snagged a bit otherwise you are not in the zone. I tend to squid with at least 12lb line and leader to minimise losses as the squid don't seem to care.  

Any area with a mixture of kelp/weed sand and rock is good.  One method to try is to move into an area close in and fan a series of casts towards the shoreline and all around the boat. Change jig try again and if it's not working move.  It doesn't have to be a big move just to a new spot.   If you start getting them stay there and watch for followers it's always worthwhile having another rod ready or your mate cast at it as you will often get two.  If you think you have one don't strike at such but do lift the rod with the aim of the barbs penetrating as often the squid just hold on and let go when they choose.   Keep a steady tension on them so they can't easily release themselves so don't pump and wind.

There is no need to have some massive ripping action or going to fast, it's more likely you are going to fast then to slow.   Think of how far the rod tip moves and how far the jig moves in the water.  A lift and drop often works. Mix it up and see what happens, Make sure you allow enough time for the jig to drop staying in the zone.   If you aren't getting snagged occasionally your jig isn't in the zone. 
 

Another method is to go a little wider and drift.  You should be able to manage two or three rods doing this.   Have an idea what depth you are in and think about where the jig might be in the water column. When doing this I'd usually pick up a rod give it a few twitches drop it back in the holder and do the same with another.  You'd be surprised how often it's the unattended rod that picks them up.  Over time you will have a pretty good idea if it's weed or squid.   Again you should be getting weed on the jigs or snagged occasionally.   Put the cheap jig on the unattended rod so it doesn't hurt as much if you lose it. 
 

Change drifts and jigs if it's not working repeat the drift when it does. It's worthwhile to dedicate a whole day to squidding rather than giving up and moving on to fishing. Don't be scared to squid in deeper water if you are not getting into the zone you can use a sea anchor to slow the drift or a small sinker above the jig works well. 
 

I have never squidded off Towra but I don't doubt it would produce. 
 

Welcome to the forum.


 

 

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Hi Welster,

Thanks for the reply. The information you offered was terrific. 

At the moment, I usually dedicate 2 hours purely targeting squid. I often go out with 2 others who are also targeting squid. We usually have one rod each, but don't often leave a rod out the back. 

As for my technique, I flick the jig out into the general area of the weed beds, letting it sink the the bottom. Once it sinks, I wind it in slowly, occasionally flicking it up twice.

I'll definitely try slowing down my wind the next time I get to get out there. 

When you're looking for squid on the Kurnell side, where abouts are you setting up the drift? Every time I drift within that area, I find myself drifting out towards the oil tanker docked at the bridge quite quickly.

Thanks again, Welster, I really appreciate it.

Its great seeing such a friendly and welcoming community.

Cheers.

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Im new at it myself & watch as much footage as possible to get locations & a better idea of technique.

And when I say footage thats both fishing shows & youtubes, whatever I can find.

I look for familiar land marks & then go there & have a try, sometimes it works, sometimes you just have to move on & try another area.

 

Also use the search tab on here to look at the past fishing reports.

This was only put up by @jenno64 the other day, he's telling you where he was in this report!

 

Squid will show up anywhere in the bay, Ive been fishing for flathead using SP's in the middle(actually almost all over the place) of the bay & had them follow my lure up.

For that reason I have another rod rigged up with a jig, I leave the SP in th water & replace it with my jig.

Not the most sporting way to pick them up but then again if they show up Im going to try & catch them.

 

As Wesler is saying, those areas will produce.

Sometimes it comes down to colour & rate of decent/weight.

I have a jig bag with 6 2.5's, 6 3.0's & 6 3.5's of different colours & brands.

As you can see from the report jenno64 used a couple of colours, maybe they went off the one colour so you have to be prepared to change it up :thumbup:

 

You just have to persist.

 

Good luck.

Edited by kingie chaser
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9 minutes ago, kingie chaser said:

Im new at it myself & watch as much footage as possible to get locations & a better idea of technique.

And when I say footage thats both fishing shows & youtubes, whatever I can find.

I look for familiar land marks & then go there & have a try, sometimes it works, sometimes you just have to move on & try another area.

 

Also use the search tab on here to look at the past fishing reports.

This was only put up by @jenno64 the other day, he's telling you where he was in this report!

 

Squid will show up anywhere in the bay, Ive been fishing for flathead using SP's in the middle(actually almost all over the place) of the bay & had them follow my lure up.

For that reason & have another rod rigged up with a jig, I leave the SP in th water & replace it with my jig.

Not the most sporting way to pick them up but then again if they show up Im going to try & catch them.

 

As Wesler is saying, those areas will produce.

Sometimes it comes down to colour & rate of decent/weight.

I have a jig bag with 6 2.5's, 6 3.0's & 6 3.5's of different colours & brands.

As you can see from the report jenno64 used a couple of colours, maybe they went off the one colour so you have to be prepared to change it up :thumbup:

 

You just have to persist.

 

Good luck.

Hi Kingie Chaser,

Thanks for the help. Jenno managed to get some huge ones!

The squid really do seem to pop up anywhere. I saw one chasing after my lure while I was flicking it around off Molineux Point.

I'll try switching up the colours. I've been mainly sticking to brighter colours, but i'll try out some natural ones on the next trip out.

I just wanted to ask if you could help me pinpoint as to where the "mouth of Botany Bay" is? Im assuming it's to the west of Towra point? Or is it around Towra Point?

All the best, Kingie chaser.

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Ponchy said:

Hi Kingie Chaser,

Thanks for the help. Jenno managed to get some huge ones!

The squid really do seem to pop up anywhere. I saw one chasing after my lure while I was flicking it around off Molineux Point.

I'll try switching up the colours. I've been mainly sticking to brighter colours, but i'll try out some natural ones on the next trip out.

I just wanted to ask if you could help me pinpoint as to where the "mouth of Botany Bay" is? Im assuming it's to the west of Towra point? Or is it around Towra Point?

All the best, Kingie chaser.

 

 

East ot Towra, he is referring to the heads.

Just be aware its classed as open water so you need to ensure you have all the gear you need, maratime will often do checks! 

9f-botany-bay-lower-georges-cooks.pdf

As mentioned there is a lot of info in here, people are often chasing them to use for Kingy bait so I'd look under both topics-

Botany bay squid or Botany bay kings.

E.g

 

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1 hour ago, Ponchy said:

Hi Welster,

Thanks for the reply. The information you offered was terrific. 

At the moment, I usually dedicate 2 hours purely targeting squid. I often go out with 2 others who are also targeting squid. We usually have one rod each, but don't often leave a rod out the back. 

As for my technique, I flick the jig out into the general area of the weed beds, letting it sink the the bottom. Once it sinks, I wind it in slowly, occasionally flicking it up twice.

I'll definitely try slowing down my wind the next time I get to get out there. 

When you're looking for squid on the Kurnell side, where abouts are you setting up the drift? Every time I drift within that area, I find myself drifting out towards the oil tanker docked at the bridge quite quickly.

Thanks again, Welster, I really appreciate it.

Its great seeing such a friendly and welcoming community.

Cheers.

When you flick be sure to it let it drop they generally take it on the drop. Try to maintain contact with your jig.   They are very curious creatures.   On quite a few occasions I have been frustrated by them just following the jig and looking.  In that instance I usually keep changing jigs or technique.

As for location around Kurnell it depends on the wind and drift a bit but literally anywhere from right in close over Watts reef and out near the markers and into the oil wharf.   I generally don't get as far as the end of the wharf although once when we got hit by a rain storm the arrow squid were smashing jigs as soon as they hit the  surface and further out than the wharf. I mostly get green eye.   Getting occasionally snagged and weed on the jigs is a good guide though and when you find them drift over the spot again it's amazing how often you pick up more in exactly the same spot. 
 

 

 

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1 hour ago, kingie chaser said:

East ot Towra, he is referring to the heads.

Just be aware its classed as open water so you need to ensure you have all the gear you need, maratime will often do checks! 

9f-botany-bay-lower-georges-cooks.pdf 2.95 MB · 1 download

As mentioned there is a lot of info in here, people are often chasing them to use for Kingy bait so I'd look under both topics-

Botany bay squid or Botany bay kings.

E.g

 

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at the other topics for more information.

19 minutes ago, Welster said:

When you flick be sure to it let it drop they generally take it on the drop. Try to maintain contact with your jig.   They are very curious creatures.   On quite a few occasions I have been frustrated by them just following the jig and looking.  In that instance I usually keep changing jigs or technique.

As for location around Kurnell it depends on the wind and drift a bit but literally anywhere from right in close over Watts reef and out near the markers and into the oil wharf.   I generally don't get as far as the end of the wharf although once when we got hit by a rain storm the arrow squid were smashing jigs as soon as they hit the  surface and further out than the wharf. I mostly get green eye.   Getting occasionally snagged and weed on the jigs is a good guide though and when you find them drift over the spot again it's amazing how often you pick up more in exactly the same spot. 
 

 

 

Thanks heaps Welster. I'll take all of this on board and will try them out on my next trip out.

 

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Always did well along the eastern shoreline of Cruwee Cove. Look for the large white boulders in the water surrounded by weed. As already said, change lure sizes and colours...squid are a visual hunter.

J

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Hey Mate, give these spots a try with the red circles.

In Botany Bay - i find the squid are throughout the bay generally but they will be more plentiful closer to the heads where there is more fresh water.

You can also fish around Bare Island for squid - but be very careful of the swell and the bombora. observe from a distance for at least 15-20 minutes before picking up your drift.

Botany Squid.png

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Its funny, I'm primarily a landbased fisherman and often chase squid. I find they're either there or you just have to wait til they're there. Action and colour tend to make a huge difference landbased.

However, in saying that, I also fish off a boat now and then, and in all the locations you mentioned I get squid there too. What i found with boat is no action works better than with action. Basically I just either drop it down or cast it out and drop it down and then just leave it. Doesn't matter if Im on top of weed or not I got squid. Only thing I was careful about was when over reef cause I didn't want to lose my jig. Also didn't matter if I was running 20lb or 50lb line.

I suppose my advice would be to give a few goes, say around 4-5 cast in a couple of different areas, and if you get no takers, move on to the next location, dont waste your time. The squid move around, in some locations they move in circles taking around 1-2hrs before reaching the same point of the circle again. In large bays like Botany I'm not too familiar with the patterns just yet.

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Search ‘Shroom’ on youtube

you will find some videos by nbdshroom, fishing for squid in some of those locations, I’m sure you will get plenty of information from them

 

 

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On 7/12/2020 at 6:32 PM, Jocler said:

Always did well along the eastern shoreline of Cruwee Cove. Look for the large white boulders in the water surrounded by weed. As already said, change lure sizes and colours...squid are a visual hunter.

J

Thanks for the info, Jocler. I will give Cruwee Cove a go the next time i'm out there.

On 7/13/2020 at 9:16 AM, GoingFishing said:

Hey Mate, give these spots a try with the red circles.

In Botany Bay - i find the squid are throughout the bay generally but they will be more plentiful closer to the heads where there is more fresh water.

You can also fish around Bare Island for squid - but be very careful of the swell and the bombora. observe from a distance for at least 15-20 minutes before picking up your drift.

Botany Squid.png

Cheers mate. The bombora off of bare island does seem quite dangerous. And it's scary how many boats I often see sitting right in front of the bombora, even when the swell is large.

On 7/13/2020 at 1:40 PM, Rob81 said:

Its funny, I'm primarily a landbased fisherman and often chase squid. I find they're either there or you just have to wait til they're there. Action and colour tend to make a huge difference landbased.

However, in saying that, I also fish off a boat now and then, and in all the locations you mentioned I get squid there too. What i found with boat is no action works better than with action. Basically I just either drop it down or cast it out and drop it down and then just leave it. Doesn't matter if Im on top of weed or not I got squid. Only thing I was careful about was when over reef cause I didn't want to lose my jig. Also didn't matter if I was running 20lb or 50lb line.

I suppose my advice would be to give a few goes, say around 4-5 cast in a couple of different areas, and if you get no takers, move on to the next location, dont waste your time. The squid move around, in some locations they move in circles taking around 1-2hrs before reaching the same point of the circle again. In large bays like Botany I'm not too familiar with the patterns just yet.

Thanks for the info Rob. The no action on the retrieval is new to me, i'll definitely try it on my next trip out.

18 hours ago, J0nn0 said:

Search ‘Shroom’ on youtube

you will find some videos by nbdshroom, fishing for squid in some of those locations, I’m sure you will get plenty of information from them

 

 

Cheers Jonno, I'll take a look at his videos.

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