Storms had passed through the area earlier in the afternoon, and I had actually cancelled our trip for the evening because I thought the wind and rain was going to be horrific.  But at about 5:00 p.m. the weather seem to calm down and so I called up the guys and in a matter of minutes we were back on target.  I took Christian Allen and Will Tullock out in search of big stripers tonight on Watts Bar. We gathered up our bait at the usual spot this time of year - Center Farm Cove for 6 - 8" gizzard shad.  The water temperature remains in the mid to high 80's so it's tough keeping the bait alive for very long.  Once we had an adequate supply of bait we ran up the river to the northwest side of Long Island to look and see if any rockfish were staging at the drop off just near the TWRA tractor loading area of the island.  Right away Christian hooked into a drag squealing striper that he fought for a couple of minutes but somehow it came loose.  That's not too common when using the circle hooks I like to use.  We continued to allow the current to drift us around a little and here and in just a bit Christian had another hook up.  This time he landed the big boy - a 20 lb striper.  His personal best - we were all pretty psyched up.  We continued fishing for the next couple of hours, but things just seemed to be dead.  We caught a couple of small blue cats, but nothing else for the night.  Either way it was an excellent trip and Christian was very glad he had gone.  Once again I vow to never change my plans based upon the weather forecast.