Hi there, Hawkeye. We're practically neighbors---I'm a couple of miles west in Orange Beach. I've been doing a little surf fishing this year and have had good luck catching whiting in the surf and a couple of decent redfish. Other fishermen have scored well on pompano. It would be worth the 15 or so mile drive for you to go to J & M Tackle in Orange Beach for info and tackle. They are friendly and knowledgeable folks. Go west on the beach highway, cross over the bridge at Perdido Pass and continue to AL Hy 161 and take a right (there's a Rite Aid on the corner) continue a couple of miles until the road "T's" and turn left on AL Hy 180 (Canal Rd.). J&M will be on your right, less than a mile.
They have free tide charts, too. I've caught my fish on dead shrimp on a pompano rig. Oh yes, I forgot that I caught a bunch of ladyfish on a white jig just for fun. The Alabama State Fishing Pier isn't far to the west, in Gulf Shores and they've been doing real well on King mackerel and a number of other species.
How long will you be here? Maybe we can get together and drown some bait.

I have had my best luck between the bars in the "trough" as you say and I use a homemade bucktail jig. The jig head is sorta three sided with the wide or heavy side down. I think that they stay in the trough in order to get sand fleas or mole crabs, which they like. My jig sorta resembles the mole crab in the water. But I also like to fish off piers with fiddler crabs as bait. Pompano, just like sheepshead and redfish, like small crustaceans and will even eat barnacles off the pier piling. Shrimp (also a crustacean) make a fair bait along with cut bait, but just do not seem to get the same results as sand fleas and fiddler crabs or jigs that resemble them. I like to fish the surf when it is up enough to create a washing out motion on the bottom. It seems to be when the sand fleas get washed out in the trough the best and attracts the pompano.

I used to live in Florida and fished the surf in various areas. I generally had my best success with bait caught right there. Get a small cast net and look for schools of baitfish in the shallows. Use what you catch. Cut bait can be good if you can’t find any suitable baitfish (or small crabs, shrimp, etc.). For Pompano, the best bait is sand fleas, which are small, round crabs that live along the tide line. As a wave washes out, you’ll see little dimples where they’re burrowing back into the wet sand (if they are around). Dig real fast and you can catch them before they get too deep. Jigs tipped with bodies that simulate shrimp can be good for a variety of fish that feed in the surf.

Hey Country and Santa. I tried to comment twice yesterday but am in nowhere AR with little or no signal. Yall pretty much cover it all. I love catching whiting and pompano right up on the beach. i use ultra light tackle for neven mor fun.