Squid Jig Size & Color: How to Actually Choose

New to squid jigging, most people either grab one jig and fish it all night, or buy one of everything and guess. Neither is necessary — size and color selection follow a small number of real principles, not personal taste.

Size follows depth and light, not just preference

The core logic, laid out well by The Fishing Website: smaller jigs sink slower, which matters in shallow water where you don’t want a jig dropping straight past the strike zone. Larger jigs get down faster and hold up better when squid are sitting deeper. At night specifically, dropping to a smaller size is a common adjustment to draw in squid that are already keyed on a pier’s lights rather than actively hunting deep.

For most Puget Sound pier fishing — shallower water, most of the real action happening after dark under lights — that points toward small-to-mid sized squid jigs as the sensible starting point, sizing up if you’re fishing deeper water or working a pier without much current to slow the drop.

Color follows light and water clarity, not the calendar

This is where most of the confusion comes from — color guidance gets treated like a fixed rule, when it’s really answering two separate questions: how much ambient light is there, and how clear is the water.

Under a lit pier at night, the same source points toward red and glow (“lumo”) finishes — colors built to stand out under exactly the low, artificial-light conditions most Puget Sound squid jigging actually happens in.

On water clarity specifically: clearer water calls for more natural, darker tones — browns, dark greens — where a bright, unnatural color can spook rather than attract. Murkier or darker water flips that: brighter colors (orange, bright green) actually stay visible and draw attention where a natural tone just disappears.

The general rule underneath both: bright, glow-heavy colors for low light, natural and reflective tones for brighter conditions. Puget Sound’s night squid jigging pattern usually means glow and red get more use here than they might somewhere fished mostly in daylight.

What this means practically

Carry a small spread rather than one jig: a couple of small-to-mid sizes, one or two with strong glow/red for the lit-pier-at-night pattern most Puget Sound trips actually are, and something more natural-toned as a backup if the water’s running clear. That’s a working kit, not a full tackle box — and it’s exactly what our own squid jig lineup is built around.