u/irate-turtles

I've recently gotten started surf fishing while taking my family to the beach on the weekends. We don't make it to the beach until 9am, after optimal fishing time. I've started mostly targeting whiting because they don't care what time of day it is, they're eating. They also are great tasting, mild fish with no limits so what's not to love?

My current setup is pretty heavy overkill for them though (back when I thought I'd be catching redfish every trip). It's a 6500 spinfisher on a 10' big water surf. Total weight is 44 oz.

I'm looking to cut weight and go to a 12' Okuma Rockaway MH rod and this cheap 4000 series reel off Amazon: https://a.co/d/0iomaw1z
Total weight would then be right about 22 oz, so half the weight of my current setup. At most I'd want to target a slot red/black drum, but mostly I'd be tossing fishbites on a hi-lo rig looking for whiting.

What do y'all think of a setup like this for surf fishing targeting mostly whiting and maybe slot drum? Would 10' medium heavy be better? Would I feel undergunned with a 4000 series reel? What do people think of the Okuma Rockaway rods?

I like to surf fish on the upper Texas coast with my kids. My go-to baits (because I hate stopping at the bait shop on my way out) are fish bites and then small cut whiting that I catch with the fish bites (if they're not big enough for me to eat myself).

I have a cast net but have never used it successfully on the beach to catch anything. I'm curious, what are other surf fishers doing for bait (besides stopping at the bait shop) to catch fish? Does anyone use a cast net successfully on the upper Texas coast where the water is usually pretty brown?