Plum, a couple things...
You have got to get over this "rig" thing. Look at the rigs people have suggested. Fish finder w/weight, swivel, 24"-30" leader, 5/0 bait or circle hook. Use the lightest weight needed to get the bait down to the bottom. This should be sufficient.
The couple things to switch up when things aren't working... vary your weight, vary your bait (herring, bunker, mackerel).
Does anyone disagree that this basic setup and basic principals should work for chunking?
Its good to try different things, but if you use the basic setup that's been suggested over and over to you, use it and forget it. The rig is not the problem. Don't keep worrying that your setup is keeping the fish away.
Instead of focusing on whether or not your setup is ok, focus on whether or not there are fish where you are.
Finding fish isn't just walking down to the beach and tossing your bait in... they aren't evenly distributed along a beach or a pier or a jetty. They relate to structure. Anything from rocks or pilings to a tiny 8 inch ridge in the sand might hold fish. And there might be 30 fish around a single rock one day, and nothing there the next. The fish could be in the worst spot in the worst conditions in the middle of the day, or you can go to the best structure, with the best conditions and get skunked.
Put this "rig" obsession behind you... before it becomes all consuming
That all was one point... my second point is the question of whether or not fly-fishing produces more or less fish. In my opinion, flies can produce as well as any artificial. They can match just about anything with a fly and their action is great. When fish are on small bait, flies can be devastating while others can't downsize and match the hatch.
The problem isn't the lure, its the presentation.
Presenting a fly to the fish is the challenge. Casting is more difficult, and getting it to where the fish are (often on the bottom) is more difficult. You need weighted line, you can't just change to a higher weight lead head or something. Chasing school bass actively feeding in the top few feet of the water column, I've seen flies produce alot of fish. Bigger fish are more often down deep so they are tougher to get the lure in their strike zone.
The comment that "fly fishing produces less fish" may be accurate because it takes a higher skill level to do it successfully. By that, I don't mean they are more skilled fishermen, I mean someone can become say, a decent spin caster much more quickly allowing them to have a better chance of success more quickly. It takes longer to develop fly-casting skills, therefore it will be longer until you can present the fly properly. But, an accomplished fly-caster can hold their own against anyone. I don't see many of those out on the water, but its true none-the-less. That being said, as a beginner to the sport, fly-fishing may be the toughest way to break in and achieve quick success.
Overall, whether its flies or chunking, livelining, eeling, trolling, plastics, or plugs, the key is still finding the fish. The perfect lure or bait with the perfect presentation does nothing if there are no fish there to eat it. However, if the fish are there, they might hit anything that moves. Stop worrying that a couple inches of leader, or one size of hook, or beads??... stop worrying if that is the problem.
Its not. Anyone that's fished long enough has seen fish caught on just about everything. One year in Nantucket, I saw a guy chunkin' half an eel, with like 18" of wire, a weight, more wire, a float, and more wire. He was like the only guy on the beach that caught a fish that day (remember that one John). I once was next to a guy who landed about a 40" bass on a roberts ranger... I actually landed it for him. He said, "wow, that's great...what kind of fish is that?" I told him it was a striper, but they had to be 36" to keep. I told him that one was about 32" so he let it go. Not nice, but the point is, the fish don't care about any of this BS, when you're in the right spot at the right time, the fish will come... AND THEY AREN'T GONNA CARE IF YOUR LEADER IS 23" OR IF YOUR WEIGHT IS 1OZ TOO BIG OR IF YOU HAVE A 4/0 OR 6/0 HOOK OR IF YOU ARE USING FLUOROCARBON OR STEEL LEADER.
My first year of serious striper fishing was '98. Myself and a member of this board fished with eels at night in Rhode Island, the cape, south shore of mass... I'll bet we went out almost every weekend all summer... we barely caught anything. We caught alot of schoolies at some spots locally, but we got like zero big fish. It was the biggest deal to me when I caught a 28 1/2" keeper. And I'd been fishing freshwater my whole life, and I'd caught hundreds of bluefish and even a big striper in periodic vacations to Nantucket. And my partner, who I will not name 'cause who knows how many fish stories he told people about all the fish we were catching
had been fishing stripers for a couple years as well. It wasn't like we were two backwinding, clam dunking, beer guzzling tourists.
My second year wasn't a whole lot better 'cause I had a new house and barely got out. When I could, I went out and I kept at it.
It wasn't till the fall run of my third "YEAR", not week, not month, third year, that I started to have regular success and really catch some nice fish. Than I started to learn more and understand the importance of this and that... this tide with this wind, dark eels work better than brown eels, blah, blah. etc etc.
I went off on a similar rant before in a thread you started... dude, you have to check your expectations a bit, and realize that it will take some time. And you need to listen more attentatively when you ask questions if you want people to answer them seriously. This topic has now come up what 4 or 5 times. My issue with that is that some folks on this board who have caught alot of fish and have put alot of years in the salt, answered you the first time and explained several clear, basic rigs. Use them and forget them. Focus some basics, and focus on trying to find some fish.