I have a problem where I like to fly fish for species that probably shouldn’t be targeted with a fly. Naturally, this got me to thinking about fly fishing for squid after writing this post on spin fishing for them. Turns out I’m not the only one to wonder, and there’s actually anglers out there that target squid while fly fishing.
Fly Selection
Squid are voracious predators of both squid and baitfish. And like many similar sized sport fish, can be targeted with flies that mimic these prey species. Use patterns that imitate local bait species, and patterns with lots of flash.
Squid are highly visual predators, so colour selection can make or break a day out fishing for squid. Follow the same rule as you do with traditional fish species. Bright day bright fly, dark day dark fly. If fishing at night, the addition of glow in the dark materials can produce amazing results.
Hook Selection
Squid can be targeted with flies tied on traditional hooks, but the hook-up ratio is horrid. There’s a reason why spin fishing lures have those specific multi-pronged squid hooks. A squid doesn’t get hooked by biting the lure, the hooks instead get stuck in the tentacles when the squid attacks. This means the more hooks on a lure or fly, the better the chance of a solid hook up.
You can tie flies on treble hooks to increase your odds of getting a solid hook up fishing squid. If you’re really committed to targeting squid on the fly, using hooks purposefully designed for squid is the way to go.
I did some research online and could not find bare shank squid hooks. What I did find was unattached squid hooks for building lures. This set of 50PC Squid Hooks (Amazon Link)
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How to Tie a Squid Fly
You just have to tie these squid hooks onto a regular hook shank using a similar technique to articulated flies. This is how I would do it if I was still near enough to the coast to try this. You could tie any squid fly pattern that typically works for predatory fish.
1) Tie one end of a wire to the hook shank
2) String the squid hook, then a bead (bigger than the hook opening) onto the wire.
3) String the wire back through the center of the squid hook so the bead holds it in place.
4) Tie the second end of the wire onto the hook shank to complete the loop.
5) Apply super glue to the tie in point of the wire on the hook shank to further secure it.
6) Continue tying fly as usual.
I’d imagine tying some flash around the hook shank and tying in a collar of bucktail near the head would work well. Similar to a bucktail tube fly. Actually, if you wanted to, you could just tie a tube fly, and secure the squid hook directly to the line