Fishing rocks for squid

[sashkello]

Hello everyone!

I've been trying to perfect my squidding game for the past year and it is going with some success. Recently I wanted to explore different ways to do it and try catching squid off the rocks for a change. I've got quite sick of frequenting popular jetties and Spit Bridge where more and more I find myself shoulder-to-shoulder with noisy crowds, while there are so many stretches of rock which seem potentially holding some squid. I've spent about 10 hours trying all I can think of around Rocky Point Island at Balmoral and a long stretch of rocks to the north of the beach, up to the point where it turns towards Chinamans.

The first problem which I have is of course the rocks themselves. After losing a couple of jigs I decided to only cast in the areas where I can clearly see the bottom. However, it limited me to 3-4 spots around the island itself and 2 spots on the north rocks, with the second one being a long walk almost to the limit of where I was able to reach on foot without some acrobatics. My successful outings always included covering the ground casting every 20 meters along the shore until I find the squid, but I obviously can't do that in such situation, and so end up casting for hours in one very small area, which is probably pointless...

The second problem is the waves & wind. I've chosen days when the foretasted wind and surf is low, but still the waves are there and it pretty much destroys whatever retrieve you are trying, and the jig mostly just goes with the flow of the current + gets tossed around by waves + gets dragged by the line in the wind. I kind of feel like I have very little control over it. I watched some videos of people rock squidding and the seas seem pretty flat... I don't know if it's just an illusion when seen on screen or whether the video is shot on the kind of day you can get once a month... I mean, yesterday wave height was predicted at 1.2m in open sea, and I have only seen numbers below 1 maybe twice since the start of the year. I've chosen Balmoral specifically because it is not exposed to the elements as much as open-sea beaches - and The Spit is just around the corner after all...

Lastly, I've realized that I have not only not caught, but haven't seen a squid in the water not at night or within 1 hour from sunrise or sunset. Again, there are videos of people pulling them out in bright sun, so it must be possible, but I just wasn't able to replicate it... And I'm quite reluctant going out on the rocks at night because I get snags as is, can only imagine what a nightmare can it be when I don't see the bottom...

Well, that's my frustration poured out, dealt with that. I'm sure there are lots of experienced squidders here who might have faced same problems and learned to deal with them. Any advice? What am I missing, ladies & gents?