Kits

Everything to fish a beach, starting from nothing

A rod, a reel, line, hooks, weight and the pliers to get the hook back. If you have never fished the surf and own none of it, this is the whole list. The 8 ft D-Wave is the one we hand people first: long enough to clear the shorebreak, short enough to cast all day without wrecking your shoulder.

Distance casting, heavy water, bait that has to stay put

The same idea as the Starter, built heavier. A 10 ft rod to get a bait past the second bar, hi-vis braid so you can see where your line is sitting in the wash, and 6 oz sinkers because on a moving tide 4 oz walks. For striper, sturgeon and anywhere the water is doing the work.

You already own a rod. This is everything else

Braid, circle hooks, 4 oz bank sinkers, pliers and a net. The consumables and the two tools a surf session actually turns on, with no rod in the box because you have one. This is the old Surf Starter, brought up to date with weight in it, which it always should have had.

Structure, shorter casts, fish with teeth

A 7 ft combo you can work along a wall without catching the rocks behind you, 15 lb low-vis braid, a titanium leader for anything that bites through mono, small circle hooks and a net. Rock cod, perch, mackerel and whatever else is holding on the structure.

Straight down, over hard bottom

Two weights of vertical jig, hi-vis braid so you can tell what your line is doing in 200 ft of water, a swivel rated well past what you'll put on it, and a net. Drop it, work it off the bottom, hang on. Bring more jigs than you think you need, because the bottom keeps some.

Getting a lure down and keeping it there

Metered lead core so you know exactly how deep you are, a mid-size diver, an 11 in flasher, a release and a snubber. This is the depth-control half of a trolling setup; the bait or hoochie on the end is a personal argument we're not going to settle for you.

One combo, four baits, a box to keep them in

A 6 ft 6 in medium-light spinning combo, 8 lb ghost braid, and the three soft-plastic presentations that catch bass anywhere in the country: a Senko, a Ned head, and a lipless crank for covering water. Four StowAway boxes so it doesn't all end up loose in the bottom of the truck.