Surf Fishermen do not have to be equipment dependent to catch fish. Yes, it is nice to have a top of the line rod and reel. Who doesn’t want a brand, spanking new Penn Slammer matched to a premium St. Croix surf rod. While your fancy equipment will impress your friends and maybe add some yards to your cast, it matters little if you are fishing where fish are not feeding. To add insult to injury, what if you have all that nice equipment and your buddy with his Shakespeare Surf & Pier Combo catches more fish than you because he seems to have knack for finding fish?
It can be a bit daunting for a new surf fisherman to pick the right spot to cast their bait or lure. To the novice, the breaking waves and churning surf all looks mostly the same. In reality, the movement of the water and patterns in the breaking waves can tell you a lot about the structure under the water. The nature of that structure may very well determine the whereabouts of fish along that stretch of beach. The underwater structures beneath the waves collect and channel feeding fish along the shoreline. Learning to read the clues shown by water and waves can help you hook up and land more fish.
My first advice to the inexperienced surf fisherman in regards to reading the beach – visit your fishing spot at low tide. Observe the terrain for clues to where the sandbars, sloughs, holes and rips are located. Depending on the beach, sometimes these clues are quite dramatic; at other times amazingly subtle. Going through the exercise of scouting the beach at low tide and fishing when that beach is covered by the rising tide, you will start associate the wave action with the structure underneath.
What does the water and wave action tell the surf fisherman? You have shore-breaks, off-shore breaks, tidal rips, dancing waves, points, man made structure, dark and light patches of water just to name a few. Let’s take a quick look at some of these features.
Scout the beach at low tide. This will give you an idea where the structures are located. Sandbars, sloughs, holes, points and rips. It may be subtle or glaringly obvious. 
Note the broken, red, shelly sand in front of the tidal pool. When the tide rises, scout the shore break here for sand fleas and coquina clams. That tidal pool will become a slough and that sandbar where the birds are will be the area of offshore breakers. That slough will be a natural place for food, baitfish and gamefish to congregate. 
Tidal rips – the breaks between sandbars that funnel and flow drifting food and bait fish back out to sea. It’s a buffet for the bigger game fish built to feed here. 
Another image of a tidal rip. The waves on either side breaking against the sandbar. The relatively calm water between the shorebreak and the sandbar is the slough. Wide sloughs are good locations to search for red drum closer to shore , the more narrow sloughs may hold flounder and trout. A slough with shallow shoaling on either end can act to corral the small game and bait fish. 
Man made structure can act as fish concentrators. In addition to providing habitat for small fish, crabs and shellfish, the tidal flow and wave action can create currents and eddies that eddies that hold drifting food and bait in place. 
Fish eat fish. See a bait school? Cast a lure out there and see if you can create some action. 
If the birds are working, the game fish are working. Get a lure out there. 
Notice a lot of other fishermen actively fishing a spot of water? They may know something you don’t. (To be fair, this is an image of Cape Point on Hatteras Island, perhaps one of the most famous and crowded surf fishing spot in North Carolina.)
If you find that perfect “Honey Hole” today, don’t expect it to be there next week or even tomorrow. The wave, wind and water action cause the structures along the beach to change all the time. If you’re fortunate enough to find a spot that produces fish day in and day out, good for you; however be prepared to search and scout for prime fishing spots often.
Surf Fishing North Carolina 