Has anyone taught you how to read beach structure when you surf fish? There are guts that come close to the shore. When you find one, big and small fish will come in close. I caught most of my fish just outside the first sandbar near a gut. 15-20# mono will handle most any fish you catch. If you want to target shark you will need to use steel leader. I dont use it, because if I hook a big shark by accident i dont want to deal with it. I use mono leader that is 5-10# heavier than my line. i used a slider rig with 3-6' leader. The slider keeps the weight on the bottom but your bait can float in the water. I like fresh dead shrimp or Fish Bytes. If I target big gafftop in the Intracoastal or a river I used salted squid. Its tough and stays on the hook. Whiting 10" and up fillet easily and faste good fried. I would rather come home with 20-30 whiting than to fish for specks only and come home empty handed.

If you pinch off shrimp heads or tails share them with the shore birds. It brings you good luck.

I almost always use fluoro leaders in clear water with braid. I'll go as light as 17 lb under clearer conditions and expected fish mostly under 10 lbs.

In deeper water or less clear conditions, I'll go as heavy as 80 lbs when expecting bigger fish (20-40 lbs), especially near structure.

A 4 ft leader is plenty.

Ok thanks for all the tips. 2 weeks ago I took a trip to Port A. Fished off the pier and though it was cold, windy, cloudy with drizzle for both days, caught plenty of whiting. After having done it with braid + shock leader + double drop rigs that I made, my feeling is I'm not a fan of tying my braid to a 50 lb shock leader (5 oz weight). It worked but having that double uni-knot go thought my eyelets every time I would cast was annoying. I will admit, it never came loose though.

I just purchased another reel (Penn Pursuit IV, 5000) and 10' Penn surf rod so I will have two. Loaded it up with 20 lb mono because that's what I already had. Hopefully that will simplify things a bit.

Make sure to give your braid good backing with mono or tape!

The reels I use already have a rubber strip around the spool so that hasn't been a problem. At least not yet.

Braid will cut you if you’re casting lots! Go to Amazon and use a casting pointing finger glove. Trust me… I usually cast 2-4 ounce weights on 25 pound braid with 6-8’ Of 12-20 pound mono
10’-12’surf rods

I don't doubt it will. I can tell just by feeling it. How about just using athletic tape?

Yessir… athletic tape works great 👍🏼 may have to retape often when hands get wet. My biggest complaint with tape is pain in the butt when it’s time to re tie