Iowa Wipers

The Iowa DNR conducts fish sampling around mid-October each year on a nearby reservoir. The lake has a wide variety of species, and Wipers are stocked almost annually.

The following show Wipers (Hybrids) of 28"/13 lbs (photo taken in 2012), and 29"/14 lbs (photo taken in 2013), respectively. They don't net many fish this size, of course...but it does show what the reservoir is capable of producing when these fish have an abundant supply of shad!

The Murdich Minnow

I'm a big fan of the Fly Fish Ohio website.  Lots of great info there, and tying instructions for a good number of useful fish-catching fly patterns.  The website's Publisher, Joe Cornwall, wrote a book called Fly Fishing Warm Water Rivers.
http://www.flyfishohio.com/Fly_Fishing_Warm_Water_Rivers.htm

When I purchased my second copy of his book (long story), he sent me a fly he had tied up for Smallmouth Bass.  On the website, there is an excellent write-up about the pattern, and step-by-step tying instructions.
http://www.flyfishohio.com/Murdich_Minnow.htm

One thing that especially caught my attention in Joe's write-up is his mention that this pattern was very successful on catching Ohio River Wipers.  Those Wipers are accustomed to chasing/eating shad, just like our local Wipers are.

So, I finally sat down this weekend to tie up a few. The one change I made was to cover the head/attach the eyes with Sport & Outdoor GOOP adhesive.  I unsuccessfully tried 3 different stores looking for the Liquid Nails Clear Small Project Adhesive.  This version of the GOOP sounds like it has the same attributes as the Liquid Nails product...it is waterproof, dries clear, and remains flexible.

I can't wait to show these to some fish this Summer/Fall!

Saylorville Lake Fishing Report, 10-25-2011

Because of the wind at the lake where I was fly-fishing for trout, I didn't hear/feel the cell phone in my pocket when my buddy Jay called.  Once I noticed it, I returned his call.  He answered and said, "I'll have to call you right back, I'm fighting a big fish right now!"

Ok, he had my attention!  He did call back a couple of minutes later and said he'd caught a really nice Wiper, and that he was catching White Bass and Wipers at Saylorville Lake on nearly every cast.  I told him how the trout-fishing action had long since slowed down, so I would meet him there after I stopped by my house to pick up some appropriate gear.

I was about 10 minutes away from meeting up with him when he called back.  I answered and said, "Let me guess, the hot action is over."  Yep.  The wind had died, changed directions, and the clouds covered the sun...and the fish activity had slowed immediately.  He was still catching some small ones, however.  Well, I was almost there, so I decided to meet up with him anyway.

I got there, he showed me where the fish HAD been hitting earlier. The wind had picked back up again.  I had a fly rod and a spinning rod with me.  I made one cast with the spinning rod, and caught a decent White Bass.  Then I set that rod down.  I tied a white Lefty's Deceiver streamer pattern on the fly rod, and cast it into the wind.  I was into a good White Bass almost immediately.  How fun!  I caught a couple more decent White Bass and a small but FAT Largemouth Bass, but it was work trying to cast into that wind!  So, I soon switched back to the spinning rod with the in-line spinner on it.

The wind came and went, and came again.  Fishing was very good!  I caught at least 30 White Bass up to 16.75", and at least 10 small Wipers (biggest was maybe 12").  The wind picked up even more, and the fishing slowed considerably, so we decided to call it quits for the day.

16 3/4" White Bass

Even little Wipers go absolutely BERSERK when hooked!!

Fly Rod Wiper (Hybrid) 5-3-2011

I had a tip from a fellow fly-angler yesterday that the white bass are starting to run in the local river. I LOVE catching white bass!! So, yesterday evening I gave it a try.

I had to rush out of the house after a quick supper, to take my kids to some lessons (during which I went fishing), so I didn't get to grab the stouter gear I would have preferred to use. I just had to go with what was already in my car.

So, I used a 5wt rod, WFF line. I had at least 5 boxes of flies in the car, but not the flies I wanted for the river. I dug through and found a 3" chartreuse bunny-strip pattern with lead dumbell eyes. I fished that for awhile.

I missed one really good hit near shore. I saw the fish, but not well enough to identify it. I have a suspicion it may have been a medium-sized smallmouth bass. The bunny strip had wrapped around and was covering the hook point, which likely is why I missed the fish.

I continued casting around, and finally got another awesome strike! I tried to hold it, but it took line out of my hands and off my reel anyway. It was straining my gear, for sure. Fortunately, I was able to land the fish. It was a really nice 18" Wiper. I didn't get any more strikes after that.

August 26, 2010, Evening Shore-Fishing

My buddy Jay called me last night. He was out at the lake again to go fishing...he had just left his car and was walking towards the fishing spot. He's on the phone talking to me, and he pauses, and I hear this dog barking, and then all sorts of commotion, yelling, screaming, cussing, etc. in the background. I say "Are you alright???" Jay says,"A dog just attacked me and bit me!" Jay never made any of the noises or cussing, that was the dogs owners. Jay just kept walking. Jay showed me the tooth-hole in just below the ass off his jeans when I got out there. I saw the dog, it was good-sized! Anyway...it was funny to be hearing all that through the phone!


So, we fished again. We didn't catch much for numbers, but they almost all fair-sized fish.

Four species tonight...Wiper, White Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Smallmouth Bass. Pop-R's did a good job again, and we also caugth a few on Mepps spinners.

We both forgot our cameras, so I took these pics with my cell phone.

15" Wiper:

Smallmouth Bass (chunky!):

Largemouth Bass (chunky!):

White Bass (chunky!):

Sunday White Bass/Wipers 9-27-09

My buddy Phil calle to invite me fishing with him at Saylorville on Sunday. We trolled along a good drop-off area...that went from about 9' to 16' deep, and also a little bit of trolling on top of the 9' flat. I used a white Bomber crankbait. I had something big on…felt like a wiper…it just peeled drag going straight away from us…until the hook pulled out. Awhile later, Phill got a 19.5” wiper.

He also got a “double” white bass and wiper on his “hillbilly rig”.

I generally only keep fish to eat maybe once/year, except when fishing in Canada or out-of-state for walleyes. I kept some white bass in the 13”-15” range and cleaned them, cooked them up last night. Still have some leftover, but my daughter Kennedy and I were LOVING IT! Good stuff!!