You'll probably get as many responses to these questions as there are fluke fisherman.
1.
big bait (I agree that big bait usually mean big fish) not that they won't take smaller, especially live baits. A favorite late season, if we have one this year, bait we love is live snapper blues about 8" long.
2.
I always use some type of visual attractant on our rigs. Favorites are a bucktail and spin'n'glo. The spin'n'glo throw off an amazing amount of flash, add virtually no weight to the rig, come in many color combinations, including glow in the dark. The bucktail(sliding)helps hide the hook, maybe more for my benefit and comes in a multitude of colors. Some days I do find the fluke prefer one color over others. Remember that fluke don't always sit buried but in fact will be on the move and hunt by sight, then stalk and ambush.
3.
Hooks. I like the Kahle style because of their wide gap, they can be packed with lots of bait and bait combinations. I have switched from the lighter gold wire to a much heavier stainless which will hold even the larger doormats. We use Size 5/0 Kahle offset.
4.
We make our own rigs and have experimented, over the years with many types and styles. One rig we used over ten years ago was like a daisy chain. It had a large bucktail 4 oz or so instead of a sinker. A 3 to 5' leader off that with rubber squid skirts every 8"-12" apart to the end where the live bait was hooked. We kept careful records of this rig and found that 98% of the hits and fish caught were on the end hook. Because of this we stopped using hooks on the front 4 or 5 squids and just crimped a sleeve on the leader behind each skirt. Over the years I'm starting to believe the KISS(keep it simple stupid)statement in many cases rings true. so now it's a spin'n'glo, bead, bucktail, hook.
We done very well with this setup and "most" times catch with no problem though if it's slow I will go to one of the more unusual styles to see if we can just make one mad enough to strike.
Other favorite is just a bucktail jig tipped with a bait.
Our bait usually goes the same way once we get our first victim.
A nice fluke belly strip about 7"-8" long with a live mummy(kelly) and/or whole squid and live mummy. If you can find squid in your area, it sometimes pays to swap out the fluke belly for whole squid.
5.
As far as buying, I usually don't as I enjoy making different rigs and trying out new ideas....etc.
6.
I use 50lb test leaders.
7.
Be careful with blades. It depends where and on what part of the tide you fish. I've found blades move okay with lots of current but as the tide dies, so does that blade and not much flash. The, mentioned above, spin'n'glo will constantly be working hard on any tide and throws off a tremendous amount of flash.
8.
Colors...sometimes they like a certain color pattern more than other times. An interesting thing to do is research what happens to what colors at various depths ... i.e. red at about 12' will turn black. So thinking they want the red today and you're in 40' of water...hmmm actually they are seeing black and not red at those depths.
Last. I've used double hook rigs but have trained myself to not set quick on our regular rigs so sometimes the fish to swallow that trailer hook, only to be too small and released with the hook still in it's stomach. I'd prefer a larger single and wait before setting. Setting up quicker might cure this problem. With the limits the way they are, I usually hook up in the mouth and had no baits swallowed for years.
Enough of my ramble as I'm sure if you asked 100 flukers, you'd get 100 different ideas.
p.s. Maggie got her 10lber on a whole bunker with a 9/0 bluefish hook. Don't be afraid to go with large baits.
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