Sounds like fun. Probably did better than most with the conditions that you noted. When waves are that big, I pretty much don’t bother. But I am not throwing 6-8 oz of lead and 1lb of bait!

Your wife needs to listen to you! Surf and sound access with a few more days, sounds like a no brainer to me. But then again, we are wired different than the ladies.

Photos posted. Let me guess, you are probably currently a bit more red now than that photo?

You might be in the market for a jet boat after.

Actually, that was the last day, although the morning....I use spf 50 liberally and often....
Waves were only that big on the ocean side of the first bar.  Waves more manageable in the first gut but the weed was annoying there. 
 
6 or 8 oz. Copper legged spider weights held the baits firm.  We used 1 oz spider weights and double drop rigs for the bait rods and during high tide, they drifted in the wash but still caught fish.  Used all circle hooks...fish bites, gulp sand fleas and live sand fleas.  Pretty easy fishing.  I did use a fishfinder rig and a j hooked sand flea to catch the biggest bull whiting.  Bout ripped the rod out of my hand on the hit.  He gave us three big shark bait chunks and I landed my shark on the head section.

Here is how my son spent most of the day on the beach.  Think I created a surf fishing monster.
Had to fish around this mass of humanity though...and this was early, before the beach got really crowded.  First 2 days I deferred to the swimmers and we only fished for bait when it got real crowded but on the last day, I kept the shark rods out for the most part.  We were a several hundred yards down the beach from the access and plenty of space to start the day and another 100 yards down the beach was open but everyone had to crowd in.  
 
Sand fleas were plentiful and perfect bait rod size (nickel to quarter size).  My son sat in the swallow wash the entire time and several times, colonies popped up at his feet and he was picking them out of the sand by their antennae.  Didn't need a rake or anything, just your hands and a small bucket with water in it.  Cast netting was less fruitful.  With the onshore stiff breeze, blind casting was tough...and tiring with only a few silver dollar sized pompano to show for it.  

We only kept a handful or so in there...enough to rebait a couple times, and they stayed fine for us.  Just caught more when we ran low.  If they were tough to get, may have had to do it differently.
 
no, not our crew....just people getting close to us.  Many more, even closer an hour or two later.  I bought the stretch blue large 4 post, 6' high post with 8 sand bag version.  Worked great, even in the steady higher winds we had.  I also have an Alphacamp 2 post style that is good for 2 people max.  I was getting tired of dealing with the umbrellas too.
 
Here is my set-up.
 

Yeah, the one day we did the 3rd post in the front...I didn't stretch it tight enough on the side facing the wind.  If you get that side pretty tight, it is pretty stable up over 20 mph....but then starts the whipping much beyond the mid 20's.  3rd pole can be moved from one of the ones in the rear then and placed in the center.  
 
Man, whoever came up with the Shibumi has to be making a fortune.  The last couple years, all you could see was those for as far as you could gander up and down the beaches.  Should be working out licensing agreements with college and nfl teams, really any teams...all the ones we see are the same green/blue color.  
 
Those southern college alumni would eat up those college branded ones.  
 
For anyone interested. 
https://shibumishade.com/pages/our-story
https://www.facebook.com/shibumishade
 
Looks like US made, for now...hence the premium price.  They do seem to work great and it's great to see it was NC local college students that came up with the idea.
 
I can't believe these, or canopies, or tents like mine aren't allowed at any of the Myrtle Beach area beaches.  Yet, you are allowed the projectile beach umbrellas that just this week actually killed a 63 year old lady after impaling her in the chest.  
Well, I won't go to Myrtle Beach anymore since you can't be an "adult" and have a beer on the beach there without feeling like a criminal but that umbrella law is just another reason to avoid those beaches.

I waded the Yough for a bit today. Kind of slow, but not too bad. I got 6 smallmouth. One was a pig. I didn’t measure, but guessing 18”. I had a lot of hits that didn’t button. Only one on a Senko and was the smallest. Others on tubes. Had a bunch of hits on ZMan Diesel Minnows, but didn’t hook any of the hits. Guessing some sort of crank bait or spoon with rear hook would have done well today. Even the tubes had maybe 50% hookup rate. I think the river is too low now. After so long of being too high…. Good to get out though.

Yes, take your gear! Pretty much from October until Christmas has fish. Whether you time the big ones is another story, I can never seem to do it myself! Far too often the big ones are in huge schools about 1-4 miles off the coast, but some will make their way in to the surf. There should be a bunch of 12”-24” fish though, which are fun on lighter tackle and I pretty much just accepted they are what I will likely catch. I personally like the spring run better, since it is easier…. If you hit it lucky, probably not if late November, when the mullet leave the ICW, it can be explosive. That is more October though. Pretty much once the water hits 70, they bolt south. You will see more blues then and some slammers at that. They are a blast. You will probably be looking at fish focused on sand eels in late November unless it stays unseasonably warm in the fall. If “normal”, it makes soaking chunks rather worthless. Might get something looking for an easy meal, but most bigger baitfish aren’t around then, so they aren’t really looking to feed on them. I think most bunker are gone by then too. More likely to catch dogfish soaking bait in the cold. They fight like walleye. Your shark gear might have them waterskiing reeling them in. Spring time, there seems to be much more overlap of what they are eating and what is showing up, so you don’t need to be as much tuned into what they are chasing. Most likely, the go to will be the AVA diamond spoons with the surgical tubing. Other tins work too, but the sand eels (not really eels) are long and skinny. Most tins that I have are more glass minnow/spearing, which are much shorter. Same thickness, just longer and they do have an eel like swim to them. The smaller fish don’t seem to mind the other spoons and often what I end up with. Guys will slam the pigs with live eels off the jetties at the inlets at 2AM. Work doesn’t allow me to do that. I’m not much of a fan of trying to walk on jetties in the middle of the day. I’d probably be swept away if I tried to do at 2AM.

Where are you planning to stay? AC inlet has fish, but sketchy as F on the AC side. I don’t even like it during the day, wouldn’t think to fish it at night. The Brigantine side has a small pier in the inlet, right across the bridge from AC. I slammed some blues from it one year during the mullet migration on a blue mullet popper. Every cast for a while had 18” blues fighting over it. I started staying at a place on LBI in Barnegat Light, it is called the North Shore Inn now. I forget the old name, but was run by an old angler and loved having fishermen stay. It might not be the same now. I haven’t stayed there in probably 10-15 years. My company won’t even let me stay in the mom and pop places anymore… Mostly 4 star places that they will put us in, which is kind of awkward when taking my gear into nice hotels. The inlet is pretty close and a weird diagonal jetty really close to the beach access for the hotel. I caught some nice weakfish and okay stripers there (not legal size, I don’t catch many of them)…. I started staying in OC if I was able to make it work to take my wife and kids, Wildwood once too. Other trips I just stayed near the airport and didn’t fish... There is a nice stretch of beach at the southern inlet of OC. I haven’t had as much work with 177th in AC as I used to. I get much more work at JBMDL about an hour north. With there I always stay in Toms River/Seaside Heights/Lavallette and do most of my fishing at Island Beach State Park. Even the last few times I had work in AC, I built it into some other work at McGuire and just stayed close to IBSP. Just more of my liking to be at wide open beach than in front of houses/condos. There is an entry fee, but worth it to me. I’ve fished Lavellette and Seaside Heights a few times and have actually done really well in Lavellette (a lot of jetties that fish well). I figured out some nice spots on the back side in the park, so that and the open beach makes it my go to. Let me know where you are staying and I can let you know some spots that I have tried.

Porktown
Yes, take your gear! Pretty much from October until Christmas has fish. Whether you time the big ones is another story, I can never seem to do it myself! Far too often the big ones are in huge schools about 1-4 miles off the coast, but some will make their way in to the surf. There should be a bunch of 12”-24” fish though, which are fun on lighter tackle and I pretty much just accepted they are what I will likely catch. I personally like the spring run better, since it is easier…. If you hit it lucky, probably not if late November, when the mullet leave the ICW, it can be explosive. That is more October though. Pretty much once the water hits 70, they bolt south. You will see more blues then and some slammers at that. 

Yeah, I prefer spring run too. Any advice on gear/bait for august-sept? Was usually only doing spring-early summer but this year want to give later season a try. Today ended up at nearby sports store and grabbed myself a pair of Stormr fishing pants https://gritroutdoors.com/apparel/fishing-clothing/pants/ for the trip. Folks there told me it's gonna be plenty enough for october weather so fingers crossed!

Late October should be better than late November, but you never know.  I took your late fall as being closer to the end of fall.  If the fall is mild, you could hit that really well timing the mullet migration.  If so, most likely that is what they will be keyed in on.  Live ones would be preferred, easy to catch with a cast net.  Chunks would work well too, since they don't mind cleaning up after each other when there is a feeding frenzy.  4"-6" blue poppers work great when the mullet are around.  I hit it one time and even caught a nice redfish.  At least nice for NJ, 24".  Would be small for down south.
 
I have caught some smaller stripers on clams, but I don't use them often.  No doubt that guys get pigs on them.  If using, make sure to get some elastic thread to wrap them on your hook or you will cast half off if the bar is pretty far out.  They are messy as heck, so take an old rag and bucket to fill with some water to wash up or you will get that stank all over your gear.  An old knife to shuck them with too.  Most times when I get out there, I have 1-3 hour windows after or before meetings, so I stick mostly to artificials.  I am also going in and out of military installations, so I don't like having to explain the bait knife or returning my rental car smelling like old bait.  If I am able to build it into a weekend or get out of meetings early to make it a longer outing, then I will grab bait.  I usually do well enough with artificals to mess with bait though.  I usually check stripersonline NJ regional forum to see what seems to be catching and just roll with that.  Many of those guys tend to fish an hour or two before or after work and seem to tend to use artificials.  So, I probably get a bit of a "false reading" on what all is working.  I'm sure guys are getting fish soaking too.  
 
I have done long weekend trips with buddies of mine, more to DE to try and hit the run.  It is pretty crazy, south of the DE Bay, most of the bait shops don't carry clams.  During those trips, I will set up the soaking rigs and soaking myself with beers.  But also spend time at the inlet, if I want to actually catch fish.  I can't really do the beer soaking in the middle of the week with meetings the next day.  

Jtanner
In the end, we fishing to have a good time, and what's better than getting some beers down at the beatiful shore or river.

They do go together well!

On a side note, I was in Coraopolis yesterday evening. I went down and visited the mouth of Montour. Definitely different than the good old days. But still looks fishy. They fenced off the access that I usually drove down and just walked. Saw a few guys fishing, didn’t see any bent rods.

Jtanner
One of the lads I used to study with lives there, told me it's nowhere as packed as it was 5 years ago, but still decent.

I'm sure there are some fish to be caught there.  Probably better when things cool off a bit.  I'm assuming there is a water treatment pipe in the area somewhere, possibly up in the creek now.  When it flowed out into the river, the fishing there was almost like cheating...  Hurricane Ivan flooding completely changed it though.  I fished it a few years after that, but was kind of hard to go from a farm pond type environment to a spot that you could get skunked fishing hard for a few hours.

My Kinzua trip was cancelled last week because I caught the Wu-Flu, what a waste of a weekend. No fishing this weekend because the in-laws are coming to visit. Next weekend Ill be on the big lake pretending I know how to troll. 

Hit French creek around Utica again today. Beautiful day. Man, that creek is loaded with bass. They seem to be a little smaller on average than yough bass, but we caught fish all afternoon. No superchunks this time but we got maybe a dozen good sized bass between the two of us (we even doubled up), plus a ton of smaller ones. Most of them came on ned rigs and a few came on weightless senkos. The ned rig was definitely catching fish when the senko didn’t though. I’m convinced that bait is just a smallmouth killer.

It’s also just a pretty little river to float on. The water was very clear, probably at least 5 or 6 ft of visibility, so you could see tons of aquatic life… also saw a couple eagles, a green heron, heard an owl but didn’t see it, plus we saw all the usual birds like cedar waxwings, kingfishers... Not much river traffic, no jet boats, no trains, very little road noise… it’s probably my new favorite river to fish.