Saltwater noob needs advise

[gobie623]

Freshwater fished sine very young and was given a 4500BR and a 9' rod,shakespear I believe and need help.
1. Live in the PB area and want to try surf fishing. Where can I go in my area in the pre-dawn hours that wont require seal team training to survive? The beaches I know arent the safest places to be when dark.
2. Looking to catch pretty much anything I can legaly keep.
3. As for the reel, recomended line to spool it with?
4. If anyone out there looking for a fishing bud, please let me know. Work out in the belle glade area until dec1 when our Gov decided to shut down our facility.
I know I get noob question of the year but any help would be great.

[Mds169]

u work at glades CI?

[cvstrat]

The beaches are perfectly safe, even at night. Even when the waves are crashing and the wind blowing, it's not like you're wading out into the ocean. You're fishing from the sand and casting into the waves.

I've fished Juno beach which was pretty cool, but pretty much any beach is fine.

Probably spool it with 20lb power pro braid if I were you, and pick up some 30-40 lb fluoro (or mono) leader.

You can cast artis like spoons, jerk baits, swim baits, or top-water lures (at sun up/down), or rigs w/live baitfish or shrimp if you want. Try to match whatever bait you see swimming around out there. Could be pilchards or mullet.

If fishing artificial just cast and move, cast and move, until you get some action.

You could get into some snook but you need to know the slot restrictions and have a permit to take one. Jacks are all over now too.

[Sirsnookalot]

CVSTRAT is on point with information. For the most part you do not need surf equipment, unlike the northeast we don't have breakers to contend with and most of the fish are caught fairly close to shore, especially snook.
As far as casting and moving, best advice I can think of. Many of our fish "school", if I'm catching small jacks for example, I like to move in hopes of finding a school where the fish are running bigger, it can backfire you may find smaller fish.
I don't think anything works better than a plain silver spoon, lately I'm using a poppa dog almost all of the time, I just like the way they slam it, I probably catch a few less fish, but that's ok for me.
The action usually starts right around sun rise ( I don't fish at night), when the bait arrives.

[gobie623]

Hey, thanks for the replys. Yes im out at GCI for the time "short time". Actually hit the beach last week and had a blast. Anyone interested in going hit me back. Will be off Mondays and Thursdays in a week. Thanks again for the advise..