I am visiting Houston for awhile and have found out that Galveston county and Surfside both require a 'Beach Permit' to park on the beach and fish, (or whatever).
I purchased the one for Gal.Co. at a local store on Bolivar near Emerald Beach but can not find where to get one for Surfside.
I have already called the Surfside Chamber of Commerce/City Hall but all I get to do is play phone tag with their computer answering machine.
I called a local store and the young lady there said she 'thinks', somewhere on the beach is a little shack where you can buy one, but if no one is there then I'm out of luck.
For an area that was devastated by a Hurricane , one would think that it would be easier to use the beaches and spend your money in the area. I guess maybe they figure they will make more money off of the tickets when they catch you without a permit. (Only reason I found out about the Gal.Co. permit is that a friend told me about them. Otherwise I would have got a ticket when I was fishing.)
Anyone know where to buy the one for Surfside?

You buy it from the person in shack set up at any of the beach access points. That is only in village limits of Surfside. If you access the beach at a spot that doesn't have a shack set up, then your on the free beach. If you want to fish, the free beach is better anyway. To many hootleheads running around on the pay side in the city limits.

I forgot to mention, the free beach is northeast of the city limits.

Thanks for the reply. Do you happen to know the street name for the city limit towards SLP?
Also, I should have asked in the first post but, is there parking or free parking for the Surfside jetty?

In Gal. Co. those permits were in effect before ike.

I think that street is called Stanik Dr. You will see a sign that says "Beach Access #1". That access and anything NE of it is free. The parking is free in the parking lot at the Surfside Jetty.

Thanks alot Palehorse. You gave me more info in 5 minutes than I could find on the internet in an hour, along with 30 min on the phone. Thanks again.

As for the fees being here before Ike, all I know is they were not here 17 years ago. Like I said, I'm just visiting for a while. Thaks for the info tho.

No prob

I wish Gal Co would enforce the permits more. It gets on my nerves to see people with out them and the cops doing nothing.

You can also get the beach permit at the valero store (corner of 332 and bluewater highway)...

x2 w/palehorse...better fishing in the free areas away from crazies.

Oh, I would LOVE to know exactly makes a person a 'hootlehead' ... it rather sounds like one of those funky deep-sea fish that nobody has ever seen that you pull up once in a while.

'Hey, you catching anything?' - 'Naw, just a hootlehead'

Yea, that sounds about right. They are usually kinda freaky looking.