Break those old habits and try something new. In the spring, stripers are migrating rapidly along the coast heading north. They feed along the way but in my experience I have not found them to be as aggressive feeders as they are in the fall. Perhaps the drive to get to their preferred warm weather feeding grounds makes them picky when it comes to food found along the way as opposed to their massive feeding binge in the fall prior to a lean winter and spawning in the rivers. As a result, I have been most successful with very lively highly visible bait. In my opinion, the bunker is second to none for spring fishing. I have also had excellent results with flounder, blackfish, seabass and bergalls (remember that baits must be legal keeper size) but have definitely caught most fish on bunker. To the fisherman in that rut I described, this presents a problem. Fishing bunker gets involved. Snagging, cast netting, and setting up a livewell requires a lot of work, but then who ever said that bass fishing was easy? If you want to be successful in the spring, the extra effort and experimentation with baits is an absolute must. The other major factor to consider is the rapidly warming water and its effect upon tidal feeding activity and location. Toward the end of June, the shallow bays will be heated to a point where the ebbing tide, normally the most productive tide, will be carrying water above optimum conditions for bass toward the inlets. This wall of hot water will push the bass back towards the inlet area. As a result, the back bay areas will become less productive for fishing but the action at the inlets will usually remain good for a couple of hours at least until the warmer water reaches that area. I therefore concentrate my efforts closer to the inlet areas during this time.