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You of course have the variables! Everyone has the impression you will never ever catch a squid on a slack tide. I find its not as productive for sure, but these came up for me a couple nights ago after a 15min flick? Also, i still stick to my foil color information and personal research. Yet again, you will still have the variables and manage to catch them on all sorts of jigs. These are my current 'in use' jigs. Mainly Harimitsus.

YES! Mate caught one land based in Cowan Creek 2wks ago, and threw it back without knowing what it is. Showed me a photo thinking he had a shitty eel, hairtail she be.

Also, any brand will catch squid. I have caught them on $2 servo cheapies, to my $30 Gancrafts. As for what brands i personally use, i have a large selection of Harimitsus, Yamashitas, Gancrafts, Evergreens, Shimano and Black Magic jigs. All have caught squid, but the Gancrafts are in a league of their own as far as quality i would say!

Color depends on light condition. Foil colour is the important bit. Cloth is secondary. Remember squid are colourblind, but however have massive eyes and can see amazingly better than we can, even if monochrome. Try reds at night, golds morning and evening, and clear/rainbow/bright whatever during the day. Glow jigs are great DURING THE DAY IN DIRTY WATER. I know people swear by glows during the night, but has anyone noticed how they are hooked? Generally its by one of the candles, not struck in the head. This is due to the squid tapping your glow jig thinking "what the hell is this thing?" I used to be a small jig fisherman until i saw a squid guru give a talk on egi technique. I no longer use anything smaller than a 2.5, and thats only in the far reaches of Cowan Creek. 3.5 is the go-to size, followed by 3.0. Remember you can buy squid jigs in different sink rates, which makes the larger jigs suitable in all depths. Remember that squid dont have a lateral line, so you want the squid to be attracted to the jig by sight alone!

I fish off the rocks mainly, so there is normally a natural hole in the rock formation that I store livies in. Need to take a net sometimes though. I had 4 squid in a hole down port botany that was deeper than I thought. Took around 25mins to get them out!

Cheers scratchie. Did you really have to type up that line? Now I got it in my head... haha.

Lol! I know of no bananas when fishing, but never heard of good luck fishing songs! Will keep it in mind. Normally have my headphones playing some hip hop/rap while fishing. Might try singing to some opera or listening to classical next time i head out and see if my catch rate improves

Squid take in a large amount of oxygen through their skin. The chemical in the ink clogs the skin, meaning they suffocate when in dirty inked water. Once you add another squid to the bucket, chances are it will have an ink. meaning water change, meaning stirring them up, meaning they will ink again, mean water change, meaning stirring them up..... you get the point.

Should add, the 2.5 is only used in Cowan creek where small squid are found.

-2 Larger the better. Try moving around more until you find them. I use 3.0-3.5. Smallest jig I use is a 2.5. Squid are sight predators. La perouse holds a lot of southern calamari at the moment so they will go for a meal over a snack. What was the tide doing?

I was looking at the aerowaves when I upgraded my surf outfit. They look like a nice rod, but the store didn't have the 3pce model available at the time. I ended up going the 13' 3piece Penn prevail and a pflueger salt 070sw. Poor thing has been thrown all over the rocks and still stays strong. Best of all, it fits in the back of my Rx7! Next one will be the 2pce 11' prevail with a 040 salt I would say. Interested to hear what you think of your setup.

Update on Avoca. Mate went there while I was occupied elsewhere unfortunately. He fished from around 5am till 2pm for a donut. Only a few bonnies were seen today, and a couple rats. Unfortunate.. I love a feed of bonito!

Hi Arron, I have headed up to Avoca the last couple weeks hoping to get on the stones but have been unable to due to the swell! I actually got tumbled there a couple weeks before by a freak wave, so please be extremely careful up there. In the last month, i have seen very few kingies coming up, seen a single ~9kg tuna, and even the bonito numbers are dropping off. Salmon and squid are still plentiful, and a few blackies. Best king i have ended up with there has been 55. For the record, i generally go to avoca stones once a week. There is no way in hell i would be venturing up there on a long weekend! Due to the swell that was hitting the stones, i did venture to find new spots, and came across Putty beach. I only managed a couple salmon, wobby, and a flatty. Didnt notice any no fishing signs. I imagine if you could get onto the platform you may have a good go there for pelagics.

i normally rig them from the ass. not too far down the hood either. Can be a pain to rig up, but nice n strong!

I collect bait down there mate. I normally go down for squid. Flattys, EPs, decent bream, tailor, whiting and hairtail can all be caught in areas. I have seen with my own eyes jewies pulled up here too. Not common at all, but they do get there. All i want to really say is, it can be quite worthwhile going for a bit of a walk, in either direction from where you fish The main reason i keep going down there is because it is close. There really are 1001 better places to fish, but if you persist down there and get over the tiny bream hurdle, it can fish ok SOMETIMES. Mate pulled out a 1m hairtail the other night too, which i suppose is a good sign that they are coming back. Last night was an absolute stinker. The largest fish was a 10cm bream and not a single squid spotted.

Nice catch for down there at the moment mate! There are only the arrow squid at this area. At the moment, they are quite small, and a bit tempremental! 4 is a good catch land based in an hour now. September/November there was a good few weeks on big arrows though. I fish this spot atleast 1ce a week, as i live about 4mins away (If you ever see a teal FD RX7 down there, say hi!) I dont really want to give away specific locations, but there are 2 main obvious spots land based. Remember that squid need sand, weed and structure. Look for that, and your in for a chance down there. If heading towards the Hawkesbury on a boat, try the tip of smiths and cowan (think they the waterways?). You can see Cottage point quite clearly in this spot. VERY productive area. I do have LED strips around the gunnel of the boat to attract the bait fish, which in turn brings the squid on, but use a bit of berley, attract the fish, and the squid will swarm the area.

Fellas, I know it has been covered many times before but I feel it needs to be said again. ANY form of rock fishing is dangerous. Last week I got knocked off my feet by an absolute freak wave. Conditions were near glassy until this happened. I'm an extremely cautious person when it comes to any form of rock hopping. Watched the swell for 30mins and thought all was good. Always make sure someone else can see you. Just because a location is on this map, IT DOES NOT MEAN YOUR GUARANTEED SAFETY.If in doubt, get the hell out! James.

If you kill squid straight away, they wont go hard. They will NOT last very long at all in a bucket live. kill em, then chuck them into the bucket of water. Dont be too concerned if there is some ink coming from the squid in the bucket. It will not affect the bait quality. I personally use the karate chop method to kill em. I cant see the point in spending $20 for an Ika shime, when there are other methods that are as effective. For others giving it a shot, you dont need to be all that firm with the smaller squid.. First time i tried it, i shot the squids head off back into the water and ended up giving the concrete jetty a good whack instead. Only need to kill a few squid to work it out. DO NOT let the squid see fresh water. They will harden up near on instantly to the consistency of a plank of wood.

UnderFisher, I will add that colours are less important than the fall rate and physical size of the jigs . Your far better off having a selection of shallows, freefalls, and deep jigs in each size over the colour combo of the jigs. Ofcourse each jig colour combo will entice certain species more due to water condition and times, but it is definately the earlier that effects the catch rate the most

nice cuttle mate! Still havent been able to get myself one worthy of bragging about I also find green jigs have been doing the damage everywhere lately!

Definately agree Harry! Im hoping the larger ones start coming through close.

Not really a question as I'm sure I know the answer! I have been targeting kings landbased for a bit now, and all I can come up with is rats! Tried live yakkas, live squid, fresh dead squid, squid strips, garfish, pilchards, rapala xraps, soft plastics in 5"-6.5", even tried swearing at them, and still the largest I have managed is 55cm, which was on a white 5" jerk shad while trying to get some bonito to live bait! (Was fun with 12lb line with a little stradic 1000fj..) Rat after rat comes up, and nothing notching the magical legal lengths! Persistance is obviously the key, and persist I will! Just felt like a vent. Hope others are having more luck than me! James.

Have pulled up a rat....... I mean mouse..... I mean baby jellybean mouse from cottage point before. I wanted to put a pink ribbon on it before returning it, it was that cute! This was around 3 months ago now! Have also heard of a legal one being caught up the end of Cowan creek a couple years back. Best of going further towards the heads.

You aiming to catch all species of whatever size, or all legal catches? If I tried something like that, I would die an unhappy man. Haha.

White gulp shads did the work for me today. Only managed rats though. 5"