Is it worth it? Thinking about heading down to the coast to try some surf fishing, since it will be my first time ever fishing saltwater im looking for any guidance or tips i can get. Thanks in advance guys.

Anywhere along Mustang Is. is good fishing in the surf. You'll be most successful if:
1) the surf is calmer
2) green water to the beach
3) you hit it at first and last light (sun-up/down).
4) fish the guts between sandbars. Near guts early and then the deeper guts later. Then the near guts as sundown approaches.
5) try artificial lures and live bait. Take a cast net and bucket to catch live mullet for bait.

Good luck.

Thanks Landpirate thats some very helpful info, ive always been hesitant to fish the coats for lack of knowledge on how to fish it.

There's only one way to learn it and that's to get out there and do it. Yes, you'll probably get skunked a few times but if you learn something each time then it wasn't a waste of time. When I started to learn how to fish the salt I got skunked plenty. Just keep chugging away.

how do you get to the guts?
1st gut i think you would wade, but what about the 2nd?

You can easily wade and fish the first and second guts. Sometimes crossing to the 3rd sandbar is not advised. If you have to swim you could be asking for trouble depending on the currents.

Hey LP, w/o boat for barely a week... almost sounds like you ready to get a little surf action!

I go once or twice a year and camp in park. Do well with silver spoons fishing second gut. Usually catch spanish mack and trout. In june, we caught a small shark in surf on spoon. Also topwaters early and late can be productive.

Green water and light surf, make for better and easier fishing. Like stated earlier, early and late are best.

Will be there at the Mustang Island State Park fishing close to the jetties starting Monday afternoon, the 6th, for 2 weeks. Semi-fat old guy with a white beard and black pickup truck. Will help anybody as much as I can if you see me there. I've found anytime you get to go fishing is the best time to go. I think right after Labor Day is one of the best times to go though, the water's still warm, and nobody's on the beach except weekends. Sometimes the fishing is hit and miss but you can't go wrong as long as the sun shines, the seaweed lets you get a lure through, an oil rig doesn't blow up close offshore, and all the hurricanes stay on the east coast. See you all there. Al Grab (aka Propman) <*)}}}><

Hey Josh,

me and ant were in galveston 3 or 4 weeks ago. We caught mullet all day from the shore to about 3 feet of water. Have a good pair of polarized shades so you can see them. They're easiest to see in the waves. We used a castnet for them but you gotta be quick. At night use a led head lamp and you can see schools of them in water ankle high. We fished the second gut and caught most of our fish there. We fished with a 30 to 50 lb leader and number 7 and 8 circle hooks on 20 lb test. Rigged about 2 ft above a 4 ounce spider wieght. Buy the weights down there cuz bass pro is hella expensive. Dont use any gear that you dont want messed up from the salt water cuz you'll see a difference in performance after the salt gets in there quick. Wash thorough with water. If you hook into seaweed get ready cuz those freakin things take forever to reel in. Not a pro but this worked for us.

HOW DO YOU FIND THE BETTER SANDBARS-- 1ST AND 2ND GUT?SOMEONE SAID ON A POST ONE TIME THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING TO LOOK FOR--- WAVE ACTION,CURRENT FLOW ETC.

I'll be doing a little surf fishing and a little offshore (with a buddy that has an offshore boat) next week. Probably the last trip of the season. My deer lease under TPWD's MLD program and our season starts in Oct (thru Feb). So it's time to put on my huntin' hat.

Walk off the beach and into the surf. The water will get deeper and then shallower, deeper and shallower (again). The deeper areas between the shallower areas are guts. The shallower spots are sandbars.

The waves break on the sandbars. If the water is clear enough and you have polarized glasses you can normally see the sandbars.

Depending on the current the gut between the 2nd and 3rd sandbar maybe pretty deep (7+ ft) and as much as 50 yards or more wide.

so normally you can walk across the 1st gut?

"so normally you can walk across the 1st gut?"

Yes, can typically walk through the 1st and 2nd gut. Sometimes walking through the 2nd gut, onto the outside sandbar, and fishing back into the 2nd gut can product better than fishing it from the inner sandbar.