I use live bait, black saltys about 3 inches long, kin to goldfish, don’t catch many small ones, 4-5 pounds is about the smallest.
Try noodling?
As a teen, my buddy and I took snappers out of the canal and river. We’d get past date meat from the butcher, put a big hook in it an toss it on the garage roof foof for a couple days, then hook a big hook onto it, and toss it into the canal, hooked to a four foot stake. Biggest snapper we ever caught was 62 pounds. I won’t speak about the butchering as it was very brutal. Good bucks from the delis though!