...are pretty good jigs for the money. In fact, most jigs, cheap or dear, will catch squid. But the more expensive ones, like the Yo-Zuris, Yamashitas, Esmeraldas and that one by Berkeley may give you an edge due to more natural appearing materials and more precise weighting/balancing systems. Squid have extremely good vision (their eyes are the largest in the animal kingdom, when compared to the size of their bodies) so it will help if you use flourocarbon leader, and probably nothing over 10 lb breaking strain if you can get away with it.

As far as retrieves go, it's worth remembering that squid generally hang out in or just above weed beds...this way they can be hidden from both prey and predators...so cast out, allow the jig to sink almost to the bottom, and bring it back slowly, with gently sweeps of the rod. To me, this is imitating the stop/start swimming action of a prawn. The main thing is to keep it near the weed bed.

Firstly get a handline and run a fish jig (metal wire with the hooks at the bottom) put on this a fresh whiting (yellow or sandy) hang the whole lot below a disco ball float and send it toward the weed...and you will get some squid guarenteed. when the float dissapears you have a squid really is that simple. I try to keep the bait about half a meter above the weed.

Secondly in my experience (Im from busso) your jigs are all too big. I use jigs between 1.5 and 3... I find the smaller they are the more likely the squid is to commit, no matter the size of the squid... I do a slow flutter or on a boat I just flick it out a few meters and let the boat do the work...

I am no expert but dont seem to have a lot of trouble getting squid down here at the moment (they are everywhere)

 try a bit smaller, probably 2.5, and spend the cash its worth it in the end. Its not often you'll lose a squid jig fishing from a jetty so you might as well. I think the yozuris are around $15

Those jigs you have there will work but lighter jigs generally work better than heavier. Sizes stamped on the lead weight is a general size of body. Sizes 3.0 & 3.5 are our prefered and more upmarket jigs help to  get more squid and especially on quiet days. Glow squid jigs and charging them up at night works well. The set and forget baited pencil/spike jig under a party balloon with a glow stick inside works well and you can have another rod with an artificial jig and work that one, just keep an eye on the glow light/ballon for strikes.

Shaun

Agree try a bit smaller like a 2.5 or 3.0 and buy some good squid jigs like yozuris , yamashitas etc . I squided the busso jetty last week and cleaned up ,theres lots of big ones around at the moment just cast out to the weed beds and move spots if your not getting anything

 heaps of squid around the busso jetty atm ... i just got back for there tonight and got my bag ..

in saying that the 2 guys i went with only got 1 between them .. its an art .. 

treat a squid jig as you would a soft plastic .. lots of twittching and pauses 

Yeah they are in plague proportions around busso, or they were a couple of weeks back.

We had way too many after less than half an hour of fishing, and they were taking any jig you put out there, though the white egi-exile seemed to do the most damage, could be because it was on my rod  haha

But IMO the art is in the jig, ie the better the jig the better your chances. Its nice when you can see squid, and then actually see what they do with a presented jig.

I cleaned up one day at the Learmonth jetty, And they were so thick you could see them. Only fisho on the jetty so it got to the stage where I had more than enough for a feed and bait. So out comes the scientist in me, and I flicked my whole arsenal at them, and with the more expensive harimitshu's, yashis and other pricey jigs I have nothing including colour made a deff, the jig hit the water, sank and without even flicking it they were all over it.

With the el cheapo's I did get squid, but had to work the jigs, and they were much much more cautious. U could see them thinking, and they had to be coned, whereas with the others the lure more often than not got hit without any input from me, just the sink.

From that day onward I have not bothered with cheap jigs. I also agree with the above that 4.0 are a little to big, and I hardly ever go above 3.5, and mostly fish 2.5 to 3. Even the monster squid you get around learmonth and here in Kcity will eat a small jig, but small squid spook at big jigs.

JMO.

Neels

i posted my report as promised!

thanks for your feedback everyone - so i gather what i need is smaller jigs and perhaps go for some good quality ones - i wasnt sure if the brands were all hype and marketing or if they were more effective - but i gather they do work better! and no doubt i need to learn a better technique...

in my report are the details of what i used and how i went! by no means a cracking session but was a good night

Certainly better off having 3 good quality jigs than 30 cheap ones. You can still catch squid on the cheap ones, but the action/finish/hooks on the better ones seem to catch more squid. Perhaps its also confidence. To me, its worth improving chances with better jigs. You can still get good ones for $16 too, dont need to spend $30! Yozuri flashdancer is my fav, but other yozuris work well (and arent stupid expensive). Also work better if they're super finicky. Same with the 2.5 or 2.0 (or even 1.8 sizes). Worth having one for those finicky squid you can see.

I agree having been using the better quality and more expensive jigs for a while now and in a session will always out fish someone using an el-cheapo at least 2 to 1.