saltwater Ultra light scratching and set up

[soutie18]

Howzit Guys
I am Jonathan big fan of salt water ultra light fishing 
I just got into ultra light fishing after a horrid december in struisbaai,witsand,stillbaai,waenhuiskrans with the big rods and absolute got hook on ultra light Fishing always been hooked from a child but now a bit more seriously   .
I think ultra light fishing consist of more planning and working to catch a fish then with the big rods and that why we catch more fish.

So firstly i was wondering what would work best with ultra light scratching small baits like sard,mussel,squid/chokka and red-(ass)   cut in small pieces  or lures and soft plastics.  I Have had success with baits and have not yet used lures or plastic i used the old high-low rig two hooks and small skinker but moving to the whiting rig . advise on other rigs or set upSecondly would you use the shame bait to target the smaller vision of the species as the bigger guys or do the smaller guys have different feeding take if you use bait do you guys drift baits ?what lures and plastic work and size . how would you present/work the lure ?Thirdy the ethical part i used small #10 Mustard J HOOKS when using bait but found that the little guys swallow the hole hook especially little kob and bully fish and had to use a small tweezer to save the fish but species like black tail and strepie hook nicely in the corner of the month   . do you get #10 circle hooks or what would be the ethical hook to use if their is something like that. As i only believe in catch and release because if the wife had to see the size of fish i would have lost a lot of fishing gear

My Setup consist 5.6 ft tyga loomis roddaiwa2000 crossfire reelspiderwire 10lb


Could you guys advise on more salt water proof reel in the size 1000 or even smaller (500)
and braid in the 4lb to 8lb


Also advise on places to visit for ultra light saltwater fishing in south africa
My next trip is to Margate/durban in the june/july any places you would recommend to scratch
Advise on species that i could possibly catch

the pic is my new pb from stillbaai it was just in under 1.25 kg cape stumpie

[forensic]

howzit, Margate could deliver some shad in the winter so invest in some small spoons that cast well.
Not an expert with soft plastics but saw my niece's husband having alot of fun fishing small leadheads with a small section of a red plastic Berkley worm 3.5 cm. with little legs running down it's sides like a musselworm or wonderworm. Berkley have a digestable range of plastics which is more expensive.
Fish cannot digest most soft plastics and it cloggs up their innards.
 
VMC make great circle hooks in small sizes, don,t forget to try catch mullet they will give you a good rev and you can fish for them in the estuaries when the sea gets wild. Use a float you can cast for them.