beachmack,

First off. Welcome aboard.

Of course I have to say that mooching is best.

But having said that I would recommend on the big water to troll till you find fish and then mooch the area till you have to go looking again. Nice thing is that mooching lends itself well to this technique without having to rerig all the time. For the feeders out there I would not worry about how light your leader is. 25-30# is fine, heavier if you like. Check with other guys on the typical depths to fish. Typically when trolling for actively feeding fish I'm a lazy boring 30-35 pulls (yds) kinda guy. Vary your direction on a troll and try kicking the motor in and out of gear every once an awhile if absolutely nothing is happening. Don't hesitate to try different things and be sure to watch the other guys (especially the 6 packs). Out there my biggest problem is fishing like we do inside for blackmouth, try to avoid the temptation to fish to deep. If you do though bring your gear all the way back up every now and then.

Hope that helps a little. Only one man's opinion and I'm sure you can do better. Good luck. Let us know how you do.