Northwest Fishing Reports

I have been pier squidding up and down the south sound and that is all fun and good fighting the crowd but my landlord wants to go squidding and he has this really nice 24' Lund always ready to go out to the coast fishing but he has never taken it out in the sound...

I have never been squidding in a boat in the Sound or anywhere else for that matter so I really have no idea if I should suggest it or even where to go..

The question is, is it worth all the launch fees, parking and fuel, to go out in the boat vs just fighting the crowd at the pier and if we launched from Pt Defiance and how do we find the squid or do we just light up like at the peir and they come to us???

Any help / suggestions / insight would be greatly appreciated!

Chirp ......

Chirp......


I'm guessing that, after 35 views, that either not many of us have been squidding in a boat in the Sound or no one wants to give up their secrets.... LOL

I haven't done any squidding from a boat, but would think if you go out by a pier outside of the pier fisherman casting area and dropped a light it would work out well for you

Ed J wrote:I haven't done any squidding from a boat, but would think if you go out by a pier outside of the pier fisherman casting area and dropped a light it would work out well for you

Thanks Ed J,

I've considered putting in a boat in the past. What holds me back is cleaning the boat afterward in the dark and dead of winter, and also there is the anchoring issue at night. You're still going to want to be squiding around the piers I would think, so you'll want to get close to them. I don't know the depth in some of those locations. You could find yourself swinging into the pier, annoying the "bankies". Seems like it may be a hassle, more than it's worth.

That said, you'd be a whole lot more comfortable. Never know until you try.

I've mulled this idea over and over myself. Even looking into lighting options of a small generator to 12volt LED lights. Thought the best course of action would be to check tides and current, select an area that is near a dock and go set anchor before sunset. Having a good bright light that lasts is the key. Most 12v lights are just not going to give you the intensity. With all my planning and consideration, sadly I haven't attempted it yet, so if you make it out, I'd be really interested in hearing how it goes.

All that being said, I want to add that I have caught squid in the middle of the day from my boat. So I know that its possible to do.

Thanks Mike and Baywolf,
good points, especially about cleaning the boat in the cold and dark, I hadn't considered that.. this is why I posed the question.... I am not sure if it is worth putting the boat in but I think we are gonna try it anyway. I will let you guys know how it goes after we go out.

I hate being on the dock and as soon as you catch one squid you have 10 people throwing right on top of you... I usually catch just as many standing in one spot as the crazy people running back and forth chasing the school!




My idea the last couple years was to pack a couple car batteries to the dock on a hand truck and I just made a quick hook up to a spare car headlight I had and hung it over the dock.. it actually worked pretty good until I ran out of juice. I would bet it would work well on the boat too

waterproof l e d strip lights will last all night on one car battery.

Ed J wrote:waterproof l e d strip lights will last all night on one car battery.

good idea!

You can buy almost any kind of LED light now - some of them super bright.

We have a regular old fashioned 1 million candle power hand held light on the boat now that plugs into the cig lighter socket. We were planning to just clamp it to the rail if we were foolish enough to go out in this cold weather ;)

You would want to leave the motor idling though because those big lights suck a lot of juice. If you could find an LED version, that would be ideal.

If you are handy with electronics projects, you can buy super bright LED's on ebay for next to nothing. Add a few resistors of the correct size and a plug for the cig lighter and you are all set. I did this for my underwater camera last year. Lots of trouble and work though. I think I would just buy one now