By
Water Temp: 77-81 F 
It's summer. Water surface is warm and fish have gone
deep to cool off. But "deep" is a
relative term.
Chris
Wilson with striper caught on bait at mouth of
Deep to an adult striper is now 40-60 feet. Stripers are resting in the
cold water beneath the thermocline where they use less energy. But food is
shallow so stripers still must come up to eat. Adult stripers are still parked
on drop-offs in front of tamarisk flats along the main channel. Look for a
school on the bottom near the first break from 40-60 feet. Anchovy chum will
start the school feeding and draw them off the bottom. Then they can be caught
mid depth and shallow on a variety of lures. Many of the hot spots mentioned in
previous reports are still producing what seems like a never ending supply of
3-pound stripers that are thin, but fun to catch and good enough to eat.
Deep to a juvenile striper is 20 feet. These cruisers up to 18 inches
are feeding on plankton in the warm surface layers. If a pod of shad happens by
then the striper school shuns plankton and blows up on the surface. The surface
commotion is still more like a slurp than a full boil. Shad are getting bigger
but not necessarily more numerous. Slurp boils in the lower lake are common but
few stay up long enough for anglers to see them and then catch a fish. Seems
the shad supply is dwindling making boils much shorter in duration. Top water
striper catching is declining in the southern lake from Rock Creek to Warm
Creek.
While morning slurps and ghost boils are most common, feeding duration seems
longer at mid day. If lucky enough to see one of these random feeding events
the chances of catching fish around
Wade Cavender with
"slurper size" stripers
Deep to an adult bass is 20-40 feet.
Bass will be at the first temperature break above the thermocline. Temperature
from the surface to 20 feet is in the 75-80 degree range. Bass reside in the
70-75 degree water found deeper than 20 feet. Concentrate on structure at that
depth to find some large bass and many small ones. Plastic tubes, grubs and
senkos work well on heavy jig heads (drop shot or
Catfish really like the warm shallows each evening. Put a hot dog round on a
hook and invite a catfish to dinner.