Reply With QuoteA few tips would be to troll around first that try to find what depth the schools of baitfish are and try to put your bait at that or a little above that depth. I was down a couple of weeks ago and did not find one single school of shad on the main lake or any in the creeks. They should be getting shallower and shallower these days so make sure you are not trolling too deep. When you say "Counted Off" the line, hopefully you was using a line counter for it is real easy to get too much line out. If you was not, they are pretty cheap at Bass Pro. Don't just troll in a straight line, Swing back and forth when trolling for the lines on the inside of the swing will slow down and the outside will speed up. If you get a hit in the swing this will tell you to speed up or slow down your straight trolling depending on which side of the boat the hit came on. Keep an eye on your graph and when you go over a big school, time it so that your baits will "Settle" down into the school. By Thanksgiving the shad should start moving up into the creeks some so check out the first 1/2 mile or so of the major creeks for jumps or other activity. Vary your shiner size, try the biggest in the box and the smallest for the Stripers will go in spurts and sometimes want bigger or smaller food. Don't just put your lines out and troll all day long. Reel them in and change depths plus see if the shiner is still on board. I have trolled all day before then reeled in my 5 lines to see that 3 of them were Shiner-less. Especially, the bigger ones can work themselves free by thrashing around and working the hook free. I don't know why I am typing this for I fished for 3 days and only landed 1 keeper so I am not much an authority but this is what I would try. Good Luck and hopefully some of the other "Better Striper Fishermen" than me will chime in for some more advice.
