I'm a little bit south of you, but we catch black sea bass (BSB's) in primarily two ways. Believe it or not, fish for grouper and you will catch BSB's, by either trolling or bottom fishing. We catch them trolling using Mann's Stretch 25's using a medium action rod spooled with 65lb. braided line, and a 2ft length of fluoro attached to the plug. Troll them at 4-5 mph. Many times, BSB's will hit a plug twice their size. We also catch them bottom fishing, again with a grouper setup. I use a Penn 4/0 reel spooled with 80lb camo monofilament with an 8oz egg sinker (fish finder rig), swiveled to a 2ft length of 80lb fluoro tied off to a 7/0 kahle hook. They will hit live bait (pinfish, etc) or dead bait (sardines, threadfins). Oh yeah, Mr. Grouper loves a BSB also (legal sized of course
.
Hope this helps. Be sure to let your wife catch the big ones. That'll get her hooked on fishing and increase your time on the water. I managed to get my wife involved in our local fishing club and now there's not many weekends that we don't go out. Good luck and catch 'em up.