Avoiding the juvenile snapper hordes: Sometimes every bait that hits the water is stripped in seconds by tiny snapper. They can decimate a bag of pillies in 20mins flat. Here are some strategies:

Get off the internet and go fishing. Do it.Mark Twain

Catching baitfish. When I was a kid in Hawke's Bay we got pretty good at catching the local baitfish: mostly sprats (Yellow-Eyed Mullet, aka herring), but also yellowtail mackerel (horse mackerel;"yakkas") and piper (garfish). We got pretty ghetto about it too, pulling rocks out of the retaining wall and dropping them on the sprats' heads to stun them; jagging them with big trebles, making hoop nets etc. Dad would cook them or we'd take them live for a treat for the kingfish and kahawai at Napier Aquarium. 

Waterblasters are great for scaling fish!

With sabikis... in order to make them hang properly, you have them so that the nylon of the dropper comes off the mainline pointing UP, not down along the mainline. This way the flies hang out away from the line and do not tangle, and bob about most invitingly for baitfish to grab.
When taking baitfish off a sabiki (or indeed any hook) to have for livebaits, try to touch them as little as possible.  With a sabiki, you need not even touch them at all, simply have a butter knife handy.
When you get your fish to the side of the boat, lift them smoothly on the sabiki over top of your water, bait-tank, whatever. Hold the trace, slide the butter knife along the dropper line until it comes down into the mouth of the hook, that is, on the inside of the hook, not the outside of the hook. Then press your thumb hard against the shank of the hook, holding it securely against the blade of the knife. It is then a simple matter of flipping the hook, and fish, upside down, the fish will, by using its own weight, pull off and fall free of the hook easily without you ever needing to touch the fish, straight into your bait-tank.
Using a butter knife is easiest as the blunt knife will not accidentally cut off your bait-flies or your thumb if you make a stuff-up.
By not touching the fish at all, they will remain far healthier and last longer as a livie than something you have grabbed, squeezed hard and wrestled off the hook, onto the deck, into the bilge, back out again, bounced off the seat, into the bait bucket, fished out at last and hurtled into the bait-tank. That is a newbie game... :-)
Of course, should you want dead baits, well, that doesn't matter at all.

MrRabbit wrote: Mistakes to avoid: Putting your $350 light tackle set up in a hole in the rock, underestimating the size of the snapper that just grabbed your 2/0 hook (big), and letting the bugger tear the rod and reel out of your hands as you lift it out of said improvised holder to strike, and into the tide like I did today. The last I saw of it was literally as it shot away from me through the water like a submerged javelin. I'm so furious about this I'm going back tomorrow with my diving gear to get it back, how far could the fish get one asks, towing an 8' noodle rod+reel with 20 metres of braid between rod & fish? I'll tell you tomorrow...

Mistakes to avoid: Putting your $350 light tackle set up in a hole in the rock, underestimating the size of the snapper that just grabbed your 2/0 hook (big), and letting the bugger tear the rod and reel out of your hands as you lift it out of said improvised holder to strike, and into the tide like I did today. The last I saw of it was literally as it shot away from me through the water like a submerged javelin. I'm so furious about this I'm going back tomorrow with my diving gear to get it back, how far could the fish get one asks, towing an 8' noodle rod+reel with 20 metres of braid between rod & fish? I'll tell you tomorrow...

Recall thee that Dubloon I nailed to the fo'mast? The one that had his name on it?

Trace holders: CD cases are great. I've had these two for about 5 years and they're going strong. 

Ahab, an amazing thread bro you've put a lot of effort in and heaps of great information!!