6 feet is no where near deep enough for bass
ive caught bass in less then 6feet of water, it depends on the ground, what food is around, and the time of day.
if its a shallow beach, wait till we have had a really strong offshore wind for a few days, then as soon as possable after it starts to die down get to the beach. hopefully the water will be rough and the breakers pounding in, fish out about 20-30meters with fish or squid baits.
have the line tight, a loose line will cause you no end of problems(tide, weed, wind, bites etc)
most(all)sea fishing rigs tend to be self hooking, there is no need to strike, the fish will hook itself on the weight/tightline.
what size hooks were you using? and how big were the baits?