Looks like you had a lively days yak fishing Kingaling, the heart rate goes up when a livebait goes off, whatever is on the end.I've never seen a 'scute' before,it looks like a promising reusable, can you buy them or do you make them?
I loved fishing the work ups from my yak last year, I just casted my soft baits from the edges and had fun with trev's, ky, snapps and a small king, but I spotted some big kings, so I'm going to take out a Slugo and a popper for when I see the big ones on the surface–I don't know how to use either, but I've bought them:)
I went to lighter braid and leader this week, the 10-12lb braid and leader worked great for soft baiting in the shallows, the light line was responsive and with my ocean angler megawave 8ft 6 in rod and a HS Slammer 2500 reel, with fancy expensive braid, it was a treat to use, but I'll take Shane's advice from above and go with heavier line for the bird action as I'd like to let a big snapper go after catching it this time, I've had enough broken traces pain for the week.
The fish under the workups, like me, look hungry, but not too spooked by heavy traces...so I'll give 25lb leader a whirl...what do most experienced yakkers here use for casting into workups with a softbait rig?