The easiest place to start, if you were to ask me, would be around any sort of underwater structure, rocks, jetties, pilings, anything really. Structure holds baitfish, which in turn brings in gamefish at certain times of the day. Structure will often hold gamefish as well, so if you're blind fishing, I'd start with fishing around any sort of structure there is.

Sight fishing is another way to go. You can walk the beach looking for "nervous" water, or water that has fish chasing baitfish into the shore. Look for the birds, if they are crashing baitfish near the shore, there is almost surely some type of gamefish schooling them up. I would highly suggest using a stripping basket when surf fishing, especially if the surf is up even just a little. It just makes life much easier.

When sight fishing you can cast directly to the fish that you are seeing along the beach. It's pretty amazing at all the life that's there. On my trip to FL a few months ago I saw snook, sheepshead, blue runners, and ladyfish all along the beach not 10 feet from the shore.

It really is a ton of fun, and if a landlubber like myself can find a way to get into them, well, you should have no problem getting addicted.

Good luck,
TT.

P.S. A blue over white, lightly weighted clouser with just a few strands of crystal flash was my most productive fly. Chartruese did very well too.