I have never surf fished. I have saltwater fished, but never in the surf. Anyway, my family may be headed to galveston in early august, and I want to try the surf. I have read about what to use, and where to fish, im just curious, and forgive me if its a dumb question, how do I know if im in the gut? What is the best beach to fish? and is it better fishing if we drive down the beach and get away from the people?
thanks in advance

Just drive along the beach until you see other successful surf fishermen, and wade right in. There's a term for that, but I can't think of it at this time.

Potlicker, lol

Yeah, don't potlick. There's plenty of beach and fish without hacking off other people.

There are a series of guts and sandbars that parallel the beach. The guts are the deeper "channels" between the sandbars, which are shallow.

Walk out into the surf and you'll notice that gradually slopes down and then begins slope up. You just crossed a gut and are now headed for a sandbar. As you cross the sandbar the bottom will gradually slope down again, into another gut. The guts get progressively deeper.

You should note that the waves will break on the sandbars, but not between, in the deeper water of the gut.

The first sandbar is visible at low tide, then the first gut, the second sandbar is ohhh idk 80 yards out? Then the second gut will go to about 4-5 feet deep I would say, then you approach the 3rd sandbar about 120 yards out? Then the third gut gets pretty dang deep, not real sure, perhaps 8 feet or so? Then the 4th sandbar is pretty far out, I would go to the 2nd sandbar and toss into the 2nd gut, depending on what you are fishing for.

After doing ATV patrols I have watched trout fisherman and they go to about waist deep, maybe standing on the 2nd sandbar. Reason im saying this is because I dont trout fish.

The trout patrol the guts, right up to the beach. The gut between the beach and the first sandbar is ofter referred to as the "Wade Gut". Do not discount it.

These trout were caught at sundown, incoming tide, wade gut (less than 1 ft. of water), Rapala Skitterwalk (black back, chrome belly), 10 fish limit in less than 30 minutes. Not including all of the dinks that were tossed back. I left 'em while they were still biting.

Another question concerning driving down the beach, how will an f150 4x4 handle the sand, will we be ok, or will we have to worry about getting stuck?

You should do fine with a 4X4. I've seen cars on the beach.

If you start to stick, don't gun it and dig in deeper. Stop, air down your tires to 15 psi, dig out the sand in front of your tires and drive out. Not that big of deal.

Fished the wade gut and first gut today, I didn't even need to go any further. I could have fished off the dry sand this morning if I had wanted, water was so nice (I was further down the beach at Surfside). At Surfside, the wade gut at high tide is pretty pronounced, the second gut is not so dramatic, just a gentle drop off the sand bar. I fished the backside of the first sand bar, and fish were holding there snatching baitfish stirred up by the breakers on the bar.

I ran a Ford Ranger about 5 miles on teh beach, a 4x4 will be fine. Last week with the fam we drove a minivan on the beach. Just stay on the packed sand, keep out of the powder. I think you have to go pretty far down on the west end or over the bridge to the west to drive on the beach.

As you drive along the beach, look for "irregularities" in the way the waves break, the shoreline contour, heavy shell deposits etc. I always try and find a suck-out or break in the sand bar. if the waves consistently do not break in a section of the bar, you most likely found one. Fish congregate in these areas ambushing their next meal. Remember to shuffle your feet particularly going up or down a bar as stingrays generally hang out there.

Good Luck!

I have posted this before...it is a great help for reading the surf.

http://www.stripersurf.com/scast101_1.html

Thanks guys. yall were very helpful, hopefully I can finally catch some nice trout. All ive ever caught were small ones in the bay.