Went surf fishing on Crystal beach Thursday thru Saturday. Super tuff fishing. Covered up in seaweed. Saturday was the best for fishing but we only got one good hit, it bit a 10" mullet in half. Other than that nothing on the big rods? Anybody else have any luck? Do those storms that came thru mess those fish up? I am new to surf fishing, am I really just looking for 1 bite per day or is it usually better than that? When the tide was down we got passed the breaker waves to the next sandbar and went all the way till it dropped again. Then we casted as far as we could. Should we have just pitched it a lil bit out in front of us? Just a lil frustrated after having such high expectations and then getting skunked. Any advise is appreciated. Fishing for shark and bull reds

I was there thurs thru sunday fished hard and didnt have any luck either until sunday morning. We tried surf and rollover pass with no luck. We were supposed to go with a guide fri until that got canceled cause the storms. Sunday morn about 30 min after daylight me and a buddy went to that smaller jetty right by the fairy and finally found some fish. We caught some specks, a jackfish, some flounder, and a black drum. All were caught on freelining live shrimp about 30-40 feet out. Nothing would hit our live mullet on surfrods

South East winds push in that weed. Best advise is go back. We all have had bad trips.

There's an art to reading and fishing the surf. Time, conditions and location are everything.

If it's too rough, too calm, too brown, too windy, not windy enough, too much current, too little current, no bait, etc, etc, etc it can be tough.

The only way to know what I'm talking about is to get out there and fish it.

Here's a hint: Pay close attention to where the birds are working and where the color change is. The birds will often be working the color change. If it's way out, and the birds are way out, then that means the fish are way out, generally. If the birds are working the guts then get to fishing son.

I think most of us were in the same boat. Where I was last weekend, the beach looked great upon arrival. Then I started wading out and saw it was going to be a bad day. As was said that southeast wind does weird thing to the current. There were some big holes out there and a lot of weed. That being said, the fish were there. Saw pods of dolphins working the third gut. At one point they were beating up on a hamerhead shark. I had one big hookup. Not sure what it was, but it almost spooled me twice. The sea weed made it impossible to fight the fish. By the time I got 50 lbs of sea weed close to shore, the fish got off. All I saw was a big splash. I gave up and we went crabbing instead. There were some big blue crabs. We ended up with a couple of dozen.

But on a typical day is it fair to expect just 1 bite or what?

To answer your question.......No. It is fishing. You hit a bad time. I have caught nothing but seaweed on one trip and slayed trout/ reds/sharks on others. Sometimes it is all hardheads. Sometimes it is whiting. Kind of like bass fishing. Some days 1 some days none, some days you slay 'em. Sometimes the guy in the back of the boat out fishes the guy in the front. Why is that? Who knows but that is why we fish. Go back another time.

Yeah, guess that's why it's called fishing and not catchin. I'm not giving up, still waiting to tangle with a monster

You know, I am using huge bait, cause my goal is to catch a monster, so when I do hook inot one it will be a good un. Almost like deer hunting big bucks only I guess

Pretty much on the monster buck analogy. I use cut mullet mostly. I have caught lots of monster reds in the surf. Caught alot of sharks in the 3 foot range. Had a live mullet on once got a hit set the hook the got a BIG hit. Reeled in the head of what was probally a 20 inch speckled trout. Shark took 90% of the trout. If the hard heads are tearing you up, I suggest moving. I have seen alot of guys take their baits out with Kayaks too. Get them past the 3 rd cut. Just A way.

I haven't been surf fishing in a few years. It was always hard to wade out to the 3rd sandbar. I never did like being shoulder deep just before hitting the 3rd sandbar. Have the storms made it easier or harder now?

We got out I think to the 2nd sandbar after the tide went down. Kinda of an eerie feeling when you're out that far, especially when you get fish swirling right next to you We walked till it started getting deep and then threw out as far as we could. Im thinking we should have just piched our baits out a lil ways in front of us cause I think we may have casted to the next sandbar. Least Im learning. A lot more to it than 1st meets the eye