I was in your boat for a long time. I would suggest hitting up your friends for a boat ride, but if that doesn't pan out, I'd plunk off the beaches.

The standard set up for beach plunking for salmon and steelies usually consists of a 9' rod, a bell, sandspike, pyramid wieghts, spreaders and spin-n-glos.

Here's how I rig up--- At the end of your mainline tie on a 3-way swivel (or spreader) then, attach a piece of leader 2' long on the bottom of the three way. At the end of the 2' leader tie on another 3-way or spreader. Then on the bottom three way attach your pyramid wieght with a split ring or a short piece of leader.

This is a typical two bait rig up. Off of each one of the 3-ways you add a 1 1/2' leader w/a spin-n-glo on it. Make shure the leaders going to the spin-n-glo are shorter than the leader between the two 3-way swivels.

If you want you can add a 3rd 3-way and fish 3 spin-n-glos, but I always had a hard time casting three glos (I am a bass guy afterall ) Cast out as far as everyone that is catching fish. As a general rule, the shallower you fish the more likely you are to get steelies, the deeper, more likely to get nooks. You can experiment with bait, but in the slower moving areas, I'd stick with just scenting up your spin'n'glo. I look for points that jut out into the river off of the beach, these cause the fish to swing in closer to shore on their way upstream. It's a real rush to hear your bell start ringing while you scramble through the sand to get ahold of your rod. Besides, how many boats have you fished in that you could stand around a blazing fire while you fished?

Beach fishing can be effective, give it a try. I've caught lots of fish this way before I got my boat.

Aaron