Best squid jig colour

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There is plenty of material around to agree and contradict with your statement. I have been experimenting for 10 months properly out of perth landbased in the river and ocean rock walls and marinas. I have got it down to a few specifics for our species and location. It is really only relative to shy or low activity squid. Active squid will find and nail just about anything. UV finishes work and colour variants make a difference but mainly size and action. In fact if you want to out fish bystanders it is down to the 1 percenters. Correct action rod, line, leader, snap vs loop, jig sink rate size belly foil and action, your action, enviro factors blah blah. It's all good.





[quote name='Bartnmax' timestamp='1303080284' post='21959']

Hi there fellas.



Ok, as I understand it squid actually only see two colours - black & white.

However, they are also very receptive to UV light & can also pick up movement very easilly.

Those bloody great big eyes pick up the slightest movement very well, but they also dont allow the squid to focus well on still objects, hence a stationary obejct with a poor sillouette outline can become all but invisible to a squid.



So generally speaking the best colour is the one that offers the best chance of the squid seeing the jig under whatever conditions you happen to be fishing at the time. As conditions change then so too will the best colour to fish for them.



So;

Clear water - darker colours such as neutrals, olive, browns, etc for best sillouette.

Murky water - lighter colours such as pink, red, orange (which tradtionally reflect UV best).

Deep water - lighter colours such as light blue, light green for best UV reflection where the pinks, reds, oranges often disapear from the colour spectrum.

One of the best deep water colours is actually good ol' white due to it's excellent ability to refelct UV rays down deep.



However, there are a couple of other factors to also coinsider.



With the advent of special UV reflective materials, many darker colours can now reflect UV rays as well as some of the lighter colours which tradtionally have been better with regard to UV reflection. These offer the best of both worlds in offering excellent UV reflection & also offering an excellent sillouette.



There are usually 2 distinct phases to squid fishing - movement to attract the squid's attention & a pause/drop to allow it to attack.

Movement can be enhanced via rod action, jig action, etc but the jig can then (to the squid) disapear when it is paused.

You can use a light colour which reflects UV well, but in shallow/clear water there are so many other light coloured objects that even a highly UV reflective object can become lost in amongst all the other highly UV refelective objects.

To overcome this we try to offer a 'sillouette' which is easier to see when stationary, or we impart minute movement to mimic a wounded bait fish.

This can be done with the use of ab shell refelctors which reflect light rays in all directions, or it can be done via use of swivell eyelets on the jig which allow it to 'flutter' duringt the pause/drop.



Interestingly, when there is a myriad of UV reflective objects floating about that could confuse our squid, he will often work out what is a wounded baitfish & what is just another useless object by feeling or 'tasting' with their candles. Squid will often 'tap' at a stationary jig to taste it (they have actually developed the abilty to taste with their candles for just this reason).

If we add a little 'taste' to the jig, via the use of scents, we can often fool a squid into thinking our jig is a nice, tasty, wounded baitfish.



With regard to eyelets on jigs a solid eyelet will allow better rod action to be imparted during the movement phase (when agreesively workingthe rod), but a swivell eyelet will allow the 'flutter' during pause/drop.



Bill A.

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