I was guilty for years and most still do over think the beach fishing, throwing the 8-12' hatteras heavers when only trying to fish for flounder, puppy drum, spot, croaker, pompano. These large surf rods are OVERKILL for the species listed unless you are going for Old Drum, sharks, or chopper blues.
For the pier and even in the surf most of your smaller species (flounder, puppy drum, spot, croaker, pompano) are going to be right in the breakers, the wash so to speak. They're where the bait is which is right against the beach so you don't have to cast 100+yds to get to them.
You're looking for what people around here call a "trout rod". A 7' rod with a fast tip in the 3/8-1/2oz or 1/2-3/4oz size with a 2500-3000 series reel, 15lb braid tipped with 2-3' of fluro is what I recommend. For the price I'd look into the Diawa brand. I had several fresh water rods/reels (I think they were "sweepfire" combos) last a few years on my boat as back up and "poles for a friend" before they corroded out and I think I only paid $30 for the combo before line.
In Sept the Spanish and blues will be back so this will work fine for casting stingsilvers, diamond jigs, epoxy jigs, glass minnow jigs, but if you're really want something drop down to a 7-7.5' 1/8-3/8oz with a extra fast tip to really chunk it out there.
To prove this point about small rods, 10+ years back I ran my old scout troop when I was fresh out of college, we took the guys to Core Banks for a weekend to stay in the cabins north of Cape Lookout in September. The fathers had the big 10-12' chunkers and the guys had the small 6-7' rods and a couple "snoopy poles". Most of the dads throwing for Africa didn't catch much but the scouts who could only throw into the breakers, hauled in flounder, drum, and some Spanish left and right. I didn't fish much as I was unhooking fish most of the time. Heck one kid with his "snoopy pole" caught a 27" drum. No one saw him fight it but we just looked up and he had it on the beach. We ended up with one heck of a fish fry.
Tackle-
You can if you want to use the "double bottom rigs" but get the mono ones vs metal. You can also buy a spool of 25lb fluro ($6-8) and with a Loop knot tie your own and save money vs the $2 a piece bottom rigs from the tackle store. Put a small loop at top with a 8" tag line to the top hook and drop down 10" and tie a larger loop (to attach weight) at the bottom with a 8" tag line to hook. On the same topic I see a lot of people using pyramid sinkers. Ditch them. For fishing in the breakers you want to keep your bait moving (unless the current is horrible). Cast and slowly retrieve, move around, find the holes, slews, and cuts. I recommend a "bank sinker".
For the pier and the surf I'd say go with a Carolina rig unless the current is real bad. 1 or 1.5oz egg or pancake weight. For hooks a small long shank hook with shrimp/squid or if fishing with live minnows in the surf a #1 or #2 gold khale hook.
In the surf, you can also go with a 3/8-1/2oz Blue Water Candy jig head and 3" berkely gulp in white or new penny. If you have a lot of trash around go for the ones with the green tails that are harder for trash fish to nip off. This can catch you larger mullet, puppy drum, and flounder.
My personal stuff is Penn Battle 2s in 2500-4000s on star rods, but I fish every other weekend and they get used.
Good Luck,