With macks, you don't have too much room for error. They are much more sensitive when live-lined. Especially if you puncture their body. They also ..are not as durable. You normally only have 1 shot at setting the hook.
As far as hooks, the Daiichi Bleeding Bait hook works pretty good, but with larger sized scup...the Gami Octupus 6/0 works fine. With smaller baits, go with a "Live Bait" hook. The size depends on the size of your bait. A heavy hook will wear down a smaller bait. I do not like cirlce hooks with live bait, (I really don't care for them at all period). You spend too much time handling the baitfish, which will also effect it's life-span. This is from my experiences. I'm sure there are other methods that work just as good, if not better. I read that a lot of S.Shore boaters live-line macks all the time. Maybe one of them can chime in and share their method with us.
...PasNgas...
I had em' for a solid week holding up in the same *spot*. (2) rods, one for scuppin' the other for Bassin'. No sooner would I catch a scup, transfer him onto the other rod...toss him into the same general area that I caught him, he would dive right down to the bottom...within a couple of minutes I'd have numerous bass chase him to the surface, and the show would start. Toward the end of the week, I talked my brother into coming out with me, (he doesn't fish)...but when I dropped him off...he said, "Bro...that was like
living-thru an ESPN moment.." Needless to say, that made my day.
Good Luck to all...