Gday, 

http://www.fishingwa.com/how-to-fish/herring-rigs-part-1/

I always like the herring blobber rig as seen in pic #2 here with either straw and longshank hook, baitchaser rig or just a single small longshank.  Tiny bits of herring or prawn and put the burley into the hole in the float, pack it in tight.  This way you can cast all around the boat, If they are biting its just cast and wait, if they are finicky you can retrieve the blob quickly/jerkily and they should chase it.

Me and the missus pulled 10 herring off the beach at silversands last night in under an hour like this, pretty much a fish for every 1-2 casts.

Bryan

 I'm betting it's when you lift them into boat or lift out of water. 

I catch loads of Heza on Mackaz straws, cut to quater and fed down to a 1/0. 

Try using a net to land them, keep the rod tip under water and run them into a net.

Good luck.

Thanks guys,
Probably loose half the on the lift. The landing net works OK (when I get them to the boat), but is a pain in the ass.
A couple of good rigs in fishing WA, thanks Bryan.

 When they are around, use 5gram twisty, treble better then a long shank, I've also used a deeper beaked hook with the straw and it still works better then the smaller long shabk, just a thought..... Try tying a treble to trace and have the straw on that? Should work ok

 usually use a small berley cage ( berley being a simple pollard / water mix ) with a leader around 40 cm long to a size 6 mustad suicide hook using shelled pieces of coral prawn. cast out and slow retrieve keeps it near the surface dispersing the berley as its retrieved. then if the hezza have gone sub surface or there's skippy around you can stop winding and let the rig sink to the desired depth 

 Just use a fly rod :) makes catching hezzas alot of fun esp this big ones down this way :) 

Minnow style soft plastics have been doing the damage for me. Also a bit of fun on the light gear