I rented a beach house weeks in advance, with dreams of pompano, whiting, reds, and other finned friends dancing in my head. Well, keep dreaming!
The weather sucked. The winds howled the whole weekend, the surf was roiled and rocking, and the waves were so rough that you couldn't feel your bait get taken most of the time. When you did feel it, it was nothing but hardhead catfish.
So, I tried the jetties (had a pass into the Plantation). A huge sailcat (which I kept), two bull whiting caught in the Cut, some more hardheads, and two puny fish (a pigfish and a silver perch) were all that got caught. I used shrimp and cut mullet, having more luck on the mullet. I did get broken off a couple of times (by fish, not by rocks). One dude down the rocks caught a nice trout and a nice red on menhaden, but the rest of his fish were ladyfish and sailcats.
It was the classic "You should've been here yesterday" scenario. The guy at the baitstore said the action had been red hot...until I showed up! A wasted trip and a waste of money (house, gas, bait, food, etc.).