The Wiper Fly Fishing Experience

Wiper, the hybrid striped bass/white bass, is gaining a lot of recognition in fishing circles throughout Colorado and surrounding regions that have wiper fisheries. The best excitement is probably determined a few of the noticeably small circle of fly fishers who pursue them. Once you discover those fish, fooling them with a fly isn't hard. The powerful combat that involves is something on the way to nearly make you wonder why you'd fish for anything else.

Now, wiper are pretty mysterious fish and volumes have not been written close to fishing for them. As with any sort of fishing article, authors offer records primarily based on their reports, leaving the door huge open for an array of different methods, insights, and opinions. It seems every body I speak to approximately wiper have their personal mind which have been formulated not by means of magazine articles and fishing indicates, but from their very own private quests. This article is nothing exclusive. I actually have put in lots of hours at the back of the reel looking for these steamrollers, and the following is a compilation of my stories.

Fly fishing for wiper can be humbling, however in case you get that one journey beneath your belt in which you genuinely get into them and determine them out, you will be hooked for existence. Having these hybrid-vigour fueled fish tear line from your arms is an outstanding feeling, and we ought to do not forget ourselves fortunate to have this fish to be had to us. It's like saltwater fishing in the Rockies.

Wiper will consume Flyfishing about the width of the gape in their mouth, entitling this 6-inch shad to be dinner for the massive boys.

Finding the fish:

The most critical thing in any sort of fishing is finding the fish. If you're fishing trout in a river you look for wallet and runs of the right depth, size, and water pace. When smallmouth fishing in a lake, you search for positive structure and intensity relying on the time of year, or you survey together with your electronics. Whatever the state of affairs, if you locate the spots in which the residing is easy and the food aplenty, you may find massive fish.

It is frequently assumed wiper travel continuously and randomly across the lake in schools at usually high speeds picking off something meals they come upon. My mind are that this is partially accurate. I have witnessed their education mentality and their pace of tour. One moment they may bust near the floor 50 yards to the east, and the next you may see them flashing under your boat and onto the west. But I do not assume it's miles absolutely random. Those frustrated by way of this thought, grasp in there. This won't be an clean fish to locate, however I do not assume it is a crap shot.

Every fish has some degree of power conservation written into their DNA. If they did no longer, they would exhaust themselves swimming about freely all day lengthy. Think approximately trout in a river - the most important fish will take the satisfactory spots wherein contemporary is slight but consists of plenty of oxygen and food to be able to hold developing big and fats.

Wiper are not any exceptional. They have spots and patterns on every frame of water that provide what they want - food. With little current to talk of in preferred, forage is the important thing. They aren't so just like bass that they want cowl and structure to ambush fish. They are more powerful schooling and taking a crew-based totally technique to feeding. The best example of this is once they corral baitfish to the floor, bay, or other type of lure as a way to perform their signature "busting" ceremonial dinner.

Wind blowing into any shape makes that structure better. This complex has plenty to offer wiper, particularly traps for schooling baitfish.

But what approximately when they may be no longer busting baitfish near the floor? I accept as true with they may be doing similar things subsurface. Here's wherein enjoy with a lake, knowing structure and water temperatures at the lake, and understanding wiper motion comes into play the most. Wiper like different fish will use underwater structure, edges if you may, as their highways. Perhaps it is a intensity breakline, submerged street beds, rocks, sunken bushes, or humps. Perhaps it is a weed line, mud line, or inlet/outlet channel. Whatever it's far, those edges outline a route for them. These fish journey in a course consistent with edges and the supply of meals.

The "available and abundant" principle expressed by an expansion of authors is alive and properly. Wherever there may be an abundance of food this is rather to be had to predators, you'll find fish. So is the case with wiper. However, do not count on the colleges to sit down still in one region for lengthy. Instead assume the colleges to travel paths between or with plentiful food assets. That's right, I stated "with." Wiper are ravenous beasts. They were regarded to decimate forage populations. They are residing vacuums. In expertise this, truely recall baitfish schools structure. Wiper nearly virtually corral and follow colleges of shad and other forage fish whilst abundantly present. One of the quality signs in locating wiper is winning wind. Always check the leeward aspect of a lake which may harbor schools of baitfish.

Chasing wiper around a lake isn't always regularly taken into consideration a clever factor to do. It wears out trolling motor batteries and can tear your heart out. Don't get me incorrect, I do it myself all the time - particularly when the busting activity is shifting slowly in semi-predictable fashion. I am not the sort to sit down in one spot and fish for hours even though it is the first-rate choice. My only advice is to discover a glad medium.

Surface water temperatures are one important piece of the puzzle to help you locate wipers. These temps blended with knowledge of the fish's motion and desired forage will offer an awesome start line to finding wipers on any given day. In the spring as surface water temps approach the 50's, wiper becomes increasingly lively. Optimal temps are relative to a body of water and pressure of fish, but in preferred the farther away you get from the top-rated variety for any fish, the lower their metabolism and accordingly the less they may be compelled to consume and the slower their moves can be.

One of the reasons we put the Fish Explorer internet site collectively is to provide data to help you discover fish in man or woman water bodies. Our recognition on water temperatures is not absolutely a novelty. If you recognize how water temperatures affect fish on a specific lake, you're one step beforehand of the sport.

As wiper become extra energetic inside the early season, they reportedly move into a fake-spawn. At lakes with energetic, reachable inlet streams at the proper time of yr, as Jackson Lake in northeast Colorado often studies, wiper will surely run up the inlets as if spawning. In other locations inclusive of Union Reservoir, we've visible hordes of wiper stacked outdoor the inlet in an average pre-spawn staging. It is likewise feasible that these fish are regarding the shad which are in spawn mode. Whatever the motive for this activity, it would be a terrific location to test those inlet regions early inside the season and any time of yr, specially while the water is flowing.

Outlets also are a great place to scope out wipers any time of yr, specifically when the taps are turned on. At Jackson Lake it become stated that several hundred wiper escaped into the outlet river, compelling officials to install a display downstream to capture the AWOL and go back them to the reservoir.

In each of those cases, one issue is for certain - meals organisms up and down the chain are drawn to these areas at any time of the year, which may also prove to be enough draw to concentrate these ever-feeding fish.

When surface water temps are in the mid 50's to mid 60's wiper fishing seems to be the great in Colorado. They will be energetic within the top column of water which means they're more with no trouble to be had and recognizable to the fly fisherman. The upper column feeding manner that fish could be in the shallows, or they'll be over deeper water however up excessive. During this era, you will also witness suitable wiper fishing all day, as opposed to the oft-assumed principle that wiper are most effective low-mild feeders. I trust wiper feed all day just like trout in a river, due to the fact they inherently want to use up electricity via swimming round and hence need to eat accordingly.

Analyzing satellite images will let you determine lake structure. In this picture of Jackson Lake you could without problems see wherein the "apartments" are as opposed to the primary basin, which may lead you to warmer water regions in the early-season.

As water temps upward push, the fish will generally pass deeper to greater cozy water. The temps are higher, the forage thinks so too, and daylight/UV rays will be more dispersed. This is the most tough time to discover wiper, and you really need to put it slow in and get to understand a lake for its structure and tendencies. Often experimentation and time on the water can be the primary key on your fulfillment. During these times you may discover wiper moving back to the floor column at night, dawn, dusk, and really cloudy days. This is the typical low-mild feeding situation aforementioned. Wiper will nevertheless be feeding mid-day, simply deeper. If you're like most of the people and like to peer fish in the higher column or in close to shorelines, fish the low-light instances.

As fall tactics and water temps decrease, wiper will circulate again into the higher column and you will once more be greeted with more premiere fishing conditions. As is regular with most fish species, the pre-ice season turns wiper into ravenous beasts. They will feed closely. Catching this period will regularly produce large fish because of the fact the fish have been growing all season and are eager to consume anything they are able to before they gradual down for the iciness.

Two thoughts come to thoughts at this point as I run out of thoughts to specific on the way to locate these fish: non-standard shape and upward thrust identification. As Dick Pearson describes so nicely in his e-book "Muskies on the Shield", structure isn't necessarily continually stationary and everlasting like factors, humps, and weeds. Often edges can be described in much less bodily phrases. Other edges you may remember are baitfish faculties, wind current, and my favored, carp pods.

If you notice a swarm of seagulls or diving birds congregating in the center of a lake, move over and take a look at it out, you might discover a pleasant school of baitfish that has drawn not handiest flying critters, but wiper as nicely. If there may be an excellent wind, look for modern or places in which the wind makes a "spot" a higher "spot". Examples are wind blown plant life edges, a wind-blown point, or a saddle. Current will pay attention forage into positive areas and the wiper can be there.

Regarding carp pods - do not forget about them. We have fished round carp pods and hooked clearly nice wiper. Stay as a ways faraway from the slow-transferring dust-stirring pods as you could so no longer to spook them. Cast right over their edges and stale similarly to the sides, however no longer proper into them. Spooking them might also cut up the pod and in flip you can lose your structure. We will often fish bugger or crayfish patterns on this state of affairs, as we suppose the wiper are taking advantage of the plethora of meals gadgets being stirred up by using the scrounging carp.

By upward thrust identification, I suggest being able to look at a fish breaking the surface and figuring out what form of fish it is and what it's far doing. One calm day on Union Reservoir, we had been seeking out wiper and having a tough move at it. There were rises everywhere in the lake that we initially determined had been trout or bass taking bugs. As we studied the actions extra very well we started to notice a difference in upward thrust paperwork. One type of rise changed into one-of-a-kind than the others - it turned into more of a quick "pop" than a brief splash or slurp. Soon we determined those by some means transferred into wiper - despite the fact that we are not certain if they have been wiper consuming insects or small fish near the surface, or perhaps a faculty of shad that were semi-frequently slurping the pinnacle. We spent the rest of the journey seeking out this upward thrust shape, fast casting streamers into the region, and hooking into several wiper.

Observation is prime regardless of what form of fish you're going after. Continuously observe everything around you including water temps, lake structure, chook hobby, insect interest, barometric stress, weather modifications, wind route, wind pace, your partner's headache, and something else that would play into the overall puzzle you are attempting to remedy. Even the smallest things may additionally trigger a notion system that could result in fulfillment.

First, carry binoculars with you. When you have a whole lot of water to cowl, extending your eyesight should come up with the edge. They are an invaluable device at the water when trying to find busting fish. If you spot or pay attention some splashing on a distant coastline, break out your binoculars and notice if they're spawning carp, shore birds, or definitely wiper crashing bait in shallow water. Scan over the lake to peer if you may locate any floor disturbance or any birds actively feeding. One day a pair of binoculars might be the distinction between boom or bust.

Second, it must be mentioned that we don't usually locate wiper in massive, tight faculties. We often see sporadic wiper spooked by way of the boat jetting faraway from the boat. I do not assume these are necessarily solo fish, however I do not assume they're in big faculties either. If you notice this happen, make an effort to fan-forged the area searching out more. Take note of wherein you noticed the fish and come returned later. And greater importantly try to find some other spots that suit the equal makeup in which you saw the fish, taking note of wind path, shape, depth, and so on.

Now on to without a doubt fly fishing for wiper...

Presenting Flies to Wiper:

Presenting to wipers with a fly isn't rocket technological know-how. Consider the fly and setup you use to be a device. When you are fishing to wiper inside the top water column, gift your fly there. When fishing to wiper down deep, gift there.

The type of fly rod you operate is determined by way of what you're throwing. You will frequently want to forged some distance, so I'd propose no longer going lighter than a 6wt rod. If you are finding wiper referring to the floor you may need to throw poppers or excessive-driving streamers, therefore a 6wt is adequate with floating or brief sink-tip strains. If you want to fish some toes down, throwing a 150-grain RIO 24-foot sink tip is the ticket, and again a fast 6wt rod have to do the trick. When you want to get deeper, say five-10 feet deep, throwing a two hundred or 250-grain RIO sink tip might do the trick and you will need to be the use of a 7wt or 8wt rod in reality which will handle the heft of these strains. Go to a 300-500 grain line to get deeper, upgrading to a rod among an 8 and 10 weight to hold the burden. With a nicely-made rod with some spine, you have to be able to play even the biggest wipers to be had inside the state.

Having a fly rod with a sturdy backbone is essential for landing the largest wipers Colorado has to provide.

The main issue with what tippet to apply is electricity. I am not a company believer in leader shyness while fishing streamers to stillwater fish. As lengthy as you are not the use of smartphone cable and you are not fishing top notch sluggish, I don't think wipers may be deterred through your tippet. I will most customarily use 15-20 pound fluorocarbon tippet which for me has no longer damaged off on a strike yet. The worst mistake you can make is to go too mild and ruin off on a fish. I'll use more than one feet of 40-pound mono looped to a couple feet of 20-pound mono looped to the fluorocarbon tippet. So generally my whole leader isn't always a lot more than 6 ft long. However once I fish on or very close to the floor, I will pass longer.

When you are fishing to wiper, you will want to vary your retrieve till you find what works best. Typically you cannot strip rapid sufficient through busting schools. But regularly you may find that brief short strip-strip-strip-pause retrieves paintings better in other situations and to properly-fed wiper. Vary the pause length....You'll be amazed to lose keep of your line as you look up to say some thing to your buddy on one of the pauses and a wiper grabs the suspended fly and turns at Mach 1 inside the contrary route. One thought that have to play into your method is the perception that some of the biggest wiper will sit down under schools of shad, waiting for easy pickings. If you drop your fly through and underneath the baitfish faculty you may discover a heavy surprise down underneath. Experiment each time you go out, the temper of the fish seems to trade day by day.

Bait length is a component. In a few studies on bass feeding, it's miles verified that fish in sure our bodies at a given time of yr can have a desired bait size. For wiper, I were advised that they like to devour baitfish which can be as long as the width of the gape in their mouth when open. Experiment with streamer sizes if you're having hassle locating and hooking fish. If you're fishing with a companion, start off the day fishing special colorations and extraordinary sizes until considered one of you has more fulfillment than the other, then transfer over to the new bait. We have had success with streamers as brief as one inch to streamers so long as six inches.

Which coloration fly to apply is opening a huge can of worms. As my good buddy and perennial fisherman Phil Small says, "If it ain't chartreuse, it ain't little need." That regularly may be the case, despite the fact that we fish chartreuse very frequently which may also skew the numbers. One theory I agree with in is comparison....To apply a fly this is two-coloured, often with a mild and a dark. The reason this will be powerful is that fish see colorings differently in the course of the day, and therefore might also choose up on the assessment if one or each of the colours is less visible at the time. You may additionally try to "healthy-the-hatch" or go together with greater of an attractor sample....And either may work, but I do not recognise of any attempted-and-real sample that works on every occasion all of the time. It took me a long time to agree with in any shade theories, but I now consider shade has some thing to do with the equation. So again, test daily with coloration, determine if one pattern is working more so than any other, and run with it.

These are some of my maximum generally used flies while fishing for wiper. From pinnacle, l-r: A saltwater popper, perch-coloured Rainy's CF Baitfish Streamer - unweighted, a domestic-tied massive clouser-fashion shad imitation, chartreuse/white clouser, some other massive shad imitation, a streamer weighted body with wrap-around lead, and my favourite crayfish/bugger pattern with twist-tail.

Whether you use weighted streamers or now not is any other object to test with. We have had success fishing very mild flies, lead-head or clouser-type flies, and weighted-frame flies. Clouser-type flies paintings very well while the usage of the strip-pause retrieve and when fishing a touch decrease in the water column. Weightless flies appear to paintings higher whilst fishing excessive and speedy in particular on a sink-tip...But do not fail to experiment fishing very light flies on floating line quick right within the floor film which offers an injured baitfish sort of appearance. You may additionally attempt fishing clouser-type flies on floating line to fish just underneath the floor. If you're searching out fish down deep, sinking traces and heavy flies will allow you to cover more water quickly.

Whether to apply a sparsely tied or a totally furry fly is yet any other alternative that the wipers will assist you decide. To supply a few steerage based on my observations, try sparser streamers in water with desirable clarity, and thicker, hairier streamers in discolored water or mudlines. Flies that produce more water disturbance as they're retrieved will appeal better to the lateral line senses applied extra so by means of fish in darker waters. This is also the case for night fishing.

One region I haven't begun to test with significantly is the use of floor flies, specifically poppers. Definitely provide poppers a hazard, specifically in low-mild situations or in busting schools. Vary retrieves from a pop-pop pause, to ripping the popper through the surface film. The traditional rule of thumb in top water presentation is to create simply enough disturbance to draw fish. You'll want to strive fishing large poppers that make more noise in choppy situations, and smaller poppers in nevertheless situations.

And recollect flies aside from streamers. As I noted earlier than, we've caught masses of wipers on bugger and crayfish patterns, mainly round pods of carp while we had been most willing to throw them. The rule of ample and available applies anytime you fish. If there is an abundance of crayfish available to wiper, you higher supply it a shot. One manner to know for positive what the fish are concentrating on is to look for undigested food coming out of a fish you have caught. One weekend fishing on Horsetooth Reservoir for smallmouth, we noticed a small orange bite of crayfish spewed from the mouth of a bass we had at the hook next to the boat. It were a hard day locating any smallies that day as we turned around between a diffusion of streamer styles and retrieves. Truth is the smallies had became onto the molting crayfish similar to trout key in on insect hatches.

Presenting crayfish with a fly rod isn't always as smooth as fishing a tube jig on a spin rod. You need to fish them sluggish and occasional, preferably in regions with various sized rip-rap and boulders, even ticking the rocks. Doing so will regularly cause masses of dangle-u.S.And misplaced flies. To improve your efficiency, fish a quick sink-tip line with crayfish patterns designed to trip hook-point-up. The great crayfish styles are the ones which might be tied extra like a wooly bugger, with short or no pincers (chelae), and in a colour leaning greater in the direction of orange/tan than darkish brown. In research that relate to this situation, smallmouth bass desired softer molting crayfish over larger hard-shell crayfish, the former tending to be of lighter coloration.

The jury is still taking into consideration on whether or not fishing insect imitations to wiper is powerful. I myself have no longer tried this one lick. Whenever I even have determined wiper smacking the floor in a way that could endorse that they're consuming bugs, a streamer usually did the trick. But, perhaps that is a way to recall. I agree with all fish eat bugs at some time or every other - and I would guess that wipers may additionally achieve this multiple may suppose.

For slower fishing, and when letting our fly drop below shad schools, I like to go along with a shinier and greater active streamer like this sparkly clouser-style streamer.

The Battle:

The wiper fight is what you got here for. These fish take a fly in what changed into defined by using Dennis McKinney's DOW Outdoor's Journal article "Wiper Watch" as a U-flip style, which I completely agree with. The initial take is a hard thump, as if they hit it going 30 MPH in the opposite direction. Setting the hook have to not be a trouble as they generally tend to hook themselves.

Getting the fish to the reel, which means choosing up all the slack so your reel drag is activated, is not difficult to do with wiper. They will usually take all of the slack line at your toes out with them on the primary run. Just make certain you're not wrapped around your feet, timber, or items in your boat earlier than the strike. Doing so may bring the combat to an abrupt halt and could fee you approximately one fly.

The combat can range, however typically they will make a very said initial run followed by using a relaxation duration and subsequent sharp runs. Do not overplay the fish to the factor it's far exhausted, and do no longer try to internet the fish so green that it will injure itself flailing approximately. Take benefit in their "rest periods" through turning their heads lightly, pumping your rod, and reeling in line to deliver them closer to you. Let them take drag when they need to run. Do now not positioned too much pressure at the fish as you can wear a hole of their lip so as to make break out plenty less complicated for them. And do now not, through any way, deliver them slack line.

After a few runs, if the fish appears to be dropping some steam, put extra strain on the fish to bring it to the internet. Once landed, if you plan to release the fish, take care of it gently, aid its weight fully when lifted for a picture, and return it to the water directly. I actually have had no trouble reviving wiper while handled on this manner. We usually fish barbless and have no longer misplaced any fish due to this thing by myself (if we do lose a fish it is commonly our own fault for permitting slack.) I encourage barbless fishing for any sort of fishing you can attempt...Hooks are less complicated to get from your pores and skin while the inevitable takes place, the hooks set deeper, and as long as you maintain your line taught I do no longer accept as true with you'll ever lose a fish because of barbless hooks. But you'll lose fish to susceptible hooks, so use sturdy saltwater hooks to your wiper flies or they may come again as directly as an arrow.