Going down to the Texas gulf this month with wife and kid.
Planning to spend most of a day or so just chilling on the beach.
Ive been wanting to do some saltwater fishing so I bought a 10' surf rod and a 6500 spinfisher reel.
Have 30lb mono and braid, and 40lb leader. Fishing for pompano mostly.
Other species if we go to a pier or jetty, but I have other rods and reel for that.

Interwebs is all over the place, but there seems to be quite a few subjects on the matter, that tends to lead to dick measuring contests with no real conclusion or reasoning why this vs that.

Some say mono all the way. Some say mono backing, and some say mono top shot.

I have a spool of 300yd braid.
So....back with mono and fill the rest with braid? 100% mono? Or fill with braid and finish with a mono top shot?

Get a cast net and a bait bucket.  Net finger mullet and piggy perch hook them through the tail throw them out let the fish run with the bait when it stops set the hook.
Spec rigs two pink worms under lights at night.
Gold spoons.
Pink & purple jigs

Probably wont have time for all that.
Have a bucket for live shrimp if there are any at the bait shops.
If not, ill get some dead shrimp. Maybe some crab. Have a sabiki rig if we have time to catch bait.
Have gulp shrimp and sand flea as an option, along with sand flea and crab fish bites.
Not planning on buying a 2nd surf rod and reel, even though running 2 would be more practical. Maybe for our next trip.
Its just us as a family vacation. Not a fishing trip exclusive.

Have spoons, jigs, jig heads and plugs for pier and jetty if we go.
Chilling out on the beach was last minute idea and seemed more practical with a 15 month old.

I'm a novice, but I've been studying up on spooling line lately.

Backing with cheap mono will let you fill your spool up on the cheap, and then run quality line where it counts.

You want the spool full, but you're never going to use most of the line.

Backing makes sense if you're respooling your reel a couple times a season. But if you're just building this rig for a single trip I think you could go either way.

I use the 6500 a lot for sailfish etc.  it holds 300 yards of 30 lbs  spiderwire then 100 yards of 30 lbs mono. I then use a flourcarbon short leader.  you will never get spooled this way and only have to change the 100 yards of mono usually.

I like the castability of braid, and how it handles water.
Im not worried about getting spooled. However not wanting a 6' bull shark either (ive only caught those about 3-400 yards out on a Penn Senator).

Ill just back with mono and fill the rest with braid. I guess its personal preference and every fisherman's way is the right way regardless of what another fisherman is doing.

OP, don’t use braid on a baitcasting reel unless you are really good and have an educated thumb. Good quality 14-15# mono will handle about anything yo can catch in the surf outside of big sharks. Use 40-50# mono leader at least three turns around your spool. Sputnik sinker with three small circle hooks on a drop loop will handle pompano. Lots of practice casting and you should hit 100+ yards.

Spinning reel

Your thinking is sound in my opinion. 30 lb is perfect. 30-50 yards of mono backing then braid with a swivel at the end. Tie a fish finder rig with a weight that has legs so it doesn’t wash down the beach. If you have a small float put it just behind the hook to get it off the bottom or you’ll be reeling hard heads. Throw to the gut between the 2nd and 3rd bar or you’ll find bigger stuff.

If you have the want throw light tackle with a shaky head shrimp or spoon in the first gut and see if you find mackerel.  




EDIT; I now see I am about 3 months too late.....

I now see I am about 3 months too late..... @dangerdan How did the fishing trip go?

2 small hardheads from the beach with surf rods. Wife wasnt into getting to the beach early....plus it was too packed. It was after 5pm when we finally got a place to fit in without a bunch of people swimming. Wind was already up, as was the tide, so pretty unfavorable beach fishing conditions. We were probably there for an hour and a half.
Recently went down to bolivar to do some bay fishing. Original plan was to go to sabine pass and put in on the Louisiana side. There was a change of plans, so we just fished Galveston and trinity bay. No tidal movement, no wind, and hot temps.
Fish weren't really biting. All we got was some sand trout, gaftops, and croaker. Even the bait shops weren't getting much shrimp in.

However over in sabine pass, they were catching 30" trippletails

Theres a deep hole near an LNG plant on the Louisiana side of sabine pass that probably would have faired good results with the hot temp. But maybe next time

So far im 2 for 0 as far as saltwater fishing and bringing home some fish
@bigbear_98

Bummer. We are going to port a next weekend so I plan to fish while there. Hopefully we have better luck.