Schoolies and Specs

Launched at sunrise (7am) to a dead low tide. Calm winds and air temp in the 50s (overdressed again).

Trolled towards the steel bridge and when I was about to turn around at the condos, I saw some fishing working the top just around the bend. Paddled to the spot and threw the jig and hooked up with a schoolie striper (14"). Tossed the topwater Mirrolure and got a nice strike and hook up. Another schoolie striper.
There was alot of boat traffic and everytime a boat went by I had to stop fishing to re-position to take on the wake. Then I would need to chase the school again since they got spooked by the boat.

After awhile, I lost the school and started to troll. I hook up with the first spec just east of the creek mouth on the southern shore. 18" spec.  Trolled down toward Little Island with no success. The 9am bridge opening brought the first round of large boat traffic.  First round wasn't too bad but waited it out in shallow playing with small fish on the Gulp.

Ran into a TKAA yakker and chatted for a bit before tossing in both 1/4 and 3/8 jigs to troll. Heading west, I hook up with a nice, hard fighting 20".  Gave the fish to the other yakker who was also trolling on the other side of the river.

Made a few more passes then went to target puppies in the grasses as the tide and current started to move in.  Had a nice bite and quick run on what felt like a puppy drum but spit it out before I can get the hook set.  I found a school of small perch that took a few Gulp tails.

Around "Old Glory" I noticed a fish surface in the channel. I toss the jig and slow retrieved. Fish On! Another hard fighting 20" spec.  Drifted back to the same section and caught a 16" spec.

Worked the area a few more times but no more hits. Threw the 3/8 out the back and trolled back.

At this point the 11am bridge lift opened and since it was a light 10am traffic, the 11am made up for it. A 20 boat parade. Fortunately, the wakes from the boats were too bad except when a CC going the other way chopped up the wakes and got hit by wakes on the sides.  The tide was coming in and should have stayed out longer as I would have imagined the action would have been better than the dead low that I started at this morning.