"Some days they stay on the bank all day, and other days they may pull off later in the day. If you aren't finding fish on the bank, pull off a bit or try a zigzag pattern."

Larry Rowley fishes very similar to Bates, but he has a few variations. Rowley fishes out of the Indian Hills Alligator II Marina where he also works on the days he's not guiding. Alligator II is a very popular launch ramp with striper anglers.

Rowley runs planer boards and down rods with up to nine lines in the water. He also prefers the Daiichi circle hooks, but downsizes to a 2/0 size because he usually buys his bait. He prefers live shiners in 3- to 4-inch sizes.

"The stripers are usually gorging themselves and getting ready to spawn," said Rowley. "They will be up in the creeks and moving out into the main lake. They will be close to the banks where they stage up and wait to ambush bait."

Rowley's spread is a little more open than Bates. He likes to stagger his line depths from 5 to 25 feet until he finds the fish. Then he will set all his lines to that depth. He generally runs just a little heavier weight on his down rods out the stern and really likes their versatility.

"On the down rods, you can quickly run them up or down in case you see fish on the graph. Many times, I'll mark deeper fish on the graph and I'll just kick the reels open and let 'em drop. We pick up a lot of good fish that way."

Night-fishing is another great option at this time of year, although both of our experts prefer fishing in the daylight. Bates said the five-day period centered on the full moon is usually an excellent time for night-fishing. Both guides caution anglers to slow down and take caution at night to avoid running into any floating logs or other dangers.

At night, the stripers can often be heard feeding on the surface near the banks. Anglers should stay back as far as they can and still cast to reach the bank. Lots of baits will work. Various surface baits, shallow-runners and stick baits are used. Two of the most popular are the Zara Spook and the Cotton Cordell Red Fin.

The fishing changes some as May rolls around. Bates said the fish will still be close to the shore early in the morning, but they will move out on the main-river channel after the first couple hours of daylight. This is when he reverts to the zigzag-trolling pattern.