i am going to mississippi on the first week of August, and would like any hints or suggestions that a first-time surf fisherman could find helpful.

NEVER put your hand in any fishes mouth!

Fishing the surf in Mississippi is about the same as fishing the surf here. From experience I know that in certain areas, the beaches can be crowded. Also it is a long way to wade from shore in some areas when the water starts to get deep enough to start fishing. For some reason, the sand bars are much wider than on other areas on the Gulf Coast. Depending on what you're fishing for will depend on what bait and rigging you will need. If only going for panfish or trout, use gear designed for bass fishing and use line no bigger than 15 lb test. Use smaller hooks and/or jigheads. Try to get some live shrimp or you can always use dead shrimp for some action on most all the panfish. Fish it under a cork or on the bottom Carolina rigged. Also try artificial soft plastics if you are targeting trout (specks or white/sand trout). When I was younger, we used to catch a lot of sand trout and big whiting in the surf there on dead shrimp and artificial tails. You'll need a floating stringer as well.
If you are going for bull reds and sharks, you'll need some heavier gear and line sizes. Use cut mullet or other small fish you might catch while using the shrimp. Cracked crab works good for big reds, too.
It's been a while since I've fished the area, but If you try some of these tips, you may catch a few. Have fun and give a report.

Good Luck to all!!!!!!

Garfish 3 has perfect suggestions but there are a couple things I'd like to add.

#1. Don't take any bait or stringers with you. (I'm sure you know this but I figured I'd put it out there ) You don't want to make any shark friends.

#2. You will have better luck fishing the troughs between the sandbars. I like to wade as deep as I can then back up and stand on the sandbar and cast into the trough. Rule of thumb to find the troughs (besides wading into them) is to find where the waves aren't breaking. The waves break over the sandbars. I usually fish for whiting and this method produces 100% of the time for me. I like to use a bottom rig with 2 hooks (a deep and a shallow) with frozen shrimp or squid for bait.

Hopefully this is helpful to you. Surf fishing is a blast, man! Good luck!

ya dont take bait with u best thing to do is leave a live well or cooler on land i know its a pain to walk there everytime and keep bait high out of water but use pyriamind sinkers with shrimp sure to catch a few specs if u fish long enough

i've done well with just a gold spoon in the surf

Try the gulp shrimp 3" molten or new penny on 1/8 jighead about 2 ft. below popping cork, works as good as live for me but I can get a few more fish off each bait.

Walking back to the shore for bait is indeed a pain, but having it on your person while out in the surf could be even more painful.

I fished in the Galveston surf over Labor Day and took a wide mouth plastic bottle that had a handle on it (empty pool chemicals bottle) and tied a short rope around the handle and connected it to my leg (or belt loop, whatever). The lid was water tight so it kept the scent out of the water, and the water out of my bait (dead shrimp). When you need a new shrimp, just pull on the rope, unscrew the lid, bait the hook, replace the lid, and drop the bottle back in the water. No trips to shore, no sharks checking you out.

We caught specks, mackerel, ladyfish, small sharks, redfish, and the requisite gafftops and hardheads. Works great.