Matt,
I've never had a problem with the harness itself, on the ospreys, but I hear lots of guys complaining about them. I've found a way to re rig the whole bait which take some time, but makes a killer bait. Tomorrow I'll have pics of the osprey rig, and my trout plugs, that I'll post. What I do to the bait is take out everything the bait comes with, and throw it away. I stick a piece of plastic tubing (like surgical tubing or aquarium tubing) in the bait. Then I take two gammie trebles and put split rings on em. I connect them with a short piece of spectra and then take a piece of paperclip and bend it into a U shape. I insert the paper clip into the belly of the bait and clamp the split rings onto the bait. The first hook goes right where the tubing ends, and the second one ends up being farther back, about where the last fin is. You run your line directly through the tubing and tie to the split ring. You might have to add a mojo weight or something into the belly to get it to run straight. When you catch a fish the U's pull out and the bait, theoretically, slides up the line and you're good to go.

As for Fabio, I mean Byron, what he does is works the osprey kind of like a jig (same rod action at least) and keeps the bait up on the surface so that it races up to the surface, then when it dimples the surface, it pauses and sinks back down. Most of the time the fish will roll on it right when it dimples the surface, but I've had em line jumper it underwater too. Something to try, I've had good luck with it. Let us know how it goes.
-Brian