Day trip Thursday, May 14th

Had one of my best "May" days ever! I boated 9 fish ranging from 4 to 9 lbs. Fish were caught many different ways including surface, trolling leadcore, trolling umbrella's and jigging. All told it was beautiful on the lake with mild temps and little to no boat traffic.

Headed out later than I wanted. Hit River Forks around 11:00 and noted several boats downlining so I pulled up to see what the fish finders could show me. Not much but after a few minutes I did see a few shallow fish and instinctively decided to throw a Spook in case any were interested. Second cast I got nailed and boated a small 4-5 lb'er. Threw another 15-20 times and decided the fish had moved so I left. Not bad for a 10 minute stop.

Up at Gainesville Marina I stopped in front to see if any of the "fish" Rick reported were still hanging around. Instantly found some bait but then saw Doug riding up. He was headed back to get more bait; he said there were fish up the lake and he was coming back with more bait. I decided to check it out and see what I could find.

After spending an hour going everywhere but where Stripers were swimming, I found a few in Wahoo. Water temps were 74, BP was beginning to drop and it was just before 2:00 when I got one to bite. It took a large spoon trolled 3 colors on leadcore. Weighed about 9 lbs. After boating the fish, the screen filled with fish so I went to the jig. Got the next one on a large Daredevle followed by another the same way. One more on leadcore and then they quit biting and disappeared.

An hour later I found them down back down the river 1/4 of a mile. Using an umbrella I boated another 4 ending the day with 9 total. Not bad for May. Water temps at that point were up to 76-77. All the fish biting were in the 15-20 ft range over a 20-30 ft bottom. Very shallow but were schooling a bit and aggressive.