Steve, Adam, Troy and Chris

January 16th, 2010: Partly cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 46* and Clear.
Anthony and I got out extremely early to catch bait this morning knowing the lake was going to be a zoo. We at least wanted to be sure that we had plenty of bait in case we needed to make numerous moves due to all the boat traffic. I picked my crew up at their dock at 6 and we were setting out baits in the dark preparing to take advantage of the early morning bite and tranquil waters while it lasted. At the crack of dawn we had our first hit and for the next hour it never slowed. Again I wanted to have my full spread out before the action started but the fish would not let me catch up. Many times I only had 4 baits in the water due to all the action. After about 40 minutes Anthony called on the radio and said " Looks like we have been busted, look over there", I did and 8 boats were closing in on us putting up a blockade a battle ship could not go through. I told my guys watch this, I will pull over to the other bank where no other boats were and those boats will follow me leaving the original area we were working available for Anthony to work. I no sooner changed my direction and and the other boats followed suit. Didn't matter much though, they had already done their damage by spooking the school and Anthony could only muster a couple more fish from the area so he picked up and moved and I continued to go around the corner where we would be out of site of other fisherman. We banged some more fish till we got busted again so we decided to get our baits in and move to a part of the lake where we would have it to ourselves. The move paid off, we caught larger fish there and enjoyed the serenity of the beautiful calm morning. By then we were only taking about 6 or 7 hits an hour but catching quality fish. Around noon I called Anthony on the radio and he said his action had died and was thinking about going in for a few hours and then come back out for the evening feed. Our hits were down also and Chris was getting antsy. He kept looking at his watch and wondering when we were going to go in. By now we had caught 27 Stripers and fishing had slowed down. Chris also was going through a slight dilemma, he is recently engaged, he gave his wife a ring for her finger and she gave him one for his nose, and she was tugging on it pretty hard to get back home to be with some guests that were coming to his house this evening. After some regrets they all decided to pack it in and call it a day. I dropped them off at their dock, Troy and Chris took off to the party leaving Adam to clean all the fish. We all had a lot of fun today even though the boat traffic was heavy, and I believe Chris will make in home in time to save his marriage.