As for all the small varieties of forage fish I have seen, both in the back bay and the surf, when you have a lot of the same bait you don't always have bass, like the mullet in the surf now which basically are a small bluefish soup kitchen. The best bass action I get is when the surf is loaded with different kinds of forage, killies (near inlets), rainfish, spearing, herring, and everything but bunker (peanuts are ok because they are small). All small fish like that and if it's going to go off it will. Find a place where there is no bait at all and you might as well just move on. I also include crabs in this category. If guys see no fish with tails they assume there is no bass, but bass never turn down crabs or shrimp and will eat them in the absence of anything else.