Okie,
I have been fortunate enough to catch stripers on top when they are pushing shad to the surface at Lake Texoma. What a thrill!! None of the stripers were big, comparatively speaking, but they were caught on one of my first fly set-ups: a 7-wt. Cortland. Most of the fish were around 3 pounds, but as you know, they're fighters. I was about 16 or 17, and my dad's guide of 20 years or so put us within perfect fly-casting distance without spooking the school. My dad just sat in the back of the BayHawk watching and drinkin coffee and talking. And what's better is that the fish preferred a creation of my own over other patterns: a simple shad-colored bucktail fly with two discs of blue open-cell foam adhered to both sides for the head.
"Mister, I love the way you wear that hat."
"You don't know nothin'."