Product Review: Emeraldas Peak

By Chris Dixon

With any new bit of tackle I like to take my time to get to use it before I give it a review or opinion and decide if I like it or not. I’ve certainly made an exception with this squid jig offering as I’ve fell in love with the right away.

I got my hands on a heap of the Emeraldas Peak jigs a few weeks ago and straight away I set out to find some squid during winter. With a day trip down to one of the most iconic landbased squid locations in WA I quickly put them to use. My combo for squid is a Emeraldas MX 86ML rod paired with a 2500XH Certate LT spooled with PE 0.8 Saltiga 12 braid and a 10lb J thread FC leader about double my rod length tied to it. It’s an absolute dream to use and certainly makes my squid fishing more enjoyable and easier. I do prefer heavier line and leader when fishing as snags in the weed are inevitable and the slightly heavier lines help pull the jigs off it without losing it and having to re tie.

With most of my fishing being landbased there are a few things I like to focus on when selecting jigs. Fishing mostly shallower waters a slow sink rate is great, the 3.0 size I find suit casting well and still small enough to entice most squid even when its slow fishing and I now have a new found love for a jig with a rattle.

Enough with the background info let’s get into what makes these lures work so well! Slow sink rates helps you fish shallower spots and keep the jig at the right depth for longer giving hungry squid more time to see it. When worked aggressively they dart from side to side without being unsteady or rolling, they also can be worked very slowly and slow long lifts seems to be the best way to get attention from squid that aren’t feeding very well or the water is dirty.

Rattle jigs are a new thing to me and I have tried them in the past with limited success but I think I may have finally figured them out. I stuck with my standard colour combinations I always use being glow body or red foil jigs for low light and early morning before changing to gold or silver foils and brighter colours in the middle of the day sunshine and clear skies. I was having some success but with the water I was fishing being fairly dirty I decided to try the rattle versions out and far out I’m glad I did.

Dirty water with a rattle jig was a huge success as long as I followed the colour selections I’ve stuck with in the past. A few fast hops to make some noise then slow long lifts and pauses started getting results. As with any squidding I’ve done, find a method that works on the day then repeat it and the squid came one after the other on multiple sessions this way. All from dirty water during the night, on sunrise and sunset or even the middle of the day. I had finally cracked the rattle jig code and felt it really made a difference to my catches.

These jigs have certainly changed the way I go about chasing squid and with a huge range of colours there is plenty of options to choose from. Both rattle (RV) and standard models are available and you never know they may just change your squid fishing this winter into something a lot more fun when conditions are challenging. I won’t be leaving them behind when going out with squid on my mind and I’ll have a few Delicious Prawn Colour rattle stashed away for some dirty water squidding.