Yes, stripers still hit hard plugs. With all the talk and use of soft plastics, many of us (myself included) often forget that 10 years ago we were catching stripers big time on hard plugs.
A few nights ago I was out fishing the Bay. I started off with a 6 inch Hogy, a plastic stickbait that had been red hot in recent weeks. After half an hour of plugging....nothing. I did notice large silversides hopping along the surface, movement that a popper would certainly imitate. So, I snapped on a small, homemade, three inch popper, a lure that used to be deadly in the Bay before the age of plastics. The second cast produced a nice schoolie of about 24 inches. A few minutes later I got another fish about the same size. A friend of mine was next to me using a Slug-Go. I told him to try a popper. His reply, "I don't have a popper in my bag."
The lesson here is that traditional hard plugs still have their place and do work well at times, sometimes even outfishing skinny plastic. Make sure your surf bag has more than soft plastic lures in it. Yes, hard plugs still work.
