Fishing Victoria Forum

As suggested mashed up bread with tuna oil works fine but be very sparing with how much is in the water as the gars will sometimes just follow it off into the distance. In SA while we mainly used maggots a very small piece of pipi or mashed squid also worked fine - basically anything fishy and white. While whiting fishing we often just had a gar line out with a float trailing behind the boat and no surface burley but still managed a dozen or so gars in a session.

Is there anywhere to spotlight gars in the west?

I've been doing my best MKR impersonation and whipped up a couple of batches of burley to try. The first one is chook pellets I put in the food processor, turned into a really fine powder and mixed well with tuna oil. I've got about 5kg of pellets left so it'd be good if this one works because I don't like wasting stuff. The second one is some bread crumbs and tuna oil. They both looked quite fine so I taped over some of the holes in the burley pot in case it floods out of there too fast. If I've over done it I'll just cut some of the tape away while I'm on the water.






I called around the local tackle shops but none of the ones in Geelong stock maggots (too hard to keep alive apparently) except for Mario's, who hadn't been able to get any this week from their usual supplier. So it looks like I'll be using pilchard, squid and flathead gut. Not ideal but whatever.

Wind is up a bit tomorrow so I might launch at St Helens boat ramp instead as the area between St Helens and Griffin Gully pier will hopefully have more shelter.

Drift for a just legal flatty. Fillet it straight away, cut the fillet into cubes smaller than the gape of a size 12 long shank hook and it'll outfish most baits

Maggots are good bait for gars, but as you've found out, supplies can be difficult to source.

There are two alternatives. The first is to breed your own. Easy to do but if you're in surburbia and have neighbours with sensitive noses it's not going to make you too popular.

The second alternative is to go to one of the bigger pet stores. They normally keep small tubs of mealworms. They are very popular with folks who keep small reptiles.

Good luck.

Aimless wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:47 am

ChrisTaylor wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:58 pm

As part of my little 'catch them all' project, I threw some tiny soft plastics at gars the other night. A few people were fishing for them at Frankston pier, and they were spaced out enough that I figured I wouldn't cause any problems if I took advantage of their combined burley trail. While my hooks ended up being too big (tiny gars, and the maggot plastics I ordered haven't arrived yet),

Hey Chris,

What size plastic / jig head would you recommend for smaller gar? I have a good selection of plastics now but admittedly nothing for the smaller fish and don't really know what would be the go.

I don't know. A 2 inch aji worm on a Hayabusa worm jig -- the kind that has a size 8 hook with a separate pin for threading on the plastic -- didn't do the job. I suspect I'd have had some chance if there'd been bigger gars about, but I landed precisely zero gars. They mostly seemed to be small, and they were hitting the plastic, but I *think* they were hitting it near the tail -- i.e. away from the hook. Yesterday some 1 inch maggot-looking plastics landed in my mailbox. I'll try those some time and report back.

Either way, while I know it's possible to catch gars on plastics, it's probably not ever going to be the method that'll result in you taking home a feast of gars. For *that* you'd probably want to follow everyone else's advice.

ChrisTaylor wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 01, 2020 11:47 am

Aimless wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:47 am

ChrisTaylor wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:58 pm

As part of my little 'catch them all' project, I threw some tiny soft plastics at gars the other night. A few people were fishing for them at Frankston pier, and they were spaced out enough that I figured I wouldn't cause any problems if I took advantage of their combined burley trail. While my hooks ended up being too big (tiny gars, and the maggot plastics I ordered haven't arrived yet),

Hey Chris,

What size plastic / jig head would you recommend for smaller gar? I have a good selection of plastics now but admittedly nothing for the smaller fish and don't really know what would be the go.

I don't know. A 2 inch aji worm on a Hayabusa worm jig -- the kind that has a size 8 hook with a separate pin for threading on the plastic -- didn't do the job. I suspect I'd have had some chance if there'd been bigger gars about, but I landed precisely zero gars. They mostly seemed to be small, and they were hitting the plastic, but I *think* they were hitting it near the tail -- i.e. away from the hook. Yesterday some 1 inch maggot-looking plastics landed in my mailbox. I'll try those some time and report back.

Either way, while I know it's possible to catch gars on plastics, it's probably not ever going to be the method that'll result in you taking home a feast of gars. For *that* you'd probably want to follow everyone else's advice.

Hey Chris,
Which aji plastic I your go to for flatties, pinkies and bream?
What size jighead and hook should I use with it?

cobby wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 01, 2020 11:20 am

Drift for a just legal flatty. Fillet it straight away, cut the fillet into cubes smaller than the gape of a size 12 long shank hook and it'll outfish most baits

Do you leave the skin on?

Skin off, trick is to have a nice white clean bait. Blood doesn't matter, guts or skin is a no no