Hi!

 

Have to say I haven't caught any, but I'm hoping to get out after them soon, I hadn't realised they were around now. 

 

Anyway here is my 2c (though hopefully somebody more informed will give advice).  There are a few techniqes i think with the retrival.  One technique is you let it sink all the way to the bottom, give it a "yank" and wind in the slack and let to drop again, wait a second or two and then repeat (can vary the yank, e.g 2-3 short sharp jerks).  I think then basically another is the same but you do it higher up in the water column.

 

 

Advice I received from my Japanese brother-inlaw was that you can actually cut most of the prongs off the bottom half of the lure so that when it rests on the bottom it doesn't snag, you can also trim the feathers to adjust how it swims - haven't seen or heard either of these confirmed and he hasn't caught squid for about 20 years.  When he did they were hand crafted japanese ones costing about $15, wereas now in Japan you can buy ones for about a dollar or two.

 

There is also a type of hook you can use for squid that has the same multi pronged bit at the back as the lure but instead of a shrimp body it just has a needle that can be threaded through bait and then fished below a float.  This is the hook:

 

One other technique in Japan (this one is some what hard to explain and streches the imagination and I have only ever seen the gear in fishing tackle shops in Japan) is to use a live bait (usually yellow tail) hooked with a small hook through the nose, chuck it in the water off a wharf and wait for a squid to grab the unfortunate bait (I imagine this is not pleasant).  Then you hook a special wire device onto your line (it about 50 cm long, has two eyes, one at the start and one about half way down that you twist the line on to (they are like a short piece of spring), then the bottom half of the wire has sets of prongs) and slide it down your line and then you "just" wind the whole lot in and it snags the squid. 

 

Y a m a s h i t a  (avoiding swearword detector as this is a Japanese brand) squid jigs are good and there's another brand very similar but cheaper.