Southeast Florida Drift Fishing

[mainliner]

Hi all. I'm new to the forum and will jump right I'm trying to pick your brains for some info. I'm planning a trip to do some fishing on a party drift boat near Palm Beach. I've been on this boat many times over the years (been about 2 years since last trip) and I'm trying to get some ideas of what I can do as far as equipment, tackle, etc, to improve my odds and make my rig stick out from all the other identical rigs. I'll be stuck using the boat rod provided and their line so I realize that kind of limits me. They usually use a 2 hook (together) setup with a frozen sardine or something similar. We usually seem to catch kings, bonita, and an occasional dolphin as long as the current is good for the drift (usually approx 2-3 miles offshore). Last time out, I brought a few yellow leadhead jigs and rigged the sardines to that and a few times I was the only one catching (even won the boat pool with a smoker king). But, I was wondering if there was any better ways, within the limits I described, to improve my odds ie: lures, jigs, other type of natural bait or a combo of the 2. It's the only place I've done drift fishing and obviously I'd like to stand out from the crowd (not me personally, but at least my bait).

On the same subject, I just bought a new reel that I'm going to use farther north for bottom jigging snapper and grouper. I think it may be useable for the drift trip but I'd like to confirm that it would be. Also, I'd need to pair it with a good rod but it would have to something that breaks down as I'll be carrying it on an airplane. The reel is a Shimano Stella 10000. So I'd need a spinning rod, obviously something fairly strong but that can come apart. Is there anything like that out there or would anything with the capacity I need pretty much be a one piece? It would be great if I could use my new reel before my bottom trips later this year.

I love to fish and pretty much do it a lot of the time I'm on vacation on the east coast. I've done a combo of bottom, drift, and surf (have a surf setup in a storage unit in Cocoa) but as I live far from saltwater, I have to speed up my learning curve when I'm near the sea. Any help or pointers anyone has would be appreciated.