Gary, Dewey, Dean and Rick

Partly cloudy and cold, Water temperature 46*

Oh, what a day. We got out yesterday morning, air temp 24* and water temp around 45*. We took about an hour to catch 70 baits then went fishing. After about an hour of fishing I knew we were in trouble. We had about 4 or 5 short hits and caught one fish which was right at 20 inches so we threw it back.There were a few boats in the area and I was limited to where I could fish. I decided to make a move so we threw away the 24 baits we had on our lines and went to catch more bait. We made a couple casts and filled the tank up with beautiful baits. We set out a spread in an area where we could not see another boat for a mile. After pulling a half a mile we had not taken a strike. I had 3 other friends and guides out that I had been talking with that were experiencing the same thing. We finally started taking hits on subtle points right up on the bank. For the next 3 hours we would take hits boating about a quarter of the fish. About noon our problems started . Bass boats started cutting us off, the wind picked up a little and other Striper fisherman started dogging us so we could not turn around and hit productive areas. After 45 minutes without a fish I decided to make one final move to an area where I knew there were fish. The move paid off, we hooked up with 5 or 6 fish in a hundred yard stretch. I turned back and  hit the same bank taking another half dozen hits right up on the bank in about a hundred yard stretch. Throughout the morning I kept telling the guys that the extremely cold nights had turned the fish off but once it warmed up in the afternoon they would eat. Our patience paid off and we probably would still be out there catching Stripers if it wasn't for an discourteous Striper fisherman. He watched us catching Stripers on the bank and had the nerve to go between us and the bank right where we had been fishing for over an hour spooking the fish. I had to move out of his way so my boards would not go under his boat.We ended up having well over 40 strikes today and keeping 14 Stripers for the guys to take home. It was a long tough day but we hung in there and made it work for us.