Josh, Jimmy and Jacob

Partly Sunny and Cool, Water Temperature up lake 55* and muddy, mid lake 49* and Stained, down lake 56* and Clear.
I couldn't sleep last night worrying about how the rains of Sunday affected the lake so I got out extremely early and hung lights to catch bait. I was also leery of running at night due to the logs that were floating all over the lake [The lake filled up and is overflowing from Sunday's rain]. My concerns were validated when by daylight I had not caught a piece of bait. I picked my clients up and ran about 8 miles to hopefully catch some bait to fish with. After looking and throwing for about an hour more I ended up with a beautiful tank of bait. Now the challenge was to tempt the Stripers to feed knowing that if the bait had been disrupted the fish would probably be just as confused. I set up a spread of 13 planner boards, a bobber and a free line and pulled some humps and flats about 20' deep hoping to trigger some strikes. I pulled over the flat you see on my Lowrance that was covered with Stripers but could only trigger 4 short strikes. I hit a couple other shallower flats nearby only to catch a Bass. I knew I had to put a pattern together so for the rest of the day I hit area after area trying to figure out the fish. We fished 40 foot flats, mouths and backs of creeks, main lake points and flats, clean water, stained water and muddy water burning $50 of fuel looking for a reliable pattern. By the end of the trip we had caught 19 Stripers, a Bass and a Catfish. We could never catch numerous fish in one area but by continuously trying new areas, fishing huge spreads and keeping fresh baits in the water we ended up doing quite well for the conditions we were confronted with today.