Good on ya! Post some pictures. I fished my butt off while in Pcola but never did the guide thing. All the fishing we did was from the beach or pier. Fall and winter is the best time to catch bull reds from the beach. Me and a few buds would head down to Navarre beach, or Pcola pier (after they close, no one checks) and set up right before sunset. We'd take a couple of folding chairs, cooler or two, some jackets, and a thermal of coffee (it got pretty cold out there some nights). Squid and cut up mullet seemed to work the best for bait. We'd cast out as far as we could then set our rods in PVC and wait for the tiny chem-light to bob. Some nights were really slow and others we'd tear it up. It's cheap and fun (if you don't mind sitting in the cold until 0200). The biggest bull red I caught was 33 lbs, 44", couple times we limited out on blue fish, a bud caught a 6' Bull Shark....it was a beast and a heck of a fight. We had good luck off of Pcola pier (at night), the last time I fished there (Jan 05...balls cold) something took off with my bait and stripped almost all mine line before it broke my steal leader, and I use 8' hvy rods with 50 lbs test gorilla line.
The first time me and my bud started surf fishing on Navarre Beach we didn't have PVC pipe to hold our rods so we just stuck our rods in the sand so they'd stand up. Well my buds rod started singing and all he could do was hang on, well I was standing right next to him (not paying attention to my rods) and after about 2 minutes of kicking his ass the fish broke off. I turn around and noticed one of my rods was missing. Only thing left was a line in the sand leading to the water. I was pissed, but what can you do. Then, not 5 minutes later I was standing by my buds rod about to cast when one of his starts bobing so I froze thinking he was gonna come over and pick up his rod and I didn't want to cast for fear of hooking him. He's yelling for me to cast and I'm froze, well...his rod just jumps out of the sand and straight in the water (without even touching the sand) This crazy bastard runs and dives in after it, coat and all, in the dark, head first into a wave, and no sh!t, comes out with it. Fish was off, swivel was straightened out. After that, we bought 4 PVC links apiece.
There's some big fish out there boys, it's a lot of fun.