Bob Fields and I came in 5th place in both the Lanier Striper Club & the Oakwood Striper Club combined tournaments and 10th out of 38 boats in the Don Brown Memorial Tournament for ALS today. With the blustering winds gusting at times to 20 mph and the air temperature just below 50° it felt like 40°, we set out to fish near Dog Creek north of Clark’s Bridge ramp about 2 miles. Shortly after getting all of our lines out I lost a striper on planer board with 8” gizzard shad. I thought it was because I was using a circle hook so I changed it to a J hook and added a stinger. An hour later the same thing happened, planer board went under and popped up again. The lesson learned here was that after the planer board went under I didn’t wait a few more seconds for the striper to come back for the bait it just stunned with a slap of its tail. Common mistake when fishing in colder water like 52-55°. We were just south of Don Carter park. We decided to leave for warmer waters and left that area heading south to Laurel Park to pull umbrella rigs in the river channel. The water temperature here was 62°. Before I could get my line in the water, it was FISH ON. Bob not only got this 27” striper, it was his first on a urig.