by Tom Deer
Had a phone call from a mate wanting a hand to Dab some gar for bait as he is heading to far west coast in Nov chasing big mulloway. I thought why not. Might get to keep a few gar for a feed for myself and in a last minute decision I decided to tow my boat and have a quick snapper session.
We had a quiet session on the gar and only got 42 of which I kept 10. The morning after dabbing I filleted the gar and put them in the van freezer, keeping the heads and back bones for bait.
I launched around 2pm, after a sleep in, and was off the water by 4pm. It was a great session on the snapper and I kept 6 and one snook. I had 2 different rigs set up. Using the heads to bait a 4/0 octopus circle and the back bones on a 4/0 twin hook rig.
Maning the twin hook rig and leaving the circle hook rig un-attended in the rod holder both resulted in a great hook up rate. I only lost two fish and both of these were a result of being spooled and then broken off. Possibly big snapper, shark or eagle ray.