Little Hopkins, Gotcha s or good ole shrimp work as well. These 5 to 6 hook contraptions tossed towards a school of busting bait will often times catch a 6-inch cigar minnow on every hook. Most buoys in the ocean hold a mixture of sardine s and cigar minnows and the like, so you can head to the nearest buoy and have fun, or just keep tossing ahead of a slow trolling boat. Other good baits to use are jumping mullets, spot, pinfish, grey trout, greenies etc. Now you have fresh live bait and you re at your favorite fishing hole.
Most baits swim slow.
Often times slower than you boat can go. I have The Optimax Smartcraft Gauges with the troll control feature. The range is from 400 to 1200 rpm on the tachometers, and I was surprised to find out what a huge difference 10 to 20 rpms makes to your speed. I generally troll at 500 rpm or less on one motor. If you don t have these gauges you just need to go as low as you can.