I took my regular old cheap spinning gear (light weight 7' spinning rod and reel) with 10 pound mono.  At the end of my line I put on a 1 oz egg sinker, and then tied on a swivel (keeps the sinker from sliding to the hook).  Then I tied on about 3 feet of 30 lb mono to the swivel.  I added a size 2 Kahle hook.  I threaded on a gulp "new penny" shrimp onto the hook.  There are a bunch of colors and two sizes.  I tried both new penny and I think pearl color in both small and big, and honestly couldn't tell a difference in the number of fish we caught.

We fished out in front of the condos ( by peg leg petes) Next we wadded out to the sand bar.  You are looking for where the sandbar runs into deeper water.  Seems like it was about knee deep (at high tide) and we walked along it until it started to get deeper and just fished from there.  You would cast out into the deeper water and just jig it back in (reel...pause...reel...pause...BAM).  We caught a mess of what they call lady fish and a couple flounder.  The fish were strong hard fighting fish that rip out the drag like crazy on that lighter gear.  They jump repeatedly and put on a nice show.  A lot of people will tell you they aren't worth catching (I think they are supposed to be terrible eating), but on that light gear you will find yourself laughing like a school boy.

I will add that if your son is young, you might want to go out to the bar.  Where the bar starts to get deep is also where the rip tide starts.  There are sharks in the water, but it has to be pretty safe or the beach wouldn't be full of swimmers.

THings I learned the first time.

• didn't have much luck sitting the bait on the bottom.  It wasn't until we start moving the bait that we had luck.
• You are looking for a spot where shallow water meets deep water (look for a lack of breakers)
• You HAVE to have the bigger leader.  First day we caught a couple and lost dozens because they break that 10 lb test like it isn't even there.
• Gulp shrimp worked way better then dead shrimp, I think the main reason was when we used the dead (frozen) shrimp, the little fish would steal your bait every cast.  The gulps held up real well and resulted in a lot less time rebaiting.

"Eat More Fish!"

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_72346____SearchResults

Down by pensacola, any place that sells fishing gear should have some.  In fact the small gas station/quicky mart right next to peg leg petes even had some.

Thanks for the link, we have a bass pro shops in my area so I can load up before we go...... We will be getting the 3 day license ($17.00) florida really knows how to stick it to tourists I guess ......

My son is excited now but he doesn't much like there will be sharks in the water... got to admit I am a little shaken by the thought myself.... Is this something we should worry about???

Thanks,,,

Ardan...