Setting up for Eging

If your interested in starting up Eging, there is no particular gear you need besides your normal "bream" style of gear. When I first started Eging i was using a 7ft 2-4kg rod matched to a small 2000 sized reel, which had 6lb braid on it. Unfortunetly for us in australia there isnt a lot of dedicated gear available in stores and most have had to turn to online stores or if lucky enough to go overseas and pick up the gear. Only recently have we been fortunate enough to have stores like Fish Head order in specific gear such as Yamashita and Breaden.

RODS

The main differences in a Eging rod would have to be the taper/action and the lenght of the rod. An average Eging rod would have to be around the 8ft mark constructed with high quality graphite/carbon content. Also all Eging rods run fuji lowrider guides. These lowrider gides aid by decreasing the chance of line wrapping around them and the tip when working the egis.



The differences between a normal fishing rod and an Eging rod are very noticable when holding both. Eging rods feel more "solid" and "crisp" but the tips of these rods are very fast and forgiving when a sqiud makes lunges. The extra length of Eging rods also allows you to cast your jig out far and allow you to really work the egis to entice squid.

REELS

There isnt a lot of difference with eging reels. Most specific designed reels like the Shimano Sephia range and Daiwa Emeraldas range are of the 2500 size. The differences of these reels are weight, shallow spool, finesse drag and double handles

The advantages of these are
a: weight - most of the newer models of reels such as Shimano Sephia and Daiwa Emeraldas weigh between 190grms - 225grms. Being so light enables you to make constant cast and work the egis.

b: shallow spool - Having a shallow spool allows you to fit generally 1 spool of line or more line thats is thinner in diameter esp japanese PE braid.

c: finesse drag - Squid dont require you to use a lot of drag, as squid are very delicate creatures. It would be silly to have a locked drag and skull drag the squid in as that would most likely end up with just one tenticle on your egi.

d: double handle - Having a double handle aids in balance of the rod and reel. It also allows you to grab the handle without the need to look where you are putting your hand. Some people dont like double handles.

LINES & LEADERS

Lines and leaders do not differ to fishing for bream or flatties. Basic line such as 6lb-12lb (pe0.8-1.5) braid is all that is required. As for leader the same applies, I normally run 8lb flurocarbon leader and will sometimes go up to 12lb flurocarbon.


Extras

There are a few other optional extras for your eging arsenal these are
1: Ika spike - These spikes are used for quick and easy killing of the squid if you wish to take it home for a feed. There are many different ones out there such as Yamashita, Breaden etc. Some also have a egi hook bending tool which allows you to bend any bent egi spikes to normal again.

2: Egi storage cases - Sure you can store your Egis in a normal tackle tray, but there are specific storage cases offered by many of the big Japanese brands such as Evergreen, Breaden, Good Feeling and many more . The only one available (to my knowledge) one in Aus would be the Daiwa one.

3: Extendable landing net/Gaff - These extendable landing shafts are very useful and come in different lenghts. They are made of durable light weight carbon. Brands such as Auto King Frame, Majorcraft, Clicks and Zenaq.