Fast sinking lines are the best choice for most conditions, even though stripers often erupt on the surface to feed. If only one line is used, a high density shooting head or full sinking line is useful for getting down to the fish quickly. Since long casts are not required, a small diameter fly line--a level No. 2 spliced to the back of the head--is a better running line than monofilament because it's easier to hold and control. A 6-foot leader makes it easy to detect subtle strikes and allows the fly to sink quickly.

Along with the sinking line, a weighted fly assures you'll be fishing in the strike zone. The flies George Wood fishes are tied on 1/0 hooks, bendback style. He uses bucktail with a little Flashabou or Krystal Flash mixed in. Many colors work: red and white, red and yellow, and solid white all catch fish.

If pressed, Wood admits a slight preference for chartreuse but only because he caught his biggest striper yet--a 10-pounder--on that color. A floating line is a good backup for popping bugs or surface streamers, though opportunities to use it are few. Stripers feeding on the surface usually do so briefly, so a quick cast with a floating line is essential to catch the action. Once the fish dive for the bottom they can rarely be lured back to the surface. A more practical approach is to fish a sinking line even for surface feeding fish. They seem to be able to find the streamer even as it descends.

Fishing the railroad trestle for stripers can be rather specialized angling. George Wood finely honed his striper technique on his way to and from his part-time job as Creel Clerk for the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. Twice a day, on his way to and from work, he stopped and fished the trestle. He tried at different times of the day and at different tide phases. After a while a pattern developed. For the best action, the tide needs to be flowing strongly upriver, and the mojarra need to be present.

When the stripers are at the trestle they seem to gather in a narrow slot, usually upstream of the bridge. This may be alongside the central opening or on either side along the abutments. Wood prefers the east side of the river along the wooden pilings. The water is only 12 feet deep here, which makes it easier to reach the fish.

He anchors out in the current, then casts to the pilings, quartering upstream, and lets the fly swing downstream as it sinks. With a fast sinking line Wood gives the fly a 5- or 10-count before stripping, so the fly has a chance to get down to where the fish are. He tries to maintain a straight line to the fly and avoid letting the line belly as it swings in the current. Anything but a straight line between the angler and the fish makes it difficult to detect strikes.

Fishing the trestle usually produces a mixture of both stripers and sunshine bass since they frequent the same areas and often travel together.

Despite all the dams that have blocked their migration, and the other things that have discouraged their survival, stripers have managed to hang on in Florida. Let's hope that with a lot of help from fishery biologists, stripers will always wait at the trestle for the tide to turn and an angler can watch the swirling water and wonder when the stripers will start feeding.

Striper Regs

The bag limit for stripers is three fish that must be at least 18 inches. The limit for an aggregate of stripers, sunshine, and white bass is 20, with not more than three being stripers. The white bass do not usually reach more than two or three pounds. Their stripes are usually faint and irregular and they have a deep body and an arched back. The sunshine bass also have a deep body and arched back but their stripes are usually broken or mismatched in the middle of their side. Stripers have distinct stripes, their backs are not arched and their bodies are elongated.

All three varieties put up a respectable fight when hooked, but the stripers give it everything and then some. They fight so hard that lactic acid is generated in their bodies similiar to a sprint runner. When they give up, they are completely exhausted and must be revived in the water and released quickly if they are not going to be eaten. They all measure up as well on the table as they do on the end of a line.