Striper excellent up to 6lbs at the dam the last 4 mornings on whopper ploppers, pop r's, crankbaits, kitchen sinks etc.

The action lasts till around 10:00 then moving out deeper, however schooling action on main lake areas will occur throughout the morning into early afternoon.

That's my best experience I can tell you from the TTO championship!

Very nice. The SI is about to explode with arches.

That's a big school of fish!

I found multiple schools in several places between 10 and 30 feet depth. However, threw everything in my tackle box - sassy, coho, slabs, spinners, poppers, etc. Caught only a couple. For me, they have been laughing at my lures since April. I noticed most guides are using either live or cut bait lowered to fish height and catching. Anyone know what they use?

Sheeesh crazy good!

I don't know which is worse - Marking tons of fish and getting no bites, or not finding any fish.
Either one is so frustrating and imagine if you are a guide and you have a boat load of customers.

Time of the year for what we know as "Combat Fishing". Lot of boats chasing those fish.

Guides are catching shad. It has been brutal earlier in the year, we have been catching them between 2:30 am and daylight using lights. The small gizzard shad are about 1 1/2 inch right now and they work either whole or by cutting off their tail. Big gizzards are hard to keep alive so typically they die and get cut into cut bait. If you held one in your hand with the head to the left and the tail to the right, cut diagonally from left to right from the head to the center of the gut pile then repeat the cut with about 1/2" thick strips. Go from skin side to the entrails to put the hook in the best spot to set on the fish. Any live gizzard or threadfin in the 3-4" range is the perfect bait for the big fish.

See this video at 10:03 for an example...

https://youtu.be/ujguo-5x6iw

That is wild! You guides are some tough people and I’m sure very much under appreciated.