Stripers are cold water fish and need cold oxygenated water to survive. Smaller stripers can handle higher temps better than larger ones. When the big ones stay in water over about 80 or so degrees, they quit eating and die. All the rain means they have had the dam running nonstop and there is so much water rushing through that all the water in the lake is pretty much the same temp. Normally in the summer the lakes are pretty still and they stratify, basically making cool layers in the lake where stripers can live. This is why smith and Martin have bigger stripers as a rule than say Logan Martin. The deeper waters give the larger fish summer refuge. Martin just has very little summer refuge right now.