We spent that time trolling, casting and even spooning several of my favorite areas such as Marlin, Starboard and Harbor bays. While bait was plentiful in a couple of the bays and there appeared to be several small schools of stripers on the graph, we didn't manage a single fish. I did have several short strikes while casting a 4 inch Sassy Shad along the shoreline of Harbor Bay, but they were probably small largemouth or undersized stripers.

It was nearly 11:00 am when the fog cleared and we made our way out to Indian Slough and sped off for one of my favorite honey holes in the Middle River area. The tide was close to slack when we arrived, so I figured we would have to wait for some water movement before things started happening.

Upon our arrival, my good friends Jody Jordan and Paul Cunningham were already sitting on the hot spot and into a double hook-up on a pair of 5 pound stripers. "The bite was wide open this morning, but it slowed down when the tide hit bottom," said Jordan. "These are the first fish we have hooked in close to 30 minutes."

Figuring they must be sitting on top of a school of fish, I quickly grabbed my G.Loomis cranking rod rigged with a white/black Sassy Shad and cast it straight into the area where they hooked their fish. The bait never even made it to the bottom before a striper grabbed the lure and began stripping drag off the reel. Within a few minutes, I had our first fish of the day, a fat 7 pounder, laying in the net. Paul and Jody hooked a couple more fish while I was landing mine, then the school scattered and we moved off in separate direction to locate more fish.

We spent the next hour or so slow-trolling our offerings in 12 to 15 feet of water. The bite was slow to develop, but we still picked up a fish or two every 10 to 15 minutes. Jordan has developed a technique of slow-trolling small plastic baits on light line that has proved absolutely deadly over the years. By using our electric motors at very slow speeds, we are able to keep these small baits close to the bottom where the stripers are feeding. While the usual baits such as Rebels, Rat-L-Traps and large spoons work very well, they never come close to producing the numbers of fish we take on plastics.

It was just before 2:00 pm when we hit our most exciting moment of day. The tide had picked up momentum and the flocks of terns that had been resting lazily on the glassy calm water were now actively flying overhead in search of bait. "Keep an eye on those birds because they'll tell us where the fish are," I said as we trolled along the backside of a protected bay in 12 feet of water.

It wasn't five minutes later that I spotted a flock of 20 birds crashing the water about 200 yards off the bow. I quickly fired up the big motor and headed for the commotion. As we grew closer, I could see not only birds dive bombing into the churned water, but there were also the backs of big stripers breaking the surface as they pounced on the helpless school of threadfin shad.

I covered the last 50 yards on the trolling motor to avoid spooking the fish and suddenly we were right in the middle of it with fish breaking water all around the boat. Don immediately hooked-up when he cast a Zoom Fluke to one of the boils. A few seconds later, I found a taker on my Sassy Shad and we were into our first double hook-up of the day.

While most of these fish only run 4 to 8 pounds, they are an absolute blast to fight on light spinning or casting gear rigged with 8 to 10 pound test. After a quick release or those two fish, we managed two more double hook-ups on 5 to 7 pound fish, then the boil suddenly shut off and my Lowrance X-85 was now showing a blank screen.

We decided to keep the last two stripers for a fish fry that night and called it a day after a few unsuccessful attempts to re-locate the school of fish.

The bite should continue to improve as we head into the month of December and the larger fish move into the system. The entire Delta is now loaded up with stripers and it doesn't take much homework to find a productive area to fish. Whether you prefer to troll, spoon or soak bait, now is the time to plan a trip on this amazing fishery.

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