I just got back from an extended weekend off las Conchas. I had no one to go off shore with on my boat as my son is not a big fisherman so I headed to the beach and did OK. I was fishing with castmasters in a variety of colors as well as metal minnow looking casting jigs. When the fish were biting it did not matter what I threw at them, they bit it. Same thing for when they were not biting. No matter what I threw at them, they were having none of it. The secret for fishing that area, is if you want to have good success, you need to wade off shore to at minimum, waist level. At times you can be 50-75 yards from the water line. I see people fishing from the beach and they barely get their ankles wet and I rarely see them catch anything except at high tide. By the way, you will get hung up if your fishing with lures over a rocky section. It is very common for me to swim out to where my lure is and I give my pole a couple of bounces when I am over the spot and my lure is free. I then swim back to where I can touch bottom and start casting again. If your not a strong swimmer then I would suggest you bring a lot of lures. I am sure people watching me think I am nuts.
I caught a couple of "firsts" from shore. A lady fish, baby leopard grouper and a baby gulf grouper. My other mix bag included rock bass, trigger fish including a few pretty large ones that I typically see off shore and a sierra. I struck out on the corvina. I slayed them in June but they were having nothing to do with my lures this time around. They were jumping all around me teasing me though. Wish I had pics but as I mentioned I am typically away from the beach so I never get any pics as well I throw everything back as it is a hassle walk back to shore to put them in my cooler. I was also getting rocked up for the first time from shore. I just gave them a minute to settle down and then pulled hard in an upward motion and that seemed to work.
As Dan stated, "No such thing as bad fishin'" I was having a blast even during the time were I could not buy a bite.