Cape Cod and Surrounding Sounds - Squid

[Cincinnati]

I read an article in this month's 'On the Water' that talked a lot about the squid in and around eastern CT, RI and MA. The stripers, of course, are targeting the squid in May and early June during the squid hatch. The article points out that the bigger stripers hunt on the bottom and that the squid change colors from pink/white to a dark red when threatened by predator fish.

The approach to catching these hogs is to troll on the bottom using white/pink/red parachute jigs. Now I've used these jigs in the SW CT LI Sound, but not in the spring - usually white or bright green colors. I use them when the water warms in July/Aug to target the deep cooler water reefs/structure.

Any of you NE boys know if this approach really works in the spring (hint = NE TBOT)? Up until now, I've been planning on fishing the spring run with soft plastics in the rips (9" slug-go and 10" fin-s with 1-1.25 oz jig heads).

[ILLOGICAL GGC]

cinci
those same piggys winter with us in north carolina.our 3 primary methods of fishing for 'em is:
1) stretch 35s and 50s trolled to find nonactively feeding fish.
2) slow troll a rig called a mojo rig which consist of a huge chunk of round lead up to 36 ozs with a 15/0 hook molded into it with a 10 in swimming soft plastic fin-s type and a floating jig 4-8 feet behind it
3) with an active feeding school after menhaden , we jig anything from flat butterbean style bucktails over 2oz with either white or chartruse 6" tails or similar leadhead variations thereof.
this season the jig of choice was the parachutes with same 6" tails. each year seems some bait mfg. comes out with something new.
my jig of choice ended up being 2-1/2 oz SPRO shad pattern w/o tails . i cursed roland martin for 2 trips w/o a bite with it but the last trip i was catching 4 to 1 ratio over my buds with it on that trip. the 9" swimmers with the lead enbedded in the body were great slow trolling and jigging once a school was marked
however this season my best luck came from a dead 12" hickory shad i caught in the local river on their spawn run the day b-4 the offshore trip. carried it along just for s & gs and ended catching a 35 lb striper when we happened upon a school busting the top wide open!!!
water temp down here went as low as 34degrees for 3 weeks and they were caught on all the above methods.
don't catch em all now you here---we will looking for them come november!!!!
robert

[Cincinnati]

Great summary IL. Rest assured that I'll do my best to revive my releases properly so that they make it back to your tight line. Just return the favor next fall.

I spent some time on the Housy river in Stratford, CT this weekend catching 'schoolies'. That's what we call short-stripers < 28". The big'ins are almost here - couple more weeks.

The schoolies were smashing 7" fin-s w/jig .5 oz jig heads soaked in bunker oil (my secret weapon). I've found that if you don't spunk-up the plastics with bunker oil (menhaden oil), then the bite falls off quite a bit.

[Mattitude]

When I lived in CT, we used to make lures with the yellow/white/brown McDonald's straws. The stripers would hammer the holy bejessus out of them.

[FISHTROPHIES]

Hi folks,
I am new to this site but not new to fishin'. The first pod of squid just showed up in Newport, RI last week at what we call the causeway. Yes they change colors and spit ink and you will find stripers working them right at the dock. Yes they are decent bait as is live eels but the best way of catching Cow bass in the spring is to weight and liveline live river herring which begin their spawning run in April and it continues until late may or early June. Then in June we switch over to the cinder worm hatches during the moon phases. Rather than troll your set up, try what we call tube and worm. I do not have the time to explain all this to you but I invite you to go to my fishing clubs website and join the free forum SNESA (Southern New England Saltwater anglers). The website address is www.risaa.org Enjoy the info and the photos. Let me know what ya think and remember old fisherman never die they just smell that way.
Ken Roderick
Something Fishy Taxidermy
Warwick, RI

[Cincinnati]

Originally Posted by FISHTROPHIES

Let me know what ya think and remember old fisherman never die they just smell that way.

Ouch, my ribs.