I went surf fishing a few weeks ago for the first time.. it was pretty rough. it was the place to be if you like hardheads (useless to me).
i was wandering what is to rough to surf fish.

last weekend was too rough, it can be done, but when you go down and the surfs are nice and normal, everything seems to be right, you can swim out your baits and not end up out to sea or 100 yards down the beach, your spider weights stay stuck, the trout are fun to catch in the surf, and you'll hate any rough day, haha. just gotta make due with what you got, seriously though, when you find that perfect day, not too calm, not too rough, it'll all seem right.

I look for 2 feet or around there.. 3 is fine as long as the clarity isn't all that bad.. Wave intervals actually have more of an effect I believe..

Summer is coming so shouldn't be much of a rough surf..

oh yeah, water clarity, when you see the reds, whiting, sharks all running in the guts cause te water is so clear, that is NOT too rough, that is good fishing, last weekend it was like chocolate milk and even though the guts weren't as bad, they were still bad

Other than what you can withstand physically, wind direction which drives water quality is a big key to fishing.

On a southeast wind under 3 - 4 footers, the surf can be outstanding fishing


On a southwest wind with 1 foot "waves", you might as well stay home and watch TV fishing cause the water clarity will be zero.

when i went it was dirty, dirty water and rough as heck.
I was thinking, What do people see in this. i was getting beat to death by the waves. I guess i will check weather before i go again. Also, about how far out are the cuts/guts? on crystal beach.

The second gut its around 70+ yards and 200+ to get over the 3rd bar.. Depends really.. Some places the 2nd gut is 20 yards wide and others its 60+.

Waves break on a sand bar so when you are out next time, where you see waves breaking, that's a sand bar. Guts are naturally between two sand bars.

thanks for the info

If I'm heading out in the morning, I look for a pattern of either mild SSE winds at no more than 5 to 7 mph OR mild North winds. If you get mild North winds during the summer (this is unusual), then the surf will lay flat like a lake.

When you get the opportunity to fish in calm conditions with green water to the beach and the surf is loaded with trout, it kinda spoils you. I don't really bother heading down unless the winds are predicted to be light.

That said...I'll often head to the beach and the wind will be stronger than predicted. My primary goal is always trout fishing with artificials, but if the wind and surf ends up being worse than predicted, it's always good to have a surf rod with some good baits as a backup plan. I like catching sharks and a redfish if I'm lucky on the surf rod.

Short answer- SSE wind at 5-7 mph or light North wind.

-Pat

i rode down to crystal beach about a month ago on the last full moon. slight north wind no waves green was up to the beach. there was a guy catching 30 ct. shrimp in his cast net, 20 yards off the beach, birds were going crazy, an excellent day but i did not have a pole, one in the truck.
i will probably never see those conditions again.

You will the further south you go..