Day trip Thursday, May 7th

The weather has been so nice I decided I wanted to get out again even though I wasn't expecting to catch much given the prime and recent fishing being reported. My best chances would be up the lake but I didn't have any gas and I wasn't planning on hiking up that far even after I did fill up. I fished from 8:30 to 1:00 on the South side from Big Creek up to BB. For the day I landed one 8 lb Striper and lost one in FBB as I was headed back to the dock. That last fish was most likely a big fish. It hit a large spoon, 12 colors out, after I had marked two fish at 40 ft.

Temps were hot all over the lake. I marked 70 when I left the dock early but the water quickly jumped to 71-73 all across the lake. I actually marked some fish shallow and early in the back of FB by the 7 marker but couldn't get them to bite. Not a lot; maybe 1-3 at a time for 10 minutes. Prime was set for high noon and the barometer was rising the whole time so there wasn't much expected till the PM. I came across some fish breaking just after noon in front of AL over the channel  but they were moving fast and gone before I ever got close. A lot came up though; the most I've seen since last year, and they were Stripers.

Caught my lone fish around 12:30 while trolling from VT up to FC. Thought about heading up FC but didn't and that might have been a mistake. I later heard someone caught 7-8 fish up the river, about half way, from FCB to FCC. Headed in around 1:00 when I got that big bite in front of the NWZ at AL. All in all it was about what I expected given the temps on the water and the time of year.

In summary, it looks like fish are moving back down the lake already. The temps are about equal up the lake as I was getting reports of the water temps up at GM to be the same as I was reading; 73-75 by mid day. I consistently marked fish deep, in the 40-60 foot range out over the channel, and I'm thinking fish are on the move aleady. With the high humidity we've been having, I don't think the lake is loosing much at night temperature wise which means it should warm up faster than it has these past two years. This rise could also be attributed to the fact that they're letting water out daily now and with all the water flowing (something they weren't doing these past two years either) the south side of the lake is getting all that warm water from up north a lot sooner rather than later in June like it's been. I plan on hitting the lake again next week at least once to closely monitor the channel and see if I note more fish on the move. My guess is the week of my birthday could be killer for fishing the southside but a lot will depend on the temps and whether they're still letting out daily or not.