Hot Fishing on a Cold Columbus Day

I always look forward to Columbus Day. Striper season has started and usually find my way on a boat or hitting the sand to do some fishing on this holiday. This Columbus Day was no different, except I had my own 'boat'.

Launched around 815 after setting the minnow trap using the speckled trout head and guts from Saturday's fish. Winds were 5-10 from the North, air temp was in the 50s and was overcast with rain in the forecast. Tide was incoming.

Started off trolling for specs. It was overcast and water was moving so I thought that it would be good conditions for fishing.  After the first up and back troll, my shoulders were still feeling the effort from Saturday. Decided to cast by the condos/rocks for puppies. Had a few short hits but nothing hooked.

After my shoulders felt better, I made another troll and hooked up with 17" spec to get the skunk off. The next 2 drifts resulted in 2 more specs between 14"-17".

The next few drifts resulted in no hits so I paddled back to fill up the minnow bucket and do some live bait fishing for puppies and specs in the shallows.

Filled the minnow bucket with healthy gudgeons and paddled back just east of the ramp. Tied on a larger gudgeon and after a minute, the bobber disappeared. Crab.

Fished the docks and tossed another gudgeon and the bobber gently disappeared again. Thinking it was another crab, I just reeled it without setting the hook. Realized I had a fish but was another monster-sized perch. Almost as big as the one from Saturday.

Decided to fish down by "Little Island". Trolled on the way down and picked up a skinny 15" spec. Did it infront of guys fishing in a boat in the same area.

Down at Little Island produced nothing on the live bait. Reeled it in and almost decided to call it a day but decided to hit the southern shore grassy area.  The winds had picked up this time and made the paddled over the channel a bit harder than before. Got to the grassy shore and tossed the 3/8 jig/Gulp combo. First cast! Fish On!  16" puppy drum.

Working the same grassy section, I picked up about a dozen puppy drum in about 30 minutes. All were short between 14" - 16" but all good fighters.

The wind was blowing me into the shoreline so I had to constantly paddle to the channel and then drift/cast 25' before repeating. Most of the bites came close to the boat and all worked my drag on the Penn Fierce 3000 reel.

At the end of the grassy shoreline, I paddled back to the ramp where it started to drizzle and by the time I got home was a good rain.

With the temperatures dropping, I wore the neoprene wading boots and Columbia waterproof pants. The combo worked out good but still got plenty of water in the boots when I had to step out of the yak on the ramp.