Stripers Slowing Down

Things have been slowing down at my favorite striper spot. These fish are known to move around a lot, but I'm not sure if they are moving because of the cooler weather or some other cause. I've been doing very well on a shad pattern that I will probably share here when I get the time to take some pictures of it. Something else interesting I'm noticing about the fish that I'm still hooking is that they aren't running quite as hard now with the cooler weather. A month ago, they would bolt as soon as they felt the hook but now they are a bit more leisurely about fighting.

Here are a couple of the most recent fish I've landed... The first and largest of the two put up what was possibly the longest fight I've had yet with one of these fish. My arm was still sore hours later. I seriously need to look into getting a heavier rod if I'm going to keep chasing these big fish...