I think you can do fine with your bass rods. You can catch plenty of weakfish in the 1-12lb range and stripers that range from 1-20lbs by casting bucktails at structure (jetties, bridge pilings, sod banks, etc. Where do you live in PA? We fish Cape May, NJ all the time. Also, in the summer there are a lot of bluefish near shore that are anywhere from 8 inches to 6 pounds. That would be fine with a 12-15lb class rod casting spoons or jigs. Bass Assassins and Finn-S lures work great here. You can get a salt water combo rod with 20lb test line from Wal-Mart for about $30. Use bottom rigs with 3 ounce weights and you can catch striped bass, flounder, weakfish, sea bass, bluefish, tautog, ling, small sharks, skates, rays, sea robins, kingfish (not mackerel), etc....I'll answer any question you want. I have my own boat but I've fished from shore and party/charter boats for years before that.