1) You can either strike when the fish bites or sometimes the fish will hook itself, you will ind your preffered method by practice.
2) In my opinion, pealed prawns are the best bait for bream especially, you can buy a bag of peeled prawns from Aldi which i find good bait.
3) Main tip to catch more fish is a road question as there are many things but i will name a few. For bait fishing you should berley, this is when you throw in fish bait or fish attractant suh as prawn heads, bread mixed with tuna oil or so on in the water to attract the fish to your area. Also use google maps to find an area you think will hold fish. Fish will always hold around structure or a food source such as rock walls, pylons, jettys, weedbeds, drop offs and so on so aim your spots around areas with these structures.
Hope this helped, goodluck,
Daniel.