I've been playing DDs and having fun but decided to try my hand at CLs. Apparently US CLs get mines instead of torps and I've yet to find an effective way to deploy them. Even when the stars align and a ship just happens to stumble into them they only do around 2500 damage instead of the 9000 damage listed.

Is there something I'm missing? Do they get better at higher tiers? Am I supposed to drop them right in front of enemies?