Closest to real Squid I have found

ILHG

Crew Member
Folks, the last few years while up in Haida I have come across lots of squid. Last year in the evening when the sun was still up I seen them all around the floating lodge at Hippa Island. The squid had brown/white colour & were bigger than what I seen on the north side of the island (I would say 7-9" in length). When up at the north side of the island I had witnessed smaller white squid at night that were attracted to the light.

So anyways I have been looking for a match to the squid I seen & found these. They are about 9" long & in my opinion look very similar. The only thing I don't like is how the tentacles in the back like to stick together. However once in water it may not be a problem.

I would like to get some feed back on these bad boys & also some input from guys whole run big squid baits behind flashers. How would you recommend running this? Or, would you run this? I admit to never hearing of running a 9" hoochie

The pictures show both sides of it
 

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I’ve played with a ton of colour patterns when they’re on Opal squid and have always found a UV white is the go to color.

Depending on the density of squid and concentration of salmon I’ve also had my best days mooching squid that have been puked up or live mooching jigged squid. Usually have 2 rods jigging straight metal and 2 or 3 mooching squid. Bite will bounce back and forth towards one or the other. Some insane quad headers, lots of Hali and Chinook grabbing squid off the surface. You won’t be poplar doing this in a busy trolling tack though.
 
Yeah those look nice but like Kelly said....jig up some live ones, put them on some hooks and hang on!
 
Silver Horde (makes the Coho Killer spoon) has the Golden Bait version of these in 3 sizes (up to 9") & 7 colors.

The generic name for this style of hoochie is "Kajiki"; several companies make them. AKA Tofino Dog Turd.

I rig mine with 50# stiff mono leader 44" long, mustad 5/0 Siwash hook & use a large Flasher. A Golden Bait OG55R will work too. I always direct tie my leaders to the flasher w/o a snap for more action.
 
Yeah those look nice but like Kelly said....jig up some live ones, put them on some hooks and hang on!


That is something I have wanted to do & spent time day dreaming about. I have a hole I call "The Pen", its a small pinical that comes to surface & has a kelp bed around it. I have caught some hogs trolling around it. I have always wanted to live mooch & just spend a day there waiting for the hogs to come to the pen..

Only thing I can not figure out is what type of squid jig to use on the Opal squid? All the ones I see online look like they are for larger squid... Any help I can get on this would be much appreciated
 
That is something I have wanted to do & spent time day dreaming about. I have a hole I call "The Pen", its a small pinical that comes to surface & has a kelp bed around it. I have caught some hogs trolling around it. I have always wanted to live mooch & just spend a day there waiting for the hogs to come to the pen..

Only thing I can not figure out is what type of squid jig to use on the Opal squid? All the ones I see online look like they are for larger squid... Any help I can get on this would be much appreciated
The jig I use is about 4” long, glow white with a line of hooks along the bottom.
Jig real slow and let them climb on
 
I found that running around until you get a dense school under the boat and then jigging them with a salmon jig was more effective than using squid jugs. Slow jigs up and you’ll feel them. Get a bucket of water and they will keep for hours. Don’t plan on catch and release, most on the squid are hooked very deep.

You couldn’t pay me to do this in the Florencia gong show. Squid spawn all over the place along the coast. Try any small bay when a spawn is on. Way better to do when you’re the only boat.
 
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