Brian,
Did you ever try the fastrac with red hooks? I found that the Bronze hooks I use on my fastracs rust extremly fast, like in an hour, so I coated them with some red fingernail polish(my sister's, I sware!) I also bought some jointed rapalas. Im gonna mess around in shallow this weekend(if those 7 footers ever calm down) and see if that warm weather brought any 'buts in shallow. Im still looking for my first fastrac halibut, all I have hooked so far are macks and mystery fish.
Good luck on the seabass next time, those sea dogs can be a real pain,
Tommy