The length of your trace should be dictated by the sea.

On a calm day, no swell, a longer trace will be of good value. It enables the fish to swim naturally. When I say long trace, 2 metres max.

On the other hand, a bit of swell, a bit rough, a shorter trace will go out better initially, so that can be the way to go to get good clearance. However, by short, it'd say 1 metre minimum. The shorter your trace, the more time your live bait spend swimming past your mainline, this can create tangle which is a pain in the bum.

On the other hand to counter it, the thicker your trace, the les proned to tangles, but less likely to get serviced by a kingfish.

40lg fluro is great in good conditions, I would bump it up to 60lb and a shorter trace in shittier conditions. That purely to eliminate tangles.

Hooks are as important as anything too. Non gloss, black hooks WILL work better than a bright silver hook the reflects in the shallow water to the sun near the surface, you wont to eleminate that and make you livebait as natrual as possible without a hook saying " her I am". Use the appropriate hook size for your live bait.

Black magic hooks are cheep, in the KS series, however do rusk fast if not washed afterwards. Fantastic livebait hooks in both 4/0 and 5/0, great for Yems and smaller kahawai.

You don't need fancy clips and gimmicks mate, keep it all simple and you will catch fish. This summer alone my livebaits have accounted for around 20 kingfish. Best landed around 18kg, with a couple of spectacular ass whoopings in there too.

Persevere and results will come. One magic day slide baiting out of 10 trips will erase any day spent catching small HB goldfish.

Best of luck