By Stanley Dye

I have been on Smith Lake for 30 years and have been guiding for stripers for 14 years. These fish have a pattern they run every year, which is something you learn after fishing for them for years.

I have learned where they go and what time of the year they go there. In the early Spring, February and March, these fish can be found on clay points and flats where the wind is blowing on the flats. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they depend on shad for food. When fishing for stripe this time of the year, I will use a white bucktail jig casting on the points and flats in about 20 feet of water. I will also trail behind two free lines with gizzard shad. I like to use about 5- to 7-inch shad on a hook with no weight and I get the shad approximately 100 feet behind the boat.

We have very few gizzard shad on Smith Lake. They mainly depend on threadfin shad for a food source. The water is so clear on Smith Lake and the gizzard shad are so few that you can't catch them with a throw net. Instead of going to the Coosa River and catching my shad, I prefer buying them at Speegle's Marina. Shad are available the year round at Speegle's Marina. The phone number is (256) 764-0698.

In February and March the water temperature ranges from 40-50 degrees, and toward the end of March and the middle of May the water temperature ranges from 50-75 degrees. You can count on the fish to move up into 3- to 12-feet of water around the first of April and that's when the top-water fishing will start. You can catch these stripers on several different top-water baits, but I prefer the 9-inch red fin with a black or blue crome side. I normally make long casts on shallow points and flats and use a steady retrieve, keeping the red fin on top at all times.

You can get some of the most aggressive strikes you have ever had on topwater in April to mid May. This time of the year is when the fish are trying to spawn and weigh their heaviest - the eggs in a 30-pound fish will up the weight about 5 pounds. Last year in the early spring the biggest fish caught by a client was 39-1/2 pounds and was caught on a white bucktail jig around the first of March.

Last April one of my clients Nick Bailey caught a 46 pound striper, which is the new lake record. The 46-pound stripe was caught on a 12-inch gizzard shad, and we had several fish over 20 pounds on topwater baits also that day. All of April and May will be some exciting top-water and live-bait fishing. Just remember our dam is middle ways of the lake and the stripe move as much as 25 miles in either direction from the dam. They mainly go into creeks where you have lots of points and flats in the spring.

If you would like more information on stripe fishing on Smith Lake or want to book a trip, call Bruce Hulcombe at (256) 734-2081 or visit my web page at www.alabamaoutdoors.net/smithlake.html or email bassmaster5@yahoo.com.

Rates for two to three people per boat are $250.00 per day (8 hours). Three boats are available to better serve you.