Squidgies

Squidgies are synonymous with soft plastic fishing lures used in sport fishing in many parts of the southern hemisphere. Of the many different types of soft fishing lures available, Squidgies are the only ones designed to appeal particularly to species of fish found in the Indo Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Oceania http://www.alexjulius.com.au/nafa_pa_2005/squidgy.htm. Increasing popularity of use of soft plastic lures for targeting species such as snapper Pagrus auratus, bream (Acanthopagrus spp.), mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/ajaponicus.htm and barramundi in Australasia has stemmed from increased recognition of their effectiveness as methods of catching these species, and others too http://gulffishing.com/plastics002.html, http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/fishing/freshwater/article/0,13199,454657,00.html, http://www.booktopia.com.au/on-soft-plastics-and-how-to-use-them/prod9781865130705.html. Fortunately, use of lures is also important for catch and release fishing which has emerged as a conservation tool to preserve fish stocks in the face of ever increasing fishing pressure. Use of lures results in reduced incidence of deep hooking compared to use of bait, and as deep hooking is a major contributor to increased mortality in released fish, use of lures results in improvements in fish survival when catch and release is employed http://www.info-fish.net/releasefish/files/26/Hooking.pdf

Another advantage of use of artificial lures like soft plastics is a reduction in use of bait. This helps solve one of the marine environments more pressing problems, that being the undermining of marine food webs by overhavesting "bait" species which tend to occur lower in the food chain http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/fishing/pauly1.htm

Wider use of new fish attractants such as S-Factor (a gel -like attractant substance incorporated in the squidgy pro range which was developed from laboratory testing on a variety of Australiasian sportfish) has reportedly made soft plastic lures more effective compared to traditional hard bodied lures and soft lures without attractants http://www.fishing.net.my/default.asp?ACT5&content22&id12&mnu12, http://www.sportsfishaustralia.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36870. These developments together with other technologies such as Global Positioning Systems and sonar/depth sounders are thus examples of technology creep http://dwp.bigplanet.com/dickallen/glossaryofterms2/, which may render some species of fish more susceptible to capture than they were historically http://www.ices.dk/reports/FTC/2006/WGFTFB06.pdf.

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