a great trip. good times, and good eats.
Tough to brave the coastal winter winds, I bet.
(though I've been out trout fishing at 19 degrees in the winter, but that was dead calm)
When we have floods, stocked stripers come through the flood gates from the reservoir above into our tailwater where they get pretty big eating rainbows.
My friend Jeff landed this 32-lb'er on San Juan worm and a 4-wt fly rod.
![Image](http://grtu.org/grtuphotos/Schmitt_Striper_2.jpg)
After he filleted it, he found out it would have been a fly rod record.
this is the TX state fly rod record, 36.65 lbs and 43 inches - my friend John hunted this down and they caught several close to that size that day
we have a blood feud with them in our trout tailwater - both fish above had gullets filled with big rainbows.
Several stories of people landing rainbows only to have them plucked by a striper right at their feet.
I went out one day swinging size 10 streamers for rainbows and landed two stripers over 20" on my trout rod
I went back several times over the summer (a bit better equipped) and my total was 7 for the summer
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v728/bulldog1935/decoy/fish2/ss6a013.jpg)
The best of these was pushing 30 inches.
Especially in the big flows we had that summer, they're pretty amazing fish in the river, and will fight until they expire - one of you is going to.
Rainbows always head upriver first and wear themselves out in the current.
But stripers always head downriver, you have to stop and turn them (well into your backing), they come back upriver and then start lunging once they see you. You will be tired when you net one.