Your best bet is to always check with the deckhands (x-hand here) when you're on the boat as to which way they want you to set up. Some boats fish differently than others.
For sinkers you should have a variety of sliders (my favs), torpedo (for dropper loops) and rubbercore (eehhh!) sinkers from about 1/8 to maybe 2oz.
Hooks should be 3/0 to 6/0 (Super/Mutu or other circle) for squid and macks. For anchovs and dines you need everything from 6's to 1's (various types, my faves mutu's). Sometimes (kind of rare) you might even need split-shots size 5-7.
Seabass should be fished on up to 30# max! You have to be very careful as seabass have very soft tissue mouths and you can pull the hook on bigger fish on longer fights. I remember a day off where we were fishing inside Rocky where I was jigging a 4/0 on 40# and a D8 and pulled the hook on some 15+ fish
, landed my limit (3)
and handed off at least 10 other hookups to passengers
that were not properly outfitted and never lost a jig.
Yellows you can fish up to 80# in a wfo bite when the fish get REALLY STUPID!!! With squid on a light bite you should maybe go down to 15-20. With macks you need to go to at least 25# so that you can pull the hook out of the bait and hook the yellow.
What most people don't understand, is that both species of fish fight differently.
Seabass aren't very smart and don't look to head for cover like 'tails. Seabass will head straight out, maybe down but hardly ever into cover like seaweed, pinnacles, or rocks.
On the other hand, yellowtail are like largemouth bass. They will look for struture to "saw" you off on. If you've ever been on a number of trips where there was a good yellow bite, guys (and deckhands) will talk about "being rocked" by a 'tail. These fish are SMART! I've hooked 'tails on 60# around the "boilers" off PV for literally just seconds before the fish "sawed me off". Over the years, I've lost track of how many yellows I've been "rocked" by (and it's well into the triple digits).
This being said, rod actions must accommodate the two styles of fishing you might encounter. You should do some research on rod actions (a suggestion). All my rods are custom (sized and wrapped by me) and the following list of rods are what I use.
For my seabass fishing I like a Truline LM8 (15#), M8 (25#), Calstar 210 (15#), Seeker 690J (25# lt/jig) and an original (rare custom) D8 for hvy/jigs. These rods have a slow to medium action so that the rod doesn't apply too much pressure making larger hole in the fish's mouth.
For my 'tail fishing, I always recommend a fast action rod. I actually have too many rods to list ('chovies, 'dines, macks, squid and lt/hvy jigs). But a few examples would be Calstar's T870 (25# bait), T6460-6470 (30-40 bait/jig) or almost any fast action rod that will handle 25-40# (line rating of 20-50#) will do. If you've ever been on a boat fishing 'tails, the most successfull "sticks" on the boat will be the ones that were able to turn the fish in the first couple of seconds after hook-up.
I'm not sure if I missed anything, but if you ask around this site and elsewhere (ie. deckhands/skippers and the better known Salt Tackle shops like Yo's, Art's, the Rusty Hook etc.) I'm sure you can get more info.
Hope this helped.
LW