@cornbird By red fish I assume you mean the different kinds of rock cod, many of which are red.
Advice for fishing on a boat:
When I fish for rock fish, I use a shrimp fly setup with 3 hooks (We’re only allowed 3 hooks for rock fishing in CA), and usually a ½ pound or 1 pound weight at the bottom, depending on the current.
I use either a hunk of squid meat on each hook, or a live anchovy hooked through the eye. Frozen can work too. Let your line reach all of the way to the bottom, and then crank it up ~5–10 turns, just so you don’t snag anything on the bottom. Now just wait for the fish to come.
With this setup, I can usually catch my 10 fish limit in around 3 hours if we are on the fish.
Pier fishing it different, you really just have to get lucky. Squid here is another favorite, just try to have the stinkiest bait around to have the best luck catching fish.