“For that reason, I’ll usually lower my bait so it’s about 3 feet off the bottom,” he said. “However, on occasion, you’ll find days where all the fish are suspended well off the bottom and you’ll have to work that depth. In that case, if you don’t mark fish on the bottom or don’t get any bites there, put your bait just above the depth where the mass of fish are marked on the graph. It’s better to have the bait just above a striper.

“Also, I’ll use a free-line rig a lot during this time of the year. Essentially, that’s exactly what it sounds like. I hook a blueback on an unweighted line and get it out behind the boat. The bait will swim freely and often suspended fish will rise several feet to take that bait. They will seldom go deeper to take bait, but they may come up much shallower to take one.

“I continue to watch the graph intently after the boat is positioned to see how the stripers and hybrids react to the bait. Often I can see them working into a feeding frenzy based on the erratic lines on the graph. Often, I can predict to my clients when a fish is about to bite. Sometimes, when one bites, the other fish literally go on a feeding frenzy and the action is wild. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Even when the bait is out, Hamilton will focus his attention on the depthfinder. Often he’ll spot a fish that moves up to take a bait before the rod tip goes down. As I found out that day, when Chip Hamilton said, “Get ready, here he comes,” you’d better be close to your fishing rod. In almost every case when he excitedly said that phrase, one or more of his live-bait rigged rods took a nosedive. A quick hookset response typically ensures a bruising striper or a hard-fighting hybrid is on the business end of the rig.

On many days, it will mean multiple hookups at the same time with both stripers and hybrids.

Hamilton said fishermen can expect to catch a mixed bag of hybrids and stripers. The stripers will average in the 7- to 20-pound range during the springtime. The hybrids will usually average in the 5- to 7-pound class on Hartwell. However, Hamilton said you can also catch some really big fish now.

“Sometimes I’ll have a client who wishes to focus on trophy stripers,” Hamilton said. “If the fisherman is willing to give up action on numbers of fish, we’ll focus on a technique for a striper in the 20- to 40-pound size class. The really big stripers can be hooked anywhere at any time the way we fish. But I do have a different technique or two when trying to single out those huge fish.

“Really big stripers are very sensitive to boats and external influences,” Hamilton said. “But I’ve found the above set of conditions is ideal for hooking into a real trophy fish. I’ll use freeline rigs over a long, sloping point that drops into deep water or over a clean ridge near deep water. Typically, I won’t fish as deep. Often, these really big fish will get into these types of areas in 20 to 25 feet of water during midday. Plus I’ll use the larger herring when targeting a big striper.