Challenging Day

JJ, Hamadi, Mike, Rudolph, John, Vallerie 

Sunny and Windy, Water temperatures 45 to 47*

Quite the challenge today. Started off with our dogs not letting us sleep last night. They were very restless and at 3am we realized why. My wife and I heard a rumble like a dump truck was driving up the driveway then ca-bang, it sounded like someone drove into the house. We knew right away it was a earthquake. Since we had the big quake and the aftershocks I have noticed the it really messes up the fishing and catching of bait for that matter. Bait was difficult but we started with 61 baits. I knew the wind was going to howl today so I hit a couple areas where I though we would get bit. The pattern I was working is very difficult to fish but we hung in there and enjoyed the morning. By 10:30 the wind was up and white capping everywhere on the lake. I went and caught more bait and tried to set up on a flat I knew fish were holding on. I would put a board or two out then a gust would come and we would get hung up. Half the time I was going backwards and the rest of the time we were going sideways. I struggled for 4 hours just trying to keep a few baits in the water. By 2:45 my batteries were smoked and we had to call it quits. We managed to take hits in the wind but it was extremely difficult  to control the boat. We caught 17 Stripers today, not bad for fishing in 30 mph winds.