I still use a spinning rod and reel today and is the first item I give someone when I take them out bass fishing the first time
Yes, you can always catch a larger fish with a smaller hook size.
To fish small lures and light line, I like an ultralight rod and reel

There are whole banks of them so that the ships much avoid them they are four times as large [as in England]I often cut them in two before I can put them in my mouthIn summer, they are not very good, but unhealthy and can cause fever. Spawning Robert Beverly, in 1705, spoke of the large numbers of fish that traveled up rivers to spawn.[7] In the spring of the year, Herrings come up in such abundance into their brooks and foards [fjord] to spawn, that it is almost impossible to ride through, without treading on themthence it is, that at this time of the yearthe riversstink of fish. He describes other fish and their duration in the rivers, likewise into the freshes (sic) from the sea, multitudes of shads, rocks, sturgeon, and some few lampreys, which fasten themselves to the ShadThey continue their stay there about three months The shads at their first coming up, are fat and fleshy, but they waste so extremely in milting and spawning, that at their going down, they are poor, and seem fuller of bones He also spoke of the Old-Wife ( Pomlobus) : kinds s of fish in infinite shoals, such as the Old-Wife, a fish not much unlike a herring, and the Sheeps Head, a sort of fish, which they esteem in the number of their best

Its a good area always has been. Therein lies another veteran-pro tip the same spots on the same offshore bars will often yield shad-spawn bass year after year on Tennessee River reservoirs
A Texas-rigged soft plastic can be used in both places