A Christmas Gift of Stripers

Today was a day of visiting, exchanging gifts and eating.  We were on the go most of the day.  When we got home about six o'clock, I needed to get out and get some fresh air, go for a walk or do something.  So, I decided to get my fishing gear and head to the upper Bay in one of my favorite winter spots.  I went with the idea of just getting out, making some casts and not expecting to catch much.
When  I got to the location, I immediately began seeing fish whirling all over the place in some very quiet water.  Oh no, I thought to myself, menhaden are around again.  Since the pogies were in thick for the last two weeks, I just assumed it was them whirling on top.  My first cast told a different story.  Immediately after the jig and fluke hit the water, I was onto a fish.  I figured I had snagged a menhaden.  Wrong.  It was a schoolie of about 18 inches.  I suddenly thought that maybe, just maybe, all these jumps and whirls in front of me could be schoolies.  Next cast, another schoolie confirmed my thoughts were correct.  The place was just crawling with stripers.  For the next hour and a half I had a jump to cast to every single cast.  That's how many stripers were around.  I have no idea what they were feeding on since I could see nothing in the water.  The fish were fussy. I managed to get 13 stripers ashore and lost at least another half dozen.
So, on this Christmas night, the fish were around in big numbers.  And, on this night when I would have been thrilled to catch one fish, I came away with a bundle.  Not a bad way to end this Christmas holiday.