If your comparing money to catching your thinking of it all wrong. If all you want is meat on the table, go to acme, shopright or what ever is near you, it will be a hell of alot cheaper.
Its called fishing, not catching.
Eels in the surf might not be a good choice, they are better in the bays and inlets. Cut bunker is good for bluefish,, use just the heads for stripers. Use clam to, some fresh, and keep some salted, some days they have only wanted salted.
Hitting the water for stripers on a sunny day is pretty much pointless. Best striper days I've had are first/last hour or so of light and dark cloudy days. Have had banner mornings catching stripers to have it completely shut down as soon as the sun got up a little bit.
Go more frequently spending less time fishing instead of going less frequently spending all day. Reading the surf is very important also.
