"And by December, the stripes will be in the top third of the creeks where they will spend the winter."

As the migration progresses, Vines said stragglers join to form schools, which are easier to find and catch on the 21,200-acre highland lake. He said it's one of the best times of the year for catching striped bass.

"Even on a slow day," he noted, "you can catch 15 fish, but a trip usually produces 20 to 30 fish. An average fish weighs 9 to 12 pounds. Many weigh 18 to 20 pounds, with an occasional fish weighing 30 pounds."

One behavior making stripers easier to catch from November through the first half of December are the schools' tendency to bust shad on the surface. Vines said to expect to see surface-feeding times change as the water cools, with stripers feeding in the morning in early November and late in the afternoon in December.

When you see fish tearing through shad corralled on the surface, Vines recommended watching their path as they surface, submerge and then surface again.

"If you watch them," he pointed out, "you will see they always move in one direction. Instead of moving into the fish, try to anticipate their direction so you are waiting for them. You will not spook them, and you will have a better chance of catching more fish."

To catch top-feeding fish, Vines casts a 7-inch Cotton Cordell Red Fin on a 7- or 7 1/2-foot rod and uses a steady retrieve so that it makes a V-shaped wake. If that doesn't draw a strike, he switches to quick jerks.

"You hope to find them jumping," he said. "But even so, they will not jump all day. Eventually, they go down, and you'll have to use your depthfinder. This time of the year water levels are usually down about 15 feet from the winter drawdown. So look for the fish 20 to 30 feet deep over the submerged treeline."

Vines explained that when the lake was built, construction crews cleared the lake bottom of timber, from the shoreline out to a distance of 50 feet. So the edge of the treeline is not far from the bank, and the tops of those trees are about 35 feet deep.

The veteran guide fishes for suspended stripers using two downlines and two freelines. The former are rigged with a 2- or 2 1/2-ounce sinkers with a 3- to 4-foot fluorocarbon leader. The depth of the downline is determined by the fish shown on the depthfinder.

Vines fishes his freelines 50 to 75 feet from the boat. One is rigged with a slip cork to keep the baitfish from swimming too deep. He baits them all with 6- to 7-inch gizzard shad on a 3/0 or 4/0 circle hook.

"If you have a couple of downlines and two freelines -- one with a cork -- you pretty well have the water column covered," Vines advised. To book a guided striped bass trip, call Bill Vines at (205) 647-7683, or you can visit his Web site, www.stripe-fishingheadquarters.com.