The lake is at flood levels and will continue to rise before it peaks in two days. With so much more surface area on the water the best way to locate fish is to watch for diving birds. When the stripers begin feeding on shad, some of the dead and wounded shad float to the surface. The sea gulls begin diving down to pick up the wounded shad. Following the diving birds is the best way to stay on top of hungry fish. The most productive lures are white slabs, chrome rattle traps, or any 2" - 4" artificial bait that mimicks a shad.

Stripers are hitting top water plugs behind the islands early morning until about 30 minutes after sunrise. Once the sun is higher in the sky, look for schools of stripers along old river beds and the mouths of creeks in 30 to 50 feet of water. They are hitting small size shad like the one in the photo. Larger size shad don't seem to be on the menu and are being passed by for the smaller shad offerings. We are also picking up a number of small blue cats around 1 - 2 lbs on bottom while targeting stripers using small live shad as bait.

The water mid lake is clearing up nicely. Right now the stripers under 20" are schooling up and chasing shad on the surface along sandy shorelines in water 10' to 30'. If you want a little larger fish, but a little slower bite, you can find them in deeper water where the depth drops from 40' to 60'. Top water fish are hitting solid color baits the best in either white, chartruese, or chrome. The deeper fish prefer live shad in the 3" - 4" size. Swap bait out as soon as it stops wiggling, because those deeper stripers like lively shad.