I'll be heading over to Surfside this weekend. First chance to fish this summer, and seems the tides are [censored] and wind is picking up.
I'm debating the bays close to SLP, on the Glaveston side, or just hitting the surf in front of the rental house with mullet, shrimp or croaker.
Mostly want to have some fun in the water

Any recommendations?

Game time decision. If the water is clean and surf is calm then stay there at the house, or if you see birds working near the shore. But if you have dirty water or the surf it too rough to be worth fighting then wade out in the bay.

yeah predictions are borderline.. 8-14 with a little sw in it. Might be ok at daylight and I wouldn't worry too much about the water color. Start in the surf and then if you don't get on some fish quick then hit Christmas or lower west bay on the bay side.

My thoughts exactly. I may tough it out, I don't mind the water being a little sporty, the question is if fish are gonna be there.



Good to know about water color, moving to the bay implies more logistics - and if kids are awake it means staying with family at the beach and soaking some fishbites with them
Tobin, which TS videos would you recommend for someone without boat, to learn tricks for bays? I guess the surf has tricks too, but seems less boring to me to fish it even if skunked.

SSW winds around G-town will be around 9mph and gusts to 16 for about a week. The water tends to get dirty with that wind direction.

Newbie question:
Is it crazy to toss some croaker for trout with the forecasted conditions?

You can catch anything in the surf with these conditions. The trout fishing may not be the best but you could still catch reds, shark, black drum....

It is never crazy to toss live bait out in the surf. You never know what may bite on any given day, in any given condition. Yes some conditions are more favorable than others, but it is never crazy.

I got there on Friday afternoon, had some nibbles on Fishbites in the first gut. Lots of wind and current, chocolate churn water needing a 2oz pyramid and still getting moved around.
I tried the surf Saturday morning, Saltgrass was out of livebait but Hooker's had some. Got a dozen croaker and 2lb dead shrimp.

Heavy wind and current, casted croaker into the wade gut and waited, no movement, some tension on line when tried to flick it, reeled a little and felt heavy, but no fighting much like a subtle flounder bite. Croaker was dead and neck broken??? Casted to same spot and immediately got a hard hit, a waited 5s and set the hook on a massive hardhead.
No other hits on the other 5 croakers I sent out into the first gut and 2nd gut. So I saved the other 6 for later. Spent some time casting dead shrimp and fishbites and hooking on medium size whiting and hardheads, also a 12" black drum

The rest of the day with the kids was fun on fishbites and croaker, less wind, but still some current. On lower tide I was able to get to 2nd bar and caught a bunch of fish: big hardheads, whiting, a small pompano and a small pup shark, on fishbites.
Kids were happy. So no big fish or anything fancy, but a few fish that pulled some drag.
Didn't fish on Sunday, but wind was better and water clarity seemed improved, didn't see anyone catching fish.

I apologize I didnt see this earlier. I'd say to start with, and especially with kids, the Limits of Trout one.. it was our very first video so it's a little more organic compared to our 3 later more professional ones but it will be perfect to change your idea about how to fish the bays. The Limits video is about teaching us to not just cast into any old location, but to hunt the fish by their interaction with the food they are eating. This is a skill called reading the water. The other really great thing about the limits video is that its great for kids and will turn them into fishing machines. There are a lot of graphics that explain and images / video of what to see with your eyes.

The other will be the Shallow Redfish video.. it's probably still our best video and 2 hours long and professionally shot and edited. But it's pretty dense with information and more science, ecology, and biology so depending on the age of the kid it might be to dense but it's very detailed and almost 2 hours and packed with information you can use a lifetime no matter how you enter the fishing area whether that is walking in, wading in, boat, kayak, etc etc. learning how to find the fish is even more essential to walking in because we have to quickly ascertain if anything is there at all or should we hit the car and go to another walk in spot in stead. It's a challenge for sure but doable.