Quote Originally Posted by adam7456 View Post
...Are you sure the fish move to the dam or does it just seem like it? The lower end of the lake has a lot more water, which means more fish. When they school up in the fall that means more schools with more fish. It may just seem like all the fish in the lake are down there and more noticeable because they are all schooled up. I don't know but that would be my guess. The stripers go where the bait fish go. So unless all the bait fish are migrating down to the dam I don't see why the stripers would leave their upriver habitat.
In saltwater (the striper's original home), they migrate twice a year. Once in spring and once in fall. Our lake/river stripers do the same. They'll head up to the head water areas (or up the major creeks) and back out to the main lake. During the fall migration you'll get large numbers of stripers forming massive schools. Bait such as gizzard shad and threadfin also move out to open water various times during the year. Alewifes also seek cooler water. Stripers follow the bait, in addition to their own migration patterns. Add to that the temp issues that Missionfish mentioned and you'll get larger numbers of stripers concentrated in certain parts of the lake at different times. Does that mean that you cannot catch stripers in other parts of the lake, no. You'll always get a few that will stick around mostly in one area. If you are chasing the odds, you go where you are more likely to run into larger numbers of stripers. That is why more folks target them Wolf Creek to the dam in the fall.

Andrew