Most of the stripers taken on Lay Lake run from 3 to 6 pounds. Photo by John E. Phillips

As the line knifes through the water like a sharp blade through soft coconut cake, a small rooster tail of spray arches up behind the fast-moving line. The limber fly rod appears to have no backbone at all as its tip dives to kiss the waters of Lay Lake.

"With a fly rod, there's a totally different connection between the angler and the fish than you feel when you're fishing with a rod," says Tom Schneider, a fly-fishing guide who lives on Lay Lake. "You not only can feel the fish pull when you're holding the fly rod in your hand, but you can actually feel the fish shake its head and every movement the fish makes.

"You also have more control over the fish," he continues. "You can hold the line and determine the amount of drag pressure you need to apply and when you need to let the line slip through your fingers. And you can feel the force and the power of the fish when it runs, when you turn the fish, and finally when the fish is exhausted."

All of that is important, since the fish that Schneider targets this month on Lay Lake are saltwater stripers. They do not give up quickly or easily and are some of the toughest and meanest fish that live in Lay Lake.

"I don't think there's any greater thrill that you can experience than hooking up with a 3- to 13-pound striper on a fly rod," Schneider offered.

FINDING LAY LAKE STRIPERS
"This month the stripers at Lay Lake will be spawning," Schneider explains, "usually on or around May 15.

"Stripers generally run up the feeder creeks to spawn. Kelley Creek, with its colder water, is a great bet for staging stripers. The creeks closest to both dams are the most productive. The stripers will be holding on main points near the dams during the spawn."

The dams Schneider mentioned are Lay Dam, on the downstream end of the reservoir, and Logan Martin Dam, in the impoundment's headwaters.

"But my favorite place to catch stripers is right in front of the intake openings at Lay Dam, where stripers will be holding at 15 to 20 feet. Just remember that striper fishing is current-dependent. You want to be around the dam when water is being pulled into those intake pipes."

That's because the striped bass hang in that area, waiting for shad to be sucked toward the pipes. Then it is an easy matter for the fish to move only slightly to their right or left, picking off the baitfish with minimum exertion.

Since the fish are virtually waiting in line for the forage to arrive, Schneider has developed a couple of techniques for catching these linesides near the dam. If he is on the water early in the day, before current is pulled through the powerhouse, he uses topwater popping bugs to catch the attention of stripers and bring them to the surface.

When the current begins to run and the stripes drop down to positions in front of the intakes, Schneider changes his tackle. Instead of a floating line and popping bug, he switches to sinking fly patterns. When the stripers are less than 12 feet down, he continues to use the floating fly line, but puts on a 10- to 12-foot leader with a weighted streamer fly. If the fish are any deeper, he chooses a 10-weight full sinking line.

Schneider determines the depth at which the stripers feed by locating them with a depthfinder before he begins to cast.