Summer Time is Eging Time (Squid Fishing)

Summer in the Philippines has a somewhat negative effect in fishing from my experience. Predators that regularly patrol coastal areas seem to avoid the coast and stay in deeper waters. Perhaps to get out of the heat or probably they are extra wary because in most areas the water is clearer than usual during summer.
Because fishing seems to slow down during summer, the alternative is to chase after other readily available targets such as squids.
Squids are abundant in the country and has no special season. They are mostly caught by coastal fishermen using line and home made lures. They usually drag the lure from their boat while paddling slowly. In almost every area where squid fishing is practiced, fishermen go after them at night -- particularly when the moon is bright. They are not aware that they can just as easily be caught during day time --- but with a bit special gear and technique.
In a recent trip to the north, fishing for coastal predators was extremely slow. It's a good thing I also brought my eging outfit with a bunch of squid lures. I an hour or so, I managed to catch four good sized squids. One of them is more than half a kilo. I only managed to take pics of 2.

Holy Week Eging (Squid Fishing) and Marinduque Travel Nightmares

It has been a while since I had the chance to try eging or squid fishing. This recent Holy Week was my latest chance to revisit this style of fishing and at the same time visit my parents and our old sea-side kubo (cottage) in Marinduque, my home town.

The trip to and from Marinduque during Holy Week is not for the faint hearted. Traveling to and from the island during Holy week takes absolute patience. We left Manila on March 22, which is not yet the official start of the holiday but travelling to the island was already tough. We left QC at 11pm on the 22nd. We arrived at Dalahican at exactly 2AM on the 23rd. We were eyeing the 4AM RORO trip (ferry) but for some unknown reason, our reservation which was confirmed a few days before never reached the ferry dispatch. In disgust, we had to wait for another 4hours for the next one.

We finally arrived Marinduque at around 11am. That's 12 hours of total travel time. Going home from Marinduque is another nightmare story. After a short drive and an hour of unloading and settling down, I started prepping my kayak for an initial kayak eging.

At around 4pm, I went on and launched the kayak to the nearby reef. Just before dark, I managed to catch one. At first I thought it was just a snag, but when the thing at the end of the line pulled line, I knew instantly it's a biggie squid. Almost a kilo. The most exciting thing about squid fishing is landing the catch. You have to be very careful on when exactly to land it. Not because of losing the squid but because you need  to make sure that it won't squirt ink all over your face -- which they are very good at doing. Imagine yourself in a kayak, floating over a reef under ten to fifteen feet of water, a big squid next to you squirting all over the place. You have no way of running or ducking whatsoever. Not a pretty sight really. That thing literally inked me square on the chest and tummy. It's a good thing I fished with no shirt on. Otherwise, I would have lost a a nice fishing shirt after that incident. Squid ink hardly comes off when it gets on your shirt or pants. I had to leave the kayak for a swim to get all the ink out of my body. As payback, that squid ended up as pulutan the day after.

A few more trips kayak eging produced nice sized squids which I didn't bother taking pictures. I was really after the the 1.5 to 2kg biggies. No such luck on those so maybe I might get a chance on one some other time,

My cousin JB and I tried offshore on early Easter morning. We trolled, tried madai, inchiku, and casted medium sized poppers but no such luck. JB had a hookup during trolling but the hook pulled after the fish peeled a few feet of line. We ended up near Balanacan port, which around 45 minutes by boat from our location. The water was crystal clear, corals are alive, but no sight of a single worthy fish. Then we realized, it was the full moon.

Monday we left at around 2pm to go back to Manila. As soon as we reached the port area, we were greeted by almost a kilometer of vehicles waiting  in line for the ferry ride going back to Lucena.

This is the most gruesome wait for a ferry ride in my entire life. We started waiting in line at around 2:30PM and was able to get a ride at exactly 6:30AM the following day. Ferry companies (Montenegro Lines and Star Horse Lines) in Marinduque refused to travel that night and they instead waited for the following morning. It was pretty obvious that they wanted to wait for the swarm of people instead of  ferrying only vehicles. Commuters that night were quite few as most of them would like to travel during the day. When the morning came, the hordes of people came and the captain instructed everyone to make sure that bunk beds were shared by two people. Imagine that, they prevented everyone from lying down on the bunk beds and instead asked everyone to sit down so that 2 people can accommodate each bed ----and everyone has to pay for the price of one bed. Not only they were overloading but they were also over-charging. You pay for a bunk where you are not allowed to lie down so that you can share it with someone else -- sitting down. What blatant show of greed. I really hope that karma gets them in the end.

We left our house 2pm April 1 and we arrived in Manila 2pm April 2. 24 hours total. I was so tired I could barely eat. My cousin swore that she would not go back to the place in 20 years out of frustration.

Going back to the subject of squid fishing or eging, it is a Japanese style of squid fishing.  It has specific rods, reels, line, and lures that are recommended to achieve the desired results. First off is the rod, it's very supple and has a strong back bone. It is designed for very light PE lines (6-8lbs) which is as thin as a human hair that allows the angler to cast the jigs in great distances and also provide minimum visibility so as not to spook the squids. The rod can lob a 3.5 even a 4.5 size Egi or squid jig, which is an equivalent of around 1 to 1.5 oz lure. Not only can it handle this heavy lure but it's also designed to land squids up to 3kg. Another interesting feature of this rod is its ability to absorb the vicious strokes to provide the desired action on the Egi. The stroke is called Syakluri.

The stroke is akin to whacking the rod with considerable force and rhythm a couple of times, making the jig jump erratically like a scared shrimp. The stroke literally makes the reel drag scream every time a stroke is done. The rod's tip is soft which allows it to absorb, without tearing, the sudden surge of a fleeing squid. The reel also as a unique feature. It usually has a very shallow spool. That's because it uses very light line and the shallow spool allows for extra casting distance. Another feature of these eging reel is the anti-reverse bearing which is usually tougher so as to handle the eging strokes. In my opinion, normal spinning reels will not be able to handle this style of fishing because of the constant and whack of the rod and lure.

All in all, the fishing and hanging out in the beach was fun but travelling to my island province at that time is always painful -- all because of the greedy ferry operators. May the big squids feast of their carcasses.

Marinduque Holy Week Eging Run

It has been two (2) years since we went home to Marinduque. This year's Holy Week we decided to go home to check our small cottage by the shore and visit my parents. It was also my chance to try some serious eging using a Kayak.

We arrived early last Saturday, March 31 and I wasted no time and prepped my Kayak then went for a test eging run on a reef in front of our house just before dusk. Local fishers saw me with the rod and reel with the squid jig at the end of the line and they insisted that I should wait when it's night time. According to them, that's the only time you can catch squid. After fifteen minutes or so, I got a keeper. It was around 250gms. The local fishos were surprised with the catch. It confirms my suspicions that the squids in the area are not getting too much pressure from local fishermen. The locals, as in most parts of the country, only go after squid at night and when there is a bright moonlight. The rest of the day, they are just by-catch from nets.

 

The following day, I went out with my Kayak very early at around 5 in the morning. Instead of trying the reef in front of the house, I decided to venture farther north to the next reef area where there's deeper water and lots of big rocks in the bottom. It took me almost half an hour before I caught a squid. Almost the same size as yesterday's catch. I then paddled near the shore where the water was about 5 feet deep and fan casted for around another half hour. Then a solid hit. I knew at once based on the way the squid pulled, it was a biggie. I was surprised to experience a squid pulling drag. I had to tighten my drag a bit to get it near the boat. It squirted a lot of ink and the deck of my kayak was all coated in black. When I lifted it, it was huge. It was a kilo in weight give or take a few grams. It was awesome. It was my biggest squid so far. The rod was superb and the reel was perfect for the job. After landing the big one, I decided to paddle back and have some breakfast of fresh squid on grill.

The next day, I went out again in the morning but instead of going out early, I was able to paddle out to the reef at around eight in the morning. The previous spot was being combed by spear fishers so I decided to move to another spot in the south. It was not as big a reef as the ones where I caught the two squids the previous day but it was good enough for squid I guess. True enough, I got a couple nice squids. A 250 and a 200.

In the afternoon, I went out again on the same spot. It was a bit windy but the current was flowing so I figured, the squids might be active. I tried a few egi in the size 2.5 but no takers. I switched to a 3.0 in blue and got this nice moma. Its around 3/4 kg in my estimate.

After the bounty of the previous days, the squids were nowhere to be found except for a few small ones. It was when the moon was almost full and the locals said that it is the time where these critters are most active. My suspicion is that the squids have gotten their fill of prey at night and are no longer feeding in the morning.

This morning, on our way back to Manila, while waiting for the ferry to leave, I decided to do some eging in the pier. It was 4 in morning and the ferry will not leave until 6:30. I also noticed that the moon was still up and bright. I casted the lure near the waiting ferry. No followers or takers. I transferred to a well lit area in the dock and casted as far as I can on the edge of the lighted area. As soon as the lure hits the water, I got a hit. It was also big, probably half a kilo.

My fishing goal of eging in Marinduque was a success. Looking forward to the next vacation. I heard that during December, squids are considerably bigger. Some even reaching 2 kgs. Wow! That, I got to see.

Eging (Squid Fishing) in Subic

Together with my wife, kids, and our dog, we visited my father-in-law in Subic last weekend. My other agenda was also to do some eging. My goal was to visit my father in law, drop off my kids and wife, have lunch and be in the fishing spot by 1pm until 3pm -- the perfect time for eging according to the tide table.

We left Manila at around 8am, reached Subic and 10:30 and then did our visit. But then, I was requested to do some other errands, like buying a beach chair --- I was using my trusted pickup truck where the chair will fit. Anyway, after so much running around Subic, I finally was able to reach the spot at around 1:30. Not too bad. But then, the wind was howling and I have been getting a lot of wind knots on my spinning reel. After a lot of clipping line (I had to reduce the amount of braid to prevent back lashes), I was able to get some eging action.

First lure, a size 2.5 blue Yozuri lure, which was my favorite. Four or five casts later, I snagged an abandoned fishing net. Poachers! After tugging the lure to unfree it, the jags pulled from the body of the lure. It can still be salvaged, a thick coat of epoxy should fix it. I tied on a Yamashita in Pink. Size 3.0. The sink rate was about 3sec/meter which was ok. After about half a dozen casts, I got a take. It's a good sized squid, probably 250gms. I had no net at that time and when I lifted the squid, the lure pulled free and the squid fell on a rock near the water. It gave a big push by squirting water and ink and it managed to land on the water and escape.

Anyway, at least I know that pink was the color they like. Tried a few more casts and a got solid take while the jig was almost near the surface. It was a strong pull and I knew it was a bigger squid. I can hear my reel's drag clicking. By the way, when eging, you need to set the drag low so when you get a strike, and make a hook set, the jig will not rip the tentacles out from the squid. Unknown to me, there were three small kids watching me as I was eging. When I lifted the squid from the water, it made a really strong squirt of water and ink into the sky that it literally rained with blank ink. The kids ran screaming while trying to avoid getting inked. It was hilarious.

I went on with casting until 3pm and lost the pink Yamashita jig due to a snag. I also lost a JDM jig due to a snag. I plan on getting cheaper jigs so that I when I lose them, it wouldn't be too expensive.

Eging (Squid Fishing) in Subic Bay

This coming Monday is a Public Holiday in PH and that means it's a long weekend and lots of time to fish. We were planning to go to Calatagan Batangas to try Anglers' Hideaway fishing pond and also to fish the nearby reef. Fellow anglers would like to test popping the reef while I would like to try eging or squid fishing as I recently acquired a size 1500 Team Daiwa Advantage reel and got a couple of Japanese egi jigs from overseas courtesy of Shakespear (Chris). Unfortunately, a typhoon also got interested with the long weekend and made it's way from Mindanao up to North. By estimate, it would arrive in Batangas Saturday and fishing will be impossible. So we cancelled the Batangas trip and hurriedly decided to to further north to Subic to avoid the storm. My estimate is that the storm would not arrive until the afternoon of Saturday.

To get more fishing time, we left Manila 2am and arrived Subic 4:30. When we got there, the signs of the impending storm is all over. The moon is barely visible due to the rain clouds. Bong, Miko, and RC quickly got to work and chucked their DIY poppers using 8ft popping rods and size 8000 Shimano reels. Me, I started with micro spoons, jigs, and poppers. No takers on any of the poppers and my micro lures. To make matters worse, I kept on getting tangles on my braid because I again overfilled the spool. After removing excess line, I got to tune the reel. By 8am, still no signs of fish. No feeding activities whatsoever.

By 10 am, we only got a small bagaong and a couple of small trevallies. I decided to abandon other lures and concentrated with Eging. At first no takers on the squid jigs in natural, blue, and purple. I remembered the tip from the Yozuri youtube channel to use pink when the day is cloudy and the water is turbulent. I got my small pink jig and after 5 casts, a solid pull and squid on.

On the same spot squids kept on attacking the jig but most of them are small and all I landed were pieces of tentacles that got pulled out from the squids. By lunchtime, it started pouring and the water turned cloudy. By then, the squids stopped biting. If there was no rain, there could have been more squids landed. At around 1pm the rain poured without letup. We were so drenched and decided to call it a day. 
After the trip, I got one trevally (released) and four squids for my wife.

The squidding combo I used was a Daiwa E-GEE 80ML and a Team Daiwa Advandtage 1500 loaded with 15lb powerpro and 12lb Yozuri Flouro. I realized that the eging-specific gear really improves the chances of catching squid as it imparts the correct action to the squid jigs. The really light flourocarbon leader is also an advantage. I was using 15lb but the recommended is around 6-8lbs. Other anglers who were with me tried casting squid jigs on the same spot but got no takers. They were using heavy leaders and slightly stiffer rods. Another thing, the size and color of squid jigs are important depending on the condition of the area. It is possible to catch them without eging-specific gears but there are higher chances with the correct gear. I will again try eging hopefully in Batangas. I just hope the weather will cooperate.

Eging and Ultralight Jigging in Subic Bay

We went to Subic over the weekend. Even though the weather is less than desirable, I gave eging and fishing using light lures a go.

First try was eging. I had so many problems with the spinning reel. I think I overfilled the reel with braid or the reel is not made for braid so it does not cast properly. Everytime I cast, the line gets terrible backlash. Imagine that, backlash on a spinning reel. I used up most of my fishing time fixing the tangles.

Anyway, I was able to get a squid using a Blue 2.5 Yozuri Egi. I actually got three hookups but the other two got away.

Then it rained for the most part of the morning. Somehow squids stopped biting when the rain started. So, I shifted to a 20gram jig and caught three kitoks. I need to get real spinning reel in the 1500 size and some 6 or 8lb braid. This eging and ultralight jigging/popping thing is getting addicting.  :devil: