think if they are focused on river herring they would eat a fresh, frozen clam neck ?

Only if you serve them with Cole Slaw!!!!

you may pick up a stray fish, but I think if they are truly focused on bait (i.e. Live herring), they more than likley will not go after clam neck on the bottom ----but stranger things have happened !

Breaded? Deep fried or baked?

During the spring run if these fish are keyed on herring, your better off throwing an artificial that imitates them, or using chunked herring, rather than clams. You will have a great shot at larger fish, and in my experience the majority of fish taken on clams are under 20 pounds, even when they are readily hitting them. During June of last year, there was a great run of adult pogies in the upper reaches of Narry bay, and these fish wouldnt even touch live eels during that 2 week period. The only bait that consistently produced was fresh dead or live pogies. There was even a day when we arrived on scene with frozen bait, and had to chase the ARK boat down to get some freshies. The entire field was hooked up to large and they wouldn't touch our frozen offerings(the bait was in great shape after slacking it down in a fridge for the entire day). We successfully commandeered a whole live well of lively pogs, as well as a whole tote of dead, and then raced back to the hot bite to snag 9 fish over 30 pounds, keeping my buddies first 40(43 pounds) and 3 other fish 33-36 pounds. That hour between leaving the bite and returning was the longest of my life, as we could see the boats through the binolculars, some with 3-5 rods doubled over at once.

Don't overlook squid as an early season bait. There are 2 things stripers are keyed in on in the spring in Narr. Bay - herring ,pogies, and squid . The bay is loaded with squid from the last week in April through May and when you clean your stripers ,you will find them loaded with squid too. It seems that this is the last good feed they get until the peanuts show up in late summer ,as you will find a lot of stripers with only green crabs in them during the first half of the summer.

stripers will take whats around.you think there going to turn there nose up at a nice glob of clams after migrating from the carolinas

Within a day or two of when the Squid show on Horseshoe Shoals they are at Popponesset and South Cape Beach and, they are on squid, even with Herring running in the south-facing streams.

I'd certainly fish squid as a replacement for Herring, which you can't take for three years. Or, fish Atlantic Herring chunks.