Jim Ciulla and Bob Miller

May 31, 2007: Hot and Sunny, Water Temp. 83* and Clear.

Started out the day on the wrong foot, had a flat on my trailer which tore my fender up. Needless to say , I was a little late getting on the water. Picked clients up at 5;30am and looked for and caught Herring. Set up on a school in the mouth of a creek , got 10 hits but only caught punks so I left them and found another school of Stripers worthy of our offerings. We fish flats today from 30 to 40 feet deep, having constant action till noon. Today we had well over 150 strikes, Clients catching at least 50 Stripers and keeping a dozen to take home. At times every line we had bait on was hooked up today.

Doug and Dillon Meyers, Tony and Alex

May 26, 2007: Sunny and Hot, Water Temp 76* and Clear.

Caught bait early this morning and picked clients up at their dock at 5:30 am. Looked around for a few minutes while all the other fisherman were running around and set up on a 35 foot flat. Set out downlines rigged with Herring and the madness began. Every rod started getting bit and for the next couple hours I would catch fish on one flat then relocate on another school and do it all over again. Today we had over 120 hits, caught over 30 Stripers with my clients keeping 20 fish. All this action on a holiday Saturday, and we were back at the docks by 10:30. This kind of action will continue to get even better in June and July.

Herring

When your depth finder looks like this and you throw the net, you will catch plenty of Herring. This school was 25 feet from top to bottom and 35 yards wide.

Jack and Rob Muerdler, Gary Skinner and Mike Tracy

May 24, 2007: Sunny and 80* Water temp 74* and Clear.

Got on the water at 4 this morning to catch bait and picked clients up at 6am. Went to a 25 ' flat , saw some fish and put downlines on them and caught a few but didn't like what I saw and moved on. Hit a few more flats with limited success and got on the big motor searching for larger schools. Found a nice school on a 30' flat , put the baits in their face and for 30 minutes my clients couldn't keep up. After that calmed down a bit I went to the mouth of a creek and found a school 400 by 400 yards wide and put baits on them and everything went off again. There were thousands of fish in the school but the smaller fish would strike the baits before the larger fish had a chance to eat . I was running low on baits by now so we left all those fish and found another school with nicer fish. We ended up the day having well over 85 hits, clients keeping 13 Stripers for a cookout this weekend.

A Day with the HAMILTONS

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

Photo's by MARTY

Brandon, Stephanie, Johnny and Judy Johnson

May 11, 2007: Sunny and Hot, Water Temp 74* and Clear.

Got on the water at 4 am this morning to catch bait and picked clients up at 6:15 and headed for a mid lake flat. Set out my spread of 10 Water Bugz Planner boards and a bobber with a big Gizzard on it. Right when we hit the flat we got bit , caught a Catfish on the only Herring I put out. I replaced it with a big Gizz and ran Gizzards the rest of the day. Once we started catching fish another guide and a bass boater busted us and tried to crowd us out of the area but we hung there for a couple of hours until the sun got up too high and the fish pulled off the flats. The nicer Stripers definitely wanted the bigger Gizzards because we were catching 10 pounders and the other guide who was using Herring only caught punks. We went and caught more bait and set up on some fish in the 20' range with downlines. Three lines went down at once then a troller came over and ran his motor around us for 30 minutes so we moved to another spot. It was a good move because I no sooner started putting the lines out and we started getting jammed. We nailed them on this last spot pretty good to finish out the day. Today we had over 35 strikes, caught 3 10 pounders and clients kept 16 Stripers for 100 pounds . Brandon is shown holding two of the ten pound fish he "redeemed" himself with.

Mike and Chriss Haines and Bill Coles

May 10, 2007: Cloudy and warm, Water temp 72* and Clear

Picked clients up at the dock at 4:45 am because they wanted to learn how to catch bait and threw for bait until daylight. Went to a main lake 15' flat and set out 10 planner boards and a bobber rigged with big Gizzards. As soon as we hit the flat we had 4 or 5 lines get boiled then we hooked up. I knew then it may be a long day since we only hooked up on one fish out of 5 boils. Within the next hour we had a bite every 5 minutes. By 9 o'clock we had to go back to the marina to get ice for the fish then we went to catch more bait. I set up on a deeper 20' flat with little respounce from the fish then moved to another deeper flat and got hits on downlines. At one point we had 4 lines go down at once. Today we had over 35 hits, over 20 fish hooked up but we only got 8 Stripers in the boat. I guess that old saying still stands true, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink! I had 3 great guys onboard today who learned alot and who will catch plenty of Stripers on thier own now.

Tom and Linda Lett, Jay and Dottie Pyne

May 8, 2007: Sunny and pleasant, Water temp 65* and Clear.

Ran uplake at 4am to catch bait and picked clients up at High Point at 6am. It was frosty this morning so I made just a short run to a 10' to 20' flat and set out planner boards. I only got 3 out before the action started and it took me a couple of hours to catch up and get my spread out. We made several passes on the area before taking a pitt stop. Went and caught more bait and found a area that was holding Stripers near the bottom in 20' of water . I set out 10 boards and a downline and we started getting hits again. After the action slowed a little on boards I went to downlines and finished out the day. We had 37 hits today with my clients keeping 13 Stripers. I believe the ladies will have bruised bellys after reeling in the fish tomorrow.

Paul Henon and George Barboza

May 5, 2007: Cloudy and Cool, Water temp 67* and Clear.

Started the day off at 6am with 50 Gizzards and some nice Herring. Set up pulling a bank with planner boards, running depths from 5 to 25 feet. The first 5 or 6 bites came on the bank on Gizzards with no hits on the outer boards. We then pulled a midlake ridge in 20 foot of water running boards and downlines . The fish were stacked up on top of the ridge and we would get strikes on every pass. We caught the smaller fish on Herring and the larger Stripers on big Gizz. George caught a 14.5 pounder off a Water Bugz board in 6 feet of water. Clients caught 14 Stripers and 3 Cats, keeping 12 Stripers and 2 of the larger Catfish.

Ted, Mark and Matt Presley

May 4, 2007: Cloudy and cool, Water temp 69* and clear.

Got out on the water at 4am to catch bait, picked clients up at 6 and headed for a 10 to 20' flat midlake. Set out 10 planner boards and a couple of downlines and once we hit the flat the action began. For the next 4 hours we averaged about 10 hits a hour until I had to go catch more bait. Threw for a hour then set up on a deeper flat marking plenty of fish but they were slow to bite. Clients kept 12 Stripers today.

Dan and Heather Targerson , Todd and Sharon Redman

May 2, 2007: Sunny and hot, Water temp 73* and clear.

Caught bait early , picked clients up and drove uplake to fish. Set out my spread over 15 to 20 foot flats running boards and downlines. The moon was bright again last and the fish were sluggish again this morning to bite. Although we were over fish most of the day, the fish were lethargic and the big fish did not want to feed. I will be glad when we get out of the moon phase and the 'Hogs' start feeding again. We had 26 hits today, the girls boating all their fish they had on and the guys, well they must of felt sorry for the fish and released 8 or 10 between them.

Other than 3 jerks on jet skis running over our lines it was a beautiful Spring day.

Jim Woodbridge and Chuck Davis

May 1, 2007: Sunny and warm, Water temp 72* and clear.
Got on the water a 5am and collected bait. Picked clients up at High Point and ran uplake . Set out a spread of 10 boards, a bobber and 2 downlines and pulled a 15' flat. It was a full moon last night and when there are no clouds at night on a full moon the fish gorge themselves in the twilight . I marked schools of fish but as usual on this moon they were not very aggressive, just rolling the baits on the surface and hitting the baits in the tails. We had 8 or 10 hits that way before we had a hook up. It was fun to see the fish boil on the baits but I knew it would be a few hours before the fish would cooperate. We continued to work the 15 to 20 foot depths until the fish got serious, and they did. We had over 40 hits today with Chuck nailing a 16.9 pounder and clients keeping 11 Stripers to take home. The large fish was 34" long.