My bait of choice is Skip Jack fillet.In early spring I can go the the Tennessee River and catch 100 from the bank fairly easy.We use small jigs with a weight attached a few inches up the line.The bait has to be moving fast and you have to jerk it fast for strikes.Then try to jerk that Skip jack out of the water and on the bank fast or you will lose it.We fillet them and freeze in quart bags for jug trips. Leave the skin on the fillets.You can scale them but the skin is oily and smelly making for better bait.
Use circle hooks.I changed to circle hooks and it made a world of difference.I use big ones and have caught 60 lb flat heads a bunch of times.I usually set out 70-100 jugs at a time and only go when the barometric pressure is dropping after several days of high pressure.It's a lot like work but one trip will fill the freezer with enough for all year.
Last year on one of my best trips I had 6 fish over 30 lbs and over 500 lbs all told.I had to make one trip home to unload and clean fish at 2 am. When I got back to the dock to run the rest of the jugs I saw that someone had just ran over a deer.I loaded that in the truck also and had surf and turf.