I usually work rocky beaches at night for stripers, and I only take two rods: a 10' 10 wt with an Olive Deceiver, and a spinning rod with a jointed Danny (brown) and a dropper. (A Gibbs swimmer as back up, if the wind is really honking in your teeth.)
In water up to 10', the jointed Danny is absolutely deadly. I've seen stripers barely larger than the plug take a crack at it, and a 40+ ignore the lure and eat the dropper. Go figure,
It's acts (and sounds on a calm nigth) like the world's biggest Jitterbug.
I can't figure out color preferences. The eel color should be a killer, but I can't buy a fish on it. Black, too. Brown is it.