Squids in

Squid - strange things really. Well we Brits find them strange whereas the rest of the world find them fantastic; Why? Because they are great to eat..they really are seriously good to eat. The height of squid cuisine in the UK revolves around covering them in a thick batter and deep frying them into rubber. The Japanese delight in sashimi squid (raw), the south east Asians barely cook them and make spicy lime and chilli laden salads with them. In the middle east and the med they are stuffed with meats and nuts and BBQ'd and the Spanish love nothing better than squid paella. Get the point? Eat more squid...

And why not because they are very catchable on lures all round our coast. Here, they arrive with the Mackerel shoals and stay until October. Sometimes they will venture close into shore and local clear water snorkelers report seeing them right up next to the rocks here. No surprise this as I have fished for them from the shore in Asia night after night surrounded by locals, stood waste deep in water, flinging lures just like the ones above.

Last summer I stumbled into a party of working birds about 3 miles off the coast. Sensing the opportunity for some mackerel (we were off after shark on this particular day) we stopped and bashed makkies for fun. Later whilst rigging flappers for shark bait I was amazed to find the mackerel stuffed full of squid. Now there was an opportunity!

There are many species of squid around the UK and there are also cuttlefish. We don't seem to get the big cuttles like they do on the south coast but I've seen many small ones. If there is babies...? There are some big squid though and the ones I've been catching seem to be around 6 inches long in the body.

Evenings are best when the light starts to fade. The fun is in the retrieve...dead slow with the occasional tap of the rod tip. A take is surprising positive there is a couple of pulls and then its a wet sack. But hell I don't care its fun catching something so surprising, so stunningly pretty (browns, reds, pinks and purples shimmer across them as they come in) and so dam tasty.