>>588386you should check tides, thats when the fish bit the most, 2 hours before 2 hours after, low and high tide.
Thats when you get water movenment and it uncovers the bottom dwelling critters that surf fish eat, like sand crabs, clams, and worms.
Most important, you want to find "holes", fish will congregate there waiting for food.
Then there is sightfishing for corbs and spotfins, thats a whole different ball game.
When I go out with my uncle in the middle of winter looking for big perch, we go from sunrise to sunset, all day, in just board shorts and like 4 layers of upper clothing, and wade in knee high water all day, just eating small snacks and keeping hydrated.
That feeling when you step on the wet sand in the middle of the winter and it feels like ice is quite unique.
Surf fishing is truly underrated.
>>588391Mussels definitely work, get yourself one like pic related, find a bed, or soft sand if you don't know what a sand crab bed with medium size crabs looks like, and scoop em up when a wave goes over them.
It filters the smaller ones, any crab that can stay inside the trap will be goo for bait, if they're on the small side, pin multiple on the hook, medium and large ones use one at a time.
Also, switch over to a 1/0-2/0 octopus hook when fishing crabs. You will get a lot taps, when you find a school of small perch, and will have a hard time hooking them, but spotfins and big perch will hit it hard. Problem is, corbinas will bite like small perch, but give them some time, when you feel the fish "pick up the sinker" set the hook.