Some good advice in the above posts. Stripers can get finicky like that. If they are targeting small bait, you gotta present a small lure or bait to them or they'll leave them alone. They can also spook easily when shallow like that too. Quiet approach, cast from a distance is best. I was lucky a few years back and had an acre sized school come up and beat bait for about 45 minutes. I was the only boat there and quite enjoyed the topwater experience
School split into several smaller pods. I stayed with one. At one point I had the trolling motor off just moving with the breeze. Stripers were busting shad right at the boat. Even heard a few hit the bottom of the boat. Hard to put away that topwater plug when they are blowing up like that, but a spoon or jig worked below the madness can pull out the larger fish.
Andrew