Mark Mautte

Sunny and warm, Water temperature 44 mid and 50 degrees downlake.
After 5 days of wind it was nice enough to fish again so I called some friends and we went out for a while. We left the marina about 5:50 and headed downlake. I was debating where to go, it being a warm weekend I knew boat traffic would be an issue and especially this time of year with all the Bass Tournaments on the lake. I decided to pull over into a cove and fish for about an hour to let all the Bassers fly down the lake before I moved to where I knew there were fish. We put out about 10 baits and caught some nice fish. At 7:15 you could hear the boats roaring down the lake, it sounded like a bunch of hornets being released one at a time. After a couple dozen boats went by we decided to try to make a move, by now we had caught 10 fish. We headed for a flat downlake but as we drove we noticed every point having a Bass boat on it. I mentioned to one of the guys that with this much noise on the water the board bite would shut down but we tried it anyway. We put out a spread of a dozen boards and proceeded to pull a flat with no other boats around. We got about 200 yards, took a couple hits then a Bass boat pulled up with his big motor right in front of us. All I could do was circle around him, but he had already spooked the fish. After a short while he started his motor up, made a circle around us and off he went. I looked at my crew and told them to get the baits in, we had to go. We set up 4 or 5 more times with similar results. The fishing was over before it got started today, simply too much boat traffic. It was still good to get out with friends and my grandson, we ended catching 15 Stripers, plenty for Brian's fish fry and Jim's dinner. Can't wait to get out during the week with less boat traffic, should be able to double our catches.