Eging
Method · Last reviewed 2026-08-12
Jigging for squid and cuttlefish with a barbed, weighted lure worked in lifts and pauses — a Japanese discipline with its own tackle, vocabulary and competitive scene.
Safety
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Most shore eging is done at night from piers, harbour walls and rock — wet, unlit, frequently unguarded, and with everybody's attention on the water rather than on their feet.
What reduces it: Learn the mark in daylight before fishing it after dark. Carry a light and a means of calling for help, tell somebody where you are, and stay back from unguarded edges.
Precautions that always apply here
- Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be back.
- Carry a charged phone in a waterproof case, or another means of calling for help.
- Check the tide before you go and know your exit route. Being cut off is the commonest way a shore session becomes a rescue.
Eging is fishing for squid and cuttlefish with an egi: a shrimp-shaped lure carrying a weighted keel and, at the rear, an upward-facing crown of fine barbless spines. It is not a variant of lure fishing for fish, and treating it as one produces a page that gets the mechanism wrong.
The mechanism is the point. A squid has no jaw a hook can hold. It seizes prey with two tentacles and pulls it back toward the beak, so the terminal tackle does not need to penetrate anything — it needs to give the tentacles something to foul on. The crown of spines does that, and it works because the animal itself supplies the pull. The spines are barbless by design, which is why an unwanted squid can be returned undamaged and why a hooked one comes off if the line goes slack.
The retrieve follows from the same fact. An egi is cast, allowed to sink on a controlled descent, then lifted in a series of sharp rod movements before being allowed to fall again. Squid take on the drop, almost always, and the take is felt as weight rather than as a bite. The angler's job is to keep contact with a falling lure, which is the same skill as fishing a jig for fish and is applied to a completely different animal.
The discipline came from Japan and brought its vocabulary with it — egi, the shakuri retrieve, sizing in traditional units rather than in millimetres — and it is now practised across the Mediterranean, Atlantic Europe, Australasia and increasingly Britain and Ireland.
What it is
Fishing for squid and cuttlefish with an egi — a shrimp-shaped, weighted lure carrying an upward-facing crown of fine barbless spines at the rear instead of a hook. It is a distinct discipline rather than a variant of lure fishing for fish, with its own tackle, vocabulary and competitive scene, and it came to Europe and Australasia from Japan.
How it works
A squid has no jaw a hook can hold. It seizes prey with two extendable tentacles and draws it back toward the beak, so the terminal tackle does not need to penetrate anything — it needs to give the tentacles something to foul on. The crown of spines does exactly that, and the animal itself supplies the holding force by pulling.
The lure is cast, allowed to sink on a controlled descent with the line kept in contact, then lifted in a series of sharp rod movements before being allowed to fall again. Squid take on the drop almost without exception, and the take registers as weight appearing rather than as a bite. Because the spines are barbless, everything afterwards depends on maintaining steady tension.
What it is for
It solves a problem no hook-based method solves: taking an animal that grips rather than bites, without injuring it, in a way that allows an unwanted one to be released undamaged. It also reaches squid over weed and mixed ground where a bottom-fished bait would be lost, because the lure is worked through the water column rather than on the bottom.
Setting it up
- Match the egi size to the depth and the current rather than to the size of the squid — the sizing convention describes the lure's length and sink rate, not the quarry.
- Fish the lightest lure that will still reach the depth and hold contact in the tide present, and change it as the tide changes rather than once at the start.
- Use a rod with a fast tip and a soft enough action to absorb lunges, because a barbless connection punishes any sudden loading.
- Keep the line in contact with the lure through the whole descent. A lure falling on slack line is a take you will never know about.
- Carry a drop net for anything of size. Lifting a squid up a wall on the line tears the tentacles free.
Advantages
- The connection is barbless, so an unwanted or undersized animal is released genuinely undamaged.
- It works over ground — weed, rock, mixed bottom — where bottom-fished baits are lost.
- It is accessible: it is done from piers, walls and rock with light tackle and no boat.
Limitations
- It depends entirely on maintaining tension, so it fishes badly in strong current, heavy surf or any condition where contact with a falling lure cannot be kept.
- It is seasonal in the sharpest sense — outside the inshore period the animals are simply not there, and no refinement compensates.
- It is largely a low-light discipline, which places most of its practice on unlit walls and rock at night.
Conditions
Suits clear or lightly coloured water over weed, sand and mixed inshore ground, during the seasonal inshore movement, at dusk, through the night and at first light. Does not suit bright flat midday conditions, heavy surf, or strong current. Water temperature rather than the calendar decides when the season starts, and it shifts by weeks between years and by months between latitudes.
Common mistakes
- Striking. There is nothing to set, and a strike pulls the spines out of the tentacles rather than into them. Lift into the weight and keep steady pressure.
- Letting the line go slack while playing one. Barbless spines rely on tension; slack loses the animal.
- Retrieving on a tight, fast line so the lure never falls. Squid take on the drop, and a lure that never drops is never taken.
- Lifting a squid straight up a harbour wall on the line. The weight tears the tentacles and the animal falls back; use a drop net for anything of size.
- Standing in front of it when it comes over the rail. A landed squid jets water and ink accurately and will use both.
Where to go next
What it catches
- European squidThe jig, not the hook: a squid grips with its tentacles and fouls them on a crown of barbless spines, so nothing penetrates the animal.
- Common cuttlefishTaken on the same jigs as squid, worked closer to the bottom because the animal hovers over ground rather than hunting through the water column.
- Common octopusCrab-imitating jigs worked slowly on the bottom, which outfish anything that swims because the diet is dominated by crabs.
- Veined squidSquid jigs fished on the drop or with a rise-and-fall retrieve, the technique and the vocabulary both imported from Japan.
What these connections rest on (4)
Practitioner consensus — 4 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
European squid
The method is the established way this quarry is taken recreationally.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice connecting this quarry to this method.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO fishing gear types and fishing technology information — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Gear classification and operating principle for the method described.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
An established fishing practice for this species, recorded as the convention it is rather than as a tested claim.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice associating this discipline with this place, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages — University of Toronto Press, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That fishing traditions develop around the water and quarry available to them, and the historical method of reading such traditions.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Common cuttlefish
The method is the established way this quarry is taken recreationally.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice connecting this quarry to this method.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO fishing gear types and fishing technology information — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Gear classification and operating principle for the method described.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Common octopus
A statement about how a species is taken, which is practice convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Reef and blue-water breath-hold hunting practice, including quarry behaviour, approach, catch handling and the judgement involved in taking a shot.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of quarry behaviour and regional fishing practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Veined squid
A statement about how a species is fished, which is angling convention rather than biology and is labelled as such.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling and shore gathering practice as reported by practitioners: ground, seasonal timing, tackle, bait and method convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of technique, quarry behaviour and regional practice, recorded as consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What you fish it with
What these connections rest on (1)
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Palomar knot
Which knot a kind of fishing conventionally uses is established practitioner knowledge that converges across independent traditions and independent state agency guides, and it is labelled as consensus rather than as tested result. Nothing here ranks knots by strength: see `why-knot-strength-tables-disagree` for why that number does not exist.
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK lure and predator angling practice as reported by practitioners, including braid-to-lure connections and finesse rigging.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- How to Tie Fishing Knots — uni, blood, improved blood, surgeon's and loop knots — Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (Take Me Fishing) (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: A contemporary national angling-participation body's knot guide, covering the connections used in modern lure fishing and the materials they are tied in.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Skills behind it
- Fishing at night: what is differentCephalopods are taken at night under light across a great deal of their range, which makes the light regime the organising fact of the technique rather than a preference within it.
- Squid at night, and what lights actually doLight attracts plankton, plankton attracts bait and bait attracts squid, so the productive water is the shadow line at the edge of a lit patch rather than the bright middle of it.
- Turbidity and visibilitySquid hunt by sight and are among the most clarity-dependent quarry in the catalogue, which is why coloured water after a blow ends the fishing on a mark that produced the night before.
- What squid fishing actually isThe whole discipline follows from one mechanical fact: a squid is held by its own grip on a spined jig rather than hooked, so slack line loses fish and a strike drives the lure out.
- Where squid are found inshoreClean water, a defined edge and something to attach eggs to between them account for most of where squid are found close to shore.
What these connections rest on (5)
Practitioner consensus — 5 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Fishing at night: what is different
A link from a practice, an environment or a geography to the mechanism it rests on. It asserts that the mechanism is load-bearing here rather than merely relevant, which is the test applied throughout this file.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of how conditions are read in the practice named, by ground type and by region.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of how the condition named governs the practice named, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Squid at night, and what lights actually do
A method joined to the explainer that accounts for when and where it is practised.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice associating this discipline with this place, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages — University of Toronto Press, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That fishing traditions develop around the water and quarry available to them, and the historical method of reading such traditions.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Turbidity and visibility
Written only where the method's own conduct changes because of the condition — a different rig, depth, retrieve, or a decision to move or stop. Every condition is true of every method, so an edge that merely records that would distinguish nothing.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British sea angling practice: how tide, wind, swell and water clarity change where and how a mark is fished.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Comprehensive angling practice across disciplines, including water reading, seasonal condition and the tackle each demands.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded environment, temperature and oxygen tolerance, depth range and behaviour of the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Life history, physiological tolerance and seasonal behaviour of European freshwater fishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What squid fishing actually is
A method joined to the explainer that sets out the mechanism it depends on, which is what makes the catalogue an explanation rather than a list.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice associating this discipline with this place, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages — University of Toronto Press, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That fishing traditions develop around the water and quarry available to them, and the historical method of reading such traditions.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where squid are found inshore
A method joined to the explainer describing the ground it is practised on.
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice associating this discipline with this place, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages — University of Toronto Press, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That fishing traditions develop around the water and quarry available to them, and the historical method of reading such traditions.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Check the rules before you fish
Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.
Check with:
- Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
- Current local bylaws
- The relevant fisheries authority
- The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
- Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use
Sources for this page
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice for this method, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FAO fishing gear types and fishing technology information — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Gear classification and operating principle for the net, trap or jig type described, independently of the recreational literature.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.