Do we think that the high temps on the East Coast are affecting the abundance, or lack thereof, of Striped Bass being caught?

I think the revival of the Chesapeake is a much greater factor in this equation.

When I was a kid, I was told stories of how you could walk across the bay on stripers....... back in the day.  My reality, however, was that if you saw 10 schoolies in a season, you were pretty lucky. (inshore-Narragansett Bay)

Then, through my 20's, we started seeing the results of the conservation efforts and new slot limit down in the Chesapeake.  

Although it isn't what it used to be, we can now catch stripers to 50 lbs in the bay.  Schoolies are as plentiful as Bluefish.

Something that affects these and many migratory saltwater fish much more than air temps is the gulf stream temperatures.  Now THAT one is a "hot" topic (pun )as global warming is believed by some and dismissed by others.

If you mean the past few days/weeks yeah tis a bit hot in NJ for them to really start yet. If you mean over the long term then conservation is a bigger focus as LBH said. Alot of saltwater fish are cyclical in abundance over great lengths of time as well.