For shore fishing, the best I've found to use is a regular old 7' med. heavy rod, and baitcaster with about 15 lb. mono. - tie up a carolina rig with a steel leader. Use fresh shrimp for bait. This will catch all the whiting and sand perch you can eat.

Those big surf rods you see guys using are what you'd want for bigger fish, but in all the saltwater shore fishing I've done, rarely do you catch anything bigger than 5 lbs. and those big bulky rods are just overkill.

Be sure and pickup a fish ID booklet, as well as a regulations booklet. On one trip I was catching sand trout thinking they were specs. - specs. had a size limit, sand trout did not. I threw back a lot of sand trout that should have gone into the skillet! DOH!