Designed by Japanese squid anglers, Power Egi jigs are at the forefront of squidding technology, featuring a powerful prawn scent that's comes via a unique inbuilt PowerBait 'skin' packed with prawn scent. Pick one up and have a sniff, the prawn scent is obvious! Adam Royter has been testing the Power Egi in Victoria with great success (see article Egi Master in the November Fishing World) and the Fishing the Edge team has a you tube clip on PFTV on using the the Power Egi jigs.
Why do they work so well? Read the article below by Purefishing's Dr Keith Jones for a lesson in squid senses.
Taste and Smell in Squid While diving, it takes only one encounter with a squid in the wild for you to realize there is something special about these animals. Along with their close cousins, octopuses and cuttlefish, squid belong to a unique group of invertebrate animals called Cephalopods. Like other cephalopods, squid are truly amazing creatures, rivaling some vertebrates not only with their brain power but with their sensory capabilities as well. Most people, especially egi anglers, are well aware of a squid’s ability to see. After all, it’s hard to miss those two big eyes looking back at you when you stare into the face of a squid. Fewer people, however, recognize that squid also possess other senses, such as vibration detection, hearing, touch, and well-developed senses of smell and taste, or what scientists refer to as chemoreception. Scientists noted long ago that, although cephalopods are mollusks (i.e. related to clams and snails), they are more functionally designed as fish. This similarity to fish extends to the array of senses present in these advanced mollusks. Among these are the chemical senses, those senses that constantly monitor the animal’s chemical environment. In fact, squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses are equipped with the three standard chemical senses common to vertebrates: a general chemical sensitivity of the skin, distance chemoreception and contact chemoreception. The first of these, the general chemical sense, refers to the sensitivity of the skin. Along with having a keen sense of touch, squid skin is sensitive to a variety of chemical stimulants across the entire body. So, if a squid happened to encounter a cloud of, say, a mild acid, the squid’s skin would quickly detect the irritant, and the squid would promptly propel itself out of harm’s way. Far more sensitive, however, is the squid’s ability to detect dilute water-borne substances through its sense of smell, or olfaction. All squid are equipped with a set of olfactory organs located slightly behind and below the eyes. These specialized organs, appropriately stationed by the animal’s water funnel, are designed for distance chemoreception, meaning they analyze the odors of objects lying some distance away. In this capacity, olfaction, or smell, is not only used for avoiding predators and detecting the sexual odors of reproduction, smell is also actively used in squid feeding, helping the animal to stalk and assess prey at a distance. Whenever a squid encounters a whiff of fish, shrimp, or other prey, it knows it within a split second. However, perhaps the most advanced cephalopod chemical sense is their capability of contact chemoreception, what we would normally call taste. In squid, octopus, and cuttelfish taste reception is located primarily on the suckers lining the arms, as well as the area surrounding the mouth. Taste reception in squid and other cephalopods can be very intense. For example, the species Octopus has about 10,000 primary taste receptors on each sucker. With over 200 suckers per arm, this equips an adult octopus with around 16 million receptors in total. Due to their different lifestyle, squid tend to have fewer suckers and fewer taste cells per sucker. Nevertheless, their sense of taste is still exquisite.
Again, combined with their keen sense of touch, cephalopod contact chemoreception – “taste by touch” – is uniquely designed to analyze the feel and taste of captured prey. It is known, for instance, that cephalopods can readily discriminate between objects soaked in the basic tastes of sweet, sour, and bitter substances, and some species can discern these differences at concentrations of 10 to 1,000 times lower than can humans. With this much sensitivity, squid and other cephalopods almost certainly use their taste by touch to discern between even very small differences in the objects they grasp. Which is why, of course, the use of attractants and scented lures in squid fishing is so compelling. Since the squid brain is designed to combine sensory information from the olfactory organs with information from the eyes, squid readily assess the difference between scented and non-scented baits. To a squid, an object that fails to release an appealing scent is not nearly as attractive – chemically or visually – as one that releases an alluring odor. Smell is used to draw the squid within striking distance of its prey. Smell also is used by squid to confirm that what it is seeing is, in fact, food, not just an inanimate object. The same holds true for when a squid grasps its “prey” within its arms, conveying the object towards the mouth. Captured objects are subjected to an instant “taste-test” to determine if they are food or “non-food”. If a captured object is tasteless, or worse, has the wrong taste, then the squid quickly realizes that it has captured a “non-food” item and promptly moves to release it. Many a squid has been lost simply because the animal failed to detect the savory flavors it was looking for, releasing the bait before the angler could apply the hook. So, the next time you go diving and get within close range of a squid, stop to think what its sensory world is like. It’s not only seeing you; it’s probably testing your smell as well. Move close enough, and it may sample your taste as well.
The Melbourne cup has been run and won, now there's only one thing on saltwater fisho's minds....Snapper!
Compared to most years, the major annual influx of snapper into the bays was delayed slightly due to the late burst of cold weather and rain we thank fully got and needed here in Melbourne which helped keep the water temperatures down, but over the last two weeks air temperatures have jumped into the 30's which has pushed the water temperature up by around six degrees and the fish have switched right on with fish averaging 3-4kg and plenty of bigger 7-10kg models about as well.
As with most areas around the country that hold snapper bait fishing is the mainstay but attitudes are changing. Where's in years gone by snapper anglers wouldn't believe stories of fish being caught on lures, now anglers are grabbing a pack or two of soft plastics and slowly giving them a try. Putting in some time casting around the boat whilst your waiting for a bite or just leaving a plastic out to bob up and down in a rod holder has accounted for a lot of snapper over the last few seasons. Most anglers are using braid on their reels these days so there is no need for any specific lure outfit, just tie on a jig head and away you go.
The bulk of my snapper fishing these days is done using lures, whether it's using 3' lures for the smaller pinkies throughout the year or up sizing to 5' & 7" Jerk Shads for the bigger fish at this time of the year it's a great active way to fish and cover ground. Economically it's pretty good as well, you buy a few packets of plastics and some jig heads and your away, you can even re-seal and use them the next few times you go fishing, compared to bait that you would spend $40 or so on each trip and is cactus at the end of the day.
The Jerk Shads come in a huge range of colours including the new Pilchard that was specifically designed for Port Phillip Bay and Banana Prawn which i think imitates small flathead and whiting really well, this colour is my favourite at the moment and catching a lot of fish!
Well there's the late mail, the fish are biting, grab some lures and get out there. Washing off a bit of gulp juice shure beats having stinky pilchard fingers for a few days!
Waking to an uncomfortable 20 knot breeze, I started to think that I was destined for another day up the creeks. In the build up to the north’s wet season, fishing the creeks produces a lot of barra as well as a lot of sweat. Hot, muggy creeks are fine but after about a month of constant wind, I was starting to get sick of them.
Never the less, I hitched the boat to the back of the car and drove the couple of hundred metres down to the end of my street and launched the boat. My local ramp has a small man made rocky break wall so deciding to stay away from the creeks, that was where I stayed.
Half expecting a queenfish or trevally, I started out with a 3” Bass Minnow and soon had a school of those very annoying small queenfish jumping all over it. I love big queenfish but little ones play up way too much, jumping around like lunatics and with a nasty habit of bleeding that, when combined with the exaggerated flicking, coats the boat and angler with little red spots of blood.
Thinking that there may have been something bigger feeding under the queenfish, I broke out my first MF40. I did play around with a couple of prototypes when Matt Fraser was first designing the MF40 but that was done on bream and flathead in Southern Queensland so it was time to play with the real thing in Far North Queensland.
Rolling the lure slowly along the bottom with the odd pause to keep in touch with the rocks and broken weed beds below, the little MF40 was soon nailed by something a little more substantial then a rat queenfish. Connected to the fish via 4lb FireLine and a 12lb leader, I was giving the fish all that I was prepared to give when the head of a good sized barra came out of the water.
After I spotted the barra, I adjusted my technique, more so to get my MF40 back than land the fish. I’ve spent a lot of time catching barra on light bream gear due to flicking 2”prawn Gulps at snags with tiny 1/32oz jig heads. I was in fairly open water, apart from just a few submerged rocks but the further we got into the fight, the more we drifted into wide open water so the drag was backed right off, to the point that the only way I could gain line on the fish was to place my finger on the spool, pull the rod back while being conscious of keeping it low to avoid the fish leaping and then winding in as the rod returns back to it original location. If the fish turned to dart off, I could release pressure from the spool and let it run. Having a firm drag on the 12lb leader could spell disaster if it ever comes in contact with the fish’s razer sharp gill rakers so releasing a lot of the tension saves the line from being cut but enough tension has to remain to insure the lure doesn’t fall out.
I’m not sure if it is the bright green Polycraft or not but for some reason, as soon as a fish spots the boat, it gets its second wind and is out of there. Eventually the barra was exhausted and came gliding into the net. I was a little disappointed with the size once it was placed on the ruler. I think that after such a difficult fight, the fish looked a lot bigger in the net but the truth stick revealed 78cm of barra. Still, landed on 4lb main and a light leader made it a better fish that what the ruler suggested.
I went onto land another barra, get still another follow the MF40 all the way to the boat and also land half a dozen blue salmon along with more rat queenies than I care to remember. Never has my bream gear provide so much excitement, all within a cast from the end of my street.
I hear people talking about the fishing in north Queensland in terms of sheer numbers of fish but when I eventually leave Weipa I will remember it by the exciting light tackle sportfishing that exist here. Unless you are fishing tight into structure, never upgrade your terminals, just downgrade your line class. Bring on the bigger versions of this lure Matty.
Mark Ward.
The larger MF baits that Mark refers to are the MF 50, due for release December 2009 and the MF60 due for release March 2010. Both baits will be available in more colours [one picturede here] than the MF40.
Test fishing has once again proven their worthiness in any serious anglers lure kit.
The long awaited Berkley Big Eye blade in size 46mm is here.
This longer version is sure to be a hit with bream tournament anglers and general fresh and saltwater anglers alike.
The new baits feature the sonic rattle that makes these lures stand out from the crowd. Add to that the lifelike 3D eye, holographic finishes, super sharp trebles and multi adjustable tow points.
In stores now, 8 colours to choose from including Midnight Tiger, Watermelon Pearl, Mango Ripple, Gold Ayu, Wakasaki, Turbo Herring, Silver Back Shiner and Sunrise.
