Senior, Jeff and Ali [Goose]

April 27, 2007: Rain , Water temp 64*

Got on the water early and caught bait and picked clients up at 5:45 .I was leery about the day due to it was going to pour down rain and a major cold front was due to blow through this afternoon. One good thing about rain, usually other boats don't bother you too much. Set out my spread of

12 lines on a nearby point before good light. As we hit the point we started to get hits and put a fish in the boat. I circled back around and set up to hit the same point but trouble approached. Another guide in a center console drove up within 100 yards of us and proceeded to fish right up on the same point we were fishing! So much for Sportsmanship or courtesy these days. I had no other alternative but to turn and leave the point . I wanted to say something to him but did not want to embarrass him in front of his client. I should have picked up my lines and gone to one of 50 other spots that are holding Stripers but I did not want to sacrifice 12 fresh baits so we continued to work nearby areas. The bite was fairly weak in the rain with the fish hitting the baits short. We put 5 or 6 fish in the boat and relocated to a deeper flat and pulled downlines and boards. After getting a dozen more hits we went and caught more bait and fished up in the river getting hits on secondary points and humps. We had over 30 strikes today, clients keeping 11 Stripers, a Cat and a Bass. Overall it wasn't such a bad day, Senior can look forward to enjoying his 'special ' hors d'oeuvre.

Kenneth Adams with son Ken and Victor

April 24, 2007: Cloudy and warm, Water temp 65* and covered in pollen.

Met clients at 5:30 and went a short distance and set up on a 10' flat pulling boards. The fish were finicky at first but once it got good and light out the Stripers started jamming the baits well. We made 3 or 4 passes on the flat before the action slowed and then I pulled off into 25' of water and found the fish again. To my surprise the Stripers stayed in the upper water column and bit well on boards. We had a fish blow up on the bobber and after a long battle Ken got the fish to the boat which weighed 14.5 pounds. We continued to fish the deeper sections with boards and by 11am we had caught 17 Stripers. Clients kept 15 very nice Stripers that went well over 100 pounds.

Scott Webster, J D Edwards, Michael Sauter and son Mike

April 23, 2007: Sunny and 83*, Water Temp 64* and Clear.

Well, the weather is warming up and so is the fishing. Picked my clients up at their dock at 5am and went and caught bait. Set up on a 10' flat and put out a spread of 10 Water Bugzs , a bobber and a downline. I knew with the warming trend the fish should move up on the flat to feed but was leery of all the boat traffic this weekend and a jerk in a Center Console Quest that was probably the most inconsiderate boater I have encountered this year. Having got that off my chest, We started getting hits as soon as we hit the flat . I was running both Herring and Big Gizzards and the Herring were the first to go off. Strikes were steady as long as boaters stayed off the flat. The fish stayed up within 15 feet of water for 4 hours then pulled off. I then went out to the tips of points in 25 feet of water and put downlines in their faces to get a few more hits. The wind blew us off the water and when the day was over we had 32 hits and clients ended up keeping 12 Stripers. One of the guys felt sorry for 7 of the fish and released them before he decided to keep any. [I won't mention your name Mike]

Jeff Kilduff, Greg Kilduff, Greg Patti andDavid Pommerening

April 21, 2007: Sunny and warm, Water Temp warming to 60* .

I got on the lake early this morning to catch bait before the weekend warriors could beat me to the bait. Every week it seems like there are more and more Striper fisherman on the lake. Spoke to client yesterday and we were suppose to meet at 6am but they decided to take a tour of Orange county and were 45 minutes late. I had all but given up on them after calling his cell phone 3 times so I started putting out baits in front of the marina when 4 guys drove up and waved . I saluted them and picked them up and ran uplake . We set up on a shallow flat and pulled a few points. We had 6 hits within an hour boating a few Stripers but the Saturday boat traffic was getting pretty bad and after a Bass boater cut off one of my lines with his prop I knew it was time to move. We saw plenty of fish up there but there was too much noise for the fish to eat. We went back to midlake and decided to fish off the bottom since the traffic was so bad. We made a good move and started nailing nice Stripers. I pulled up to one spot and clients had 3 fish on at once [picture of Jeff , David and Greg holding fish]. I lost count of how many fish we caught [clients released fish] but we had about 20 hits and enjoyed a beautiful Spring day.

Paul Henon, George Hussy and George Barboza

April 20, 2007: Sunny and Cool, Water Temp 54* and Clear.

Met clients at 6am and pulled the same flat we worked yesterday but with no success. Had a few hits but again the fish did not want to eat. Stripers should be feeding in the upper water column but are just not feeding today. We were seeing hundreds of fish on the depth finder but they were in the channels and would not bite. After working several areas with

boards I decided to put some lines on the bottom. We started get hits but the action was slow. We worked hard all day for 15 hits and boated 5 Stripers, George catching a nice 16.5 pound Striper.

David and Tommy

April 19, 2007: Cloudy and cool, Water Temp 52* and clear.

Picked clients up at 5am because they wanted to learn how to catch bait. Caught bait easily and set up on a long 12'flat on a primary point and pulled 10 boards , a bobber and a downline. In less that 10 minutes we had a board back up slowly only about 3' and it looked like a Catfish was working the bait. After a minute I told client to reel it in and he got it all the way back to the boat before it knew it was hooked. I write this because a Striper usually will jamb the bait and pull drag immediatly but the fish were lethargic and only wanted to mouth the bait. We worked the flat and continued to have these passive hits, some hooking up and others not. After awhile I pulled out and worked other areas trying to find some aggressive fish but the fish seemed to turn off after 11am. We had 24 hits today, Tommy catching most of his and Dave , well he must have felt sorry for the fish a little. Clients kept 7 Stripers and had a Great learning experience.

Joe and Tom Diaz

April 11, 2007: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 55* and Clear.
Picked clients up at the dock at 6 and headed uplake to fish. I caught bait yesterday after I dropped my clients off . We set up a spread of 10 boards ,a free line and a down line and pulled a 10 foot flat that had bait pipping on it. We started getting hits as soon as we came up onto the flat. We made a couple of passes on the flat but after an hour the fish simply turned off . I went and hit another flat with no hits so I decided to put the baits in there faces again so I rigged up downlines and we started getting hits again. I pulled deep 20'flats and by 10:30 we had our limit. Clients were ready to leave so we were off the water by 11.

Derek and Nathan Manley

April 10, 2007: Sunny and cold, Water temp 55* and Clear.
Picked clients up at the dock and went to collect bait. After throwing for 3 hours I finally had enough to get started. All the bait had pulled out to the deeped channels. I went midlake and set out a spread of boards and bobbers and pulled them over 15 foot flats and only boated 1 in an hour so I decided to go after them deep, where the bait was. I put downlines in there faces and started catching fish. The bite was slow again today but we stayed with it and when all was said and done clients kept 9 nice Stripers.

Rich Lensis and Jerry Dunphy

April 9, 2007: Partly Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 53* and falling.
Caught bait yesterday so we started fishing at daylight. Since the water temp has dropped 10 degrees in a few days I set up on a deep flat outside a creek where bait was present. I told my clients last night I thought the bite would be slow today due to all the bait pulling out of the creeks and the extreme drop in water temp. I set up a spread of 12 lines and pulled 1000 yards with only 3 hits. I did not see and bait or fish shallow and the bait was balled up tight and hanging out at 20 feet. After checking numerous flats I decided the fish were not going to come up and feed so I put downlines out and put baits right in their faces. They still were very lethargic and would just nudge the baits. My clients were troupers and hung in there on a very cold day and we ended up putting 7 Stripers in the boat.

Bill Tewes, Kenny and Dylan Smith

April 6, 2007: Sunny and cold, water temp 56* and clear. After a major cold front blew through yesterday dropping the daytime temperatures 30 * I decided to get on the water at 4 this morning to hunt down some bait. I thought the front would push the bait out off the flats and out to the first breaks and thats where I concentrated my efforts. I threw about 30 times and caught about 65 baits. Picked my clients up at their dock and put out my spread of 10 boards, a bobber and a down line . I started my first pull also on the first breaks off the edges of the flats and just as soon as I got them out the action began. Bill and Dylon alternated reeling in fish for the next 2 hours until we broke a nice one off at the boat . It alerted the rest of the school so we had to relocate to another flat. As soon as we hit it the drill was on again. A shart breeze got up and slowed fishing a little but by noon we had 47 strikes and boated 21 Stripers, clients keeping 16 fish with a total weight of 100 pounds.

Andy and Matt Kiyfes

April 4, 2007: Cloudy and warm, Water Temp 63* and clear.
Picked clients up at 6 and went in search of bait. Threw about 60 times and caught 36 baits . The forcast for today is 25 mph winds and thunderstorms so I want to get baits out soon before the wind starts to howl. Set up a spread on a flat and soon as I got 11 lines out we started getting hits. Andy hooked a hog and handed it off to Matt and Matt fought it all the way to the boat beefore it just pulled off. Meanwhile Andy fought his to the boat and we landed it. Within the next 10 minutes we had 8 hits and either tangled other lines up, broke the fish off or they just pulled off. Fifteen minutes into the pull, 10 fish on, 1 in the boat, doesn't look good. I retied my lines and continued to fish getting strikes about every 5 minutes until I looked into the bait tank and all the baits were gone. We pulled the remaining 7 baits in and went and caught more bait and set up on another flat. Our ratios got a little better on this pull, clients boating 1 out of every 4 strikes. Started to run out of bait again but a good friend brought us over 20 fresh ones so we picked up and hit yet another flat. Well, my clients finally caught on and we put more fish in the boat. Lost count of strikes after 40 but clients kept 12 nice Stripers and Matt probably will be sore tomorrow.

Jim Burroughs with father Chuck

April 3rd, 2007: Sunny and hot , Water temp 63* and clear.
Tried to catch bait early with little success so I picked up clients and threw for 2 hours to catch enough bait to get started. Set up on a 20 foot flat with 10 planner boards and a bobber . Just as I finished putting out my last board one went off and we reeled it in. We no sooner netted it when the bobber went off. I knew we had a big fish because the rod just bent over and when Jim started reeling it in it appeared he was reeling in a log. I told him he had a Monster Striper hooked up and to keep constant pressure on it and he handled it like a pro. After a 5 minute fight the fish was up along side of the boat and we got our first look at it . I netted the fish and we weighed the Striper and it was 21 pounds but it was very happy to see us and milked up the deck pretty bad. I decided to take it to the marina and get a citaiton for it before it lost to much weight. My clients were ruined after that fish and wanted to only fish for big fish the rest of the day so thats what we did. Shown are a couple of the fish that we caught today.