With the air temp at 38° at 7am – brrr, we launched from Laurel Park ramp since the Clark’s Bridge courtesy dock was now in inches of water from the lowered lake levels. We cruised up to Clark’s Bridge bay on a tip from a fellow striper angler. Water temp was 48° as we circled the bay in front of the ramp and did figure 8s in the hopes of starting out the day with a nice striper. After just a few minutes the starboard planer went down with a medium shad and stinger but no fish on and the shad had its tail bit off and it lost an eye. With no confidence fishing here we left heading farther north only to find 44° water temp and no life anywhere on the screen because of the colder water. We decided to head south to find warmer water. We had been fishing all morning in the main lake channel and needed to change our approach. With the morning temps being heated up by the sun which finally came out from behind the clouds, the water temperature hit 58°. Positioning ourselves in the mouth of a creek with a 50’ bottom we got hit at noon thirty by a 34 ¼” striper. This was our first transom bite ever. The shad was only 20’ behind the boat and went 60 feet out in 10 seconds. Bob grabbed the rod as it continued to strip out line. I reeled in the adjacent rods as this fish was going wherever it wanted to go. After the fish tired he was easily reeled in close enough to net it and lift into the boat. This was no skinny river fish. After measuring it and taking pictures we released this fat boy back into the lake.