Wipers

[matthothand]

Has anyone here targeted wipers (striper/white bass hybrid)? I just moved to Kansas and have heard these fish are aggressive, school, and can get bigger than the largemouth.

[RK]

I've fished them once, and was just kind of along for the ride so can't help with the how to stuff, but man, go figure them out. They're a blast. Hit like a ton of bricks and fight great...

[st.crioxfishin]

matthothand,

I used to fish a lake in iowa when I went to school down there that had wipers in it. They are an absolute blast to catch - the time we caught them pretty good was when I had some people with me who don't fish very often. The wipers put up great fights and they became hooked on fishing after that day... pretty cool stuff.

Anyways, I am definitely no expert on catching and/or patterning these fish, but we caught a majority of ours on swimbaits, jerkbaits, and topwater. I'd say our best success came on swimbaits. I was using a 6" optimum line through one - not sure of the exact name, but its basically a big hunk of plastic that you hear guys throwing for bigger bass. We would always catch them closer to the dam in clearer water(it was in a reservoir) on any sort of rocky bank, bluff wall or point. We would rarely, if ever, catch them off wood or weeds, mainly just rocky stuff.

They are fun to fish for. I also get a kick out of throwing those bigger swimbaits, so that was half the fun for me. Good Luck!

[mainbutter]

I have down in Texas. My grandpa would take us out, follow birds to schooling wipers (mostly in the 2lb range), and we'd use old school cup-mouth poppers on spinning gear, plain white or clear with rattles, about 2.5'' long.

When we found a feeding school, it'd be one cast one fish, and I bet anything would have caught them. They were probably targeting shad or some similar baitfish.

On line-through swimbaits, I haven't used 'em for wipers but have stuck decent LMB and pike on them! I pour my own homemade ones:

[fishn]

Ive caught them down in Iowa. Just throw anything that resembles a baitfish and you should hook into them. They fight like a whitebass on steriods. Once they hit hang on cause theyll peel line like crazy. Biggest Ive caught was around 12lbs.

[matthothand]

Thanks for the input. After I get something lined up for work I'll do what I can to get after some wipers.

[goblueM]

In my limited experience, they hang out near the thermocline in the summer, but roam all over chasing baitfish when the water is cooler.

Alabama rigs (where legal) are the new hottest thing for them. Anything that resembles local baitfish and is in the strike zone will get hit

They are tasty too!