Wow! You've all given me lots to think about. After checking out the historical water levels, its clear to me that the month of May generally has some pretty steep fluctuations from Spring runoff. Your posts all seem to indicate that coming down in May is probably not the best time for Stripers or Smallmouth. We were planning on camping out in my tent and thought May might be the magic time when the tributaries are in that 60-68* water temp range and the air temp would allow us to camp in relative comfort, but now I'm thinking March-April or early June might be better fishing conditions so I guess we need to change our plans a bit. My brother and I are retired and in our 70's, so we aren't very spry or comfy in cold weather - but being retired we can pick and choose our dates Thanks to all of you for your input