Hey Dave,
Take heart, this is way easier than trout fishing.
One of the downsides of shore-bound saltwater fly fishing, is that you can't always find fish. Even when you know where to look.
These fish move around a lot. If you find moving water, structure and bait, you've found a good spot for striped bass. But there won't always be fish there. Many good spots hold fish for short periods, at certain tides, or at certain times of the year.
One of the biggest mistakes I made this year, was sitting too long throwing flies into empty water. Sometimes this pays off, as fish will move into the area, but more often it will not. Now I'll throw, small, medium, and large flies, mixing up the colors, white, yellow, and chartreuse. If no fish show, I move on.
This method pays off better if you have a lot of good spots to check out.
Next time you're headed to the coast, get some charts of the area you want to fish. Look for underwater structure and holes, which might be reachable from shore, and which should see good current flow when the tide is running. Look for grassy shores inside coves, and fish them at high tide. Look for estuaries and marshes and try them at all tides. Look for tidal rivers, and fish the mouths during outgoing tide.
Plan some time to go out at low tide, and scout your likely spots, making note of holes, rocks and depressions where the bass can lie in wait to ambush bait.
Work all the water with: smalll white deceiver, small chartreuse/white clouser, medium olive/white clouser. If nothing bites or follows, move to your next likely spot.
Vary the depth and retreive speeds.
Buy a really good book like Lou Tabory's, " Inshore Fly Fishing," available right here at the Reel-Time bookstore.
Offer brown paper bags full of twenty-dollar bills to any Reel-Timer who can help you get a fish!
E-mail me if you're coming up this way, ( Mass. South Shore.)
This isn't brain surgery. If you get half-decent flies in front of striped bass, with a half-decent retreive, they will bite. If you fish six-days without a strike, you probably weren't throwing them in front of the fish.
Jay
PS Warning: Once you do get into the fish, you're four-weight is going to collect dust, while the odometer on your car is racking up huge mileage from all those three-hour drives to the coast!