I've fished the gulf coast from the Keys to Texas with a big gaping hole in the center, or the La, Al area. The Texas Gulf has miles of shorefishing opportunity as does the Gulf coast of Florida, esp in the St Pete/Sarasota area. I mention this as it's a quick trip from there to the East Coat of Florida which also has some excellent shoreline fishing. I would also give a bit of a nod to here and there from Maine to Florida but like some of Florida, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana you need to pick your area to dodge marshes, and such. Even the smallest floatable device such as a Small fiberglass covered styrofoam board with a cooler attached to the top to carry needed equip and drinks will get you across boat channels onto beautiful flats in much of the Keys and elsewhere. About that big hole I mentioned above. I've always heard that much of the fishing in those two states are done from boats due to marshy conditions, etc but really haven't pushed too hard to find out as there's more fishing than I have time in the areas I've mentioned. My three picks would be the Texas coast from Corpus to Mexico, The central Florida coastal area on both sides and the Florida Keys. For tops I'd pick the central Florida area, both coasts with Mosquito lagoon/Indian River and seashore one one side and the Tampa-Sarasota-St Pete area on the other.