Cuttlefish fishing from shore with rod

In most places of the world known by me, there are cuttlefish all year round, but from the beginning of Spring till the end of Summer, they start moving to coastal shallow waters such as estuaries, bays or shallow sandy coves for mating and subsequent spawning. This time frame is set and limited by the equinox of Spring and Fall astronomical event.

Cuttlefish can be caught all year with an offshore technique, usually done by boat and somehow, different from the one we are going to write about in this post.
Please no not confuse both cuttlefish fishing techniques.

The lure used, does not have hooks with the traditional barbs, they are curved spikes, just like squid lures, and the lack of barbs detail force us to keep the line tense all the time while you retrieve the cuttlefish.
The lure looks like a shrimp and have a small lead weight. It is very similar to the 100% floating lures used on the cuttlefish offshore technique that represents a fish.

In the side picture, only the bottom right lure is the one used for shore fishing of cuttlefish. All others are used for cuttlefish offshore technique.

This type of lures or jigs, in Portugal are called by "clowns".

We'll need a good spinning rod with a very low action, because we are talking about a lure that might weigh ~ 6 grams. The reeling/jig is one the the most important detail. If we reel in to fast, the lure will rise to much from the bottom. It's a slow reeling because cuttlefish never rises more then 1 metres from the ground.
Cuttlefish approaches their prey swimming front way to it. It is a slow swimming. Cuttlefish and squid are powerful swimmers backwards when they use their water jet propulsion system, therefore a slow reeling or jig is important to allow the cuttlefish to approach the shrimp lure.

And there you go. All the details to be successful fishing for cuttlefish.

In the beginning of September, cuttlefish slowly start moving to deeper waters turning this fishing technique a pure waste of time.

Eggs are laid in shallows because the sea surf will oxygenate them, but there is a down side. The sea waves very often release cuttlefish eggs from the small boulders or underwater debris where there are laid and attached. Everybody already have found a cluster of this eggs on the beach waterline. After spraw, their are transparent and a week or two later they became caviar black. Next time you find a cluster of eggs, please trow them back in the water. You will never know but you might save 2 or 3 cuttlefish.

Finally, a film to allow you to realize how the lure should jig to allow Clown cuttlefish to catch it.