Something like a Carolina rig in that the bait and hook are below the sinker, but not exactly a Carolina rig. We usually have a barrel sinker tied to the braid above a snap swivel, and then a mono leader from the snap to the hook. I like a 1 oz barrel sinker on the 8' rods and a 4 oz barrel sinker on the 12' rods. If the 1 oz barrel doesn't hold the bottom, we'll go ahead and add a 2 oz pyramid sinker on the snap. Some of the kids have their own preferences for how much weight to get the casting distance they want, so they snap on different pyramid sinkers in addition to the barrel sinker.
I don't think the sinker arrangement matters much at the beach. It is more important at the jetties where we're working a lot harder to reduce snags. Our beach fishing rigs are basically the same as our jetty fishing rigs.
And as long as we're talking tackle: J hooks, not circle hooks, and offset Js are preferable to non-offset. I like a 7/0 for cracked crab or cut mullet, except sometimes I'll go all the way up to a 10/0 or 11/0 for a big mullet head. I prefer more the medium sized mullets where the heads fit on a 7/0, though. We've moved to Gamakatsu octopus hooks, but Mustads and Eagle Claw have served us well in the past.
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