Mike, John and Reggie Bob

Sunny and warm, Water Temperature 78* and Clear.

I got out early this morning, caught bait and picked the guys up at High Point Marina at 5:30. After showing them how to deploy the baits we set out to locate schools of Stripers. We looked on my graph for 45 minutes seeing only small pods of fish, nothing worthy of setting up on. I continued to look till I saw a few pods nearby each other so we set up on them. After taking about 20 hits I decided to look for other schools. After seeing fish still scattered and not schooled tightly I decided to troll lures through the broken up fish all the while looking for larger schools to set up on with live bait. The plan worked out perfectly. We started boating fish after fish trolling then when we would see the larger schools we would quickly change over to downlines rigged with live bait and work the school till we lost them, then convert back to trolling. We did this time and time again with great results. John is pictured holding up one of the few "doubles" that he caught at the same time on one rod. Reggie Bob is in the back of the boat staring at his rod wondering why he couldn't reel in two at a time. Reggie Bob should know that John has a lot more experience on this lake, after all he is the head biologist [VDGIF]  on the lake and has been for some time now. Mike worked the front of the boat this morning reeling in fish and alerting John to when he was hooked up. The two seasoned veterans enjoyed playing with the rookie Reggie Bob today although Reggie did reel in his share of fish. Today we caught 38 Stripers by lunch time. The guys kept 14 to take home and sample and released all the other Stripers healthy to fight again another day.