Well after a not so great Saturday on the South end I decided to go back north where I have lived the past month. Janet and I had 3 early and then it kinda went slow. We then went back into a midlake crk and found the fish on a straight flat in between two points. The thing was we couldn't get them to bite and most of them were coming off the bottom from 36' to 40' and we were hanging at 20' and 25' which has been working most of the time.

After being shopped till I dropped! I then realized our bait was kicking the bucket soon after the drop. Many times this is the way I get them started feeding, by dropping right into them and then reeling it up fairly fast in 5' increments. Well this was not working because the o2 was not right for life.

So here was my salvation...lol I then took out a jigging spoon and worked it the same way, by rapidly ripping it up and down in 5' incrememnts and we kept our lines in exactly 16' of water, which was the lowest we could drop and keep our bait healthy. So I would stop right at our depth and wella this started them feeding. Three times I had to do this but we ended up with 12 stripers and lost 4 or 5 more.

I also had to go to 4' leaders with 10# floro and a # 2 hook this all combined led to way more hits today. (Sure wish I would have thought of this yesterday)...LOL

Good thinking Dan! What was the problem with the bait? I don't understand. Was it a thermo thing?........My goal is to go out pretty soon to get on a school and use artificial jigging.

Yes I guess the oxygen level just wasn't good at that depth. It might be because of the rain and the heat combined, but we lost a dozen straight before I could put a finger on it. This is not something I usually come accross this time of year...lol

We did very nice today up north after a crummy Saturday on the south side as well. Can't believe the water temp was 82 up there. We saw you(Dan) today up north about mid afternoon. we were in the yellow pontoon. Glad to hear your day went as well as ours. I'm with lil bill, can't wait until its time for some vertical jigging action in the main channel! That is by far the best way to catch stripes. Soon, very soon!

Great report Dan, Way to go changing your rigs and figuring out a way to make those window shoppers take the bait and keep em alive.

By the by, a couple of ?'s. I figure you were using BB's, how did you have them rigged before the change and how many doz are you taking.
Were you using a longer/heavier leader? Just wondered.

Sometimes like in hunting, you just have to change the decoy set or move that stand. It takes some drive, it's easy for me to get bogged down. A report like this reminds us to get off the keester and make those changes even when you are doing what "has been" working.

I think our buddy Tom said it's those little details that sometimes make the difference in a good and a great day. Good luck

I am glad you were brain dead on Saturday LOL .Congrats on your catch Sunday

My neighbor and I took our two 7 year olds fishing yesterday. We were in a midlake creek and we couldn't bait the lines fast enough in the early morning. We were getting a mix of spots and stripers, weighted more on the side of stripers. The kids had a ball.

But I noticed something for the 2nd trip in a row that has me confused.

2 weeks ago, my boy and I were planing at 30mph and a freaking tick landed on his pants. This was in the middle of the water near Old Federal on the way home. I think it got blown off the bow. Hard to imagine a tick surfing the wind.

Then yesterday, my neighbor found 2 on his clothes while we were spot locked 20 yards from a point.

Have you guys seen anything like that? The only thing I can figure is that they are dropping onto the boat when we are close to land, or they are floating and climbing onto the boat.

10/4 on the brain dead thing Don! I just couldn't put it together Saturday. Sometimes to much info on too many spots is the kiss of death. Regardless congrats on your new club record for a 2 fish length weigh in of 70 1/2" that is some really nice fish for latter May.

I figure the ticks are getting on your boat when/where ever you park it - i.e your home. I had a guy ask me one time on my boat "hey, look.....how in the hell did this spider get on the boat". LOL

It's parked in my garage inside the perimeter. It never touches my yard, but my yard has so many pesticides that it should be on an EPA list of some kind. I doubt there are ticks in my garage.

In fact, I don't think the boat ever comes into contact with brush of any kind. Maybe there is a little on the tight turn into Old Federal, but I don't think so.