I need some help! Couple of questions for you salties

Well the wife wants to go to the beach this weekend, my two options at this point are Fernadina or St. Augustine. My question is this, I want to do a little beach fishing while we are there but I've only been salt water fishing one time in my life and that was out of Panama City in the Gulf. So which beach would offer me a better chance is what I'm trying to say and my next question is since I'm a newbie what kind of rig do I need to have (rod, reel, line, leader hook?) and type of bait or plastic?

Any help would be great as I am completely new to this sort of stuff just wanting to try my hand at it because honestly I have had an itch for it for a while now...

Also any laws I need to know about, I doubt I will keep any if I do catch something, and how much do those good ol florida fishing licenses cost?

Thanks like I said I appreciate it greatly, I know a lot of questions... Just new to this.

For Florida.
Nonresident Annual Saltwater Fishing-$47.00

Nonresident 3-Day Saltwater Fishing-$17.00

Nonresident 7-Day Saltwater Fishing-$30.00

A link to current Florida size and creel limits for salt water fish.
http://www.myfwc.com/media/1349466/2011_jan_sw-chart.pdf

Your most likely catches will be redfish, black drum, pompano, whiting, maybe small sharks and bluefish as well as a few non-regulated species, but the possibilities are nearly endless.

Here's a link to a video on making pompano rigs. Not the only way to do it and I use a different method but it will give you the general idea.
http://www.floridasurfcasting.com/2009/04/making-perfect-pompano-rig.html

Use sand fleas or pieces of peeled fresh shrimp for bait.

Any fairly high capacity spinning reel spooled with #10-15 line will work. Braided line will allow you to cast further and you will be able to load your reel with quite a bit more line, but mono is perfectly fine if that's what's on your reel. A least a six foot medium/light action rod but longer rods are better with 12' and 14' pretty common.

You will need sand spikes to hold your rods.
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/s...&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&CMID=TOP_SEARCH_GO

This site should answer the majority of your questions.
http://surf-fishing.us/

Another site worth looking at.
http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f30/

If you have bass fishing gear, you should be able to do some surf fishing without having to make any major purchases. Be sure to rinse all your gear at the end of each day and a good cleaning when you get home would be a good idea as salt water/spray is very corrosive.
Good luck.

Thank so much for all the good info!

If you go to Fernandina make sure you try fishing at fort clinch early and late in the day especially if the tide is moving. I have slap tore up the flounder/trout/reds/sheepshead/drum many many times fishing a slip rig with a live mudminnow or finger mullet...Fish it slowly and along the edges of jetties...If your surefooted and have a long handle net you might wanna try fishing from the jetties themselves (but be extremely careful, if you fall your gonna get pretty sliced up from the oyster bars). There are also several sets of smaller jetties that are productive as well and aren't nearly as dangerous.

I can't speak to St. Augustine, but my kids love Amelia Island. The fort is worth a 1/2 day of looking around. As for fishing, I took a spinning real down to the southern end and cast out into the Nassau Sound as far as you can with a Red or white jig head and various colors of plastic jigs or gulp shrimp and there is no telling what you will catch. Last time I tried it I got into schooling Blues and caught fish until my arms hurt.