Fishing Forum

[cool][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][#0000ff]Two straight days of wind, rain and wipers on Willard. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Monday hit the water with TubeBabe about 6:15 AM. Water calm and 76 water temp. No visible wiper activity but TubeBabe scored a 19 incher by 6:20 and I had one about the same size by 6:30. It was still almost dark and the lights were still on in the park facilities. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe picked up another small wiper just before 7 and then it was a long time before we found any more. We filled in the idle hours playing with the kitties. We both caught quite a few and each kept a limit of 8 between 14" and my biggest at 21".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The wind never got strong, but it blew from just about every direction during the morning. We never knew which direction it was going to blow from next. Two or three times we were "treated" to light rain. It was warm and felt good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]About 10 AM some wipers began chasing shad around the shoreline. TubeBabe and I each landed one more and we each lost a couple of big ones. They either pulled loose or straightened the hooks on the small jigs we were using.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were off the water just after noon, with a total of five wipers and 16 kitties. Not bad.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Tuesday morning I had agreed to meet Flycasting back up at Willard for some more wiper action (hopefully). I walked out my door in Salt Lake to see lightning, hear thunder and feel wind and rain. Not what a tuber wants to see on a fishing trip.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Left most of the serious weather behind and it was calm and decent when we launched at Willard just after 6 AM. Water temp still about 76. But, the sky was cloudy and you could see lightning in several areas and rain falling from some of the clouds. We joked about becoming "electric anglers".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A stout south wind began blowing almost as soon as we were on the water. Within minutes it had changed to a west wind...and then an east wind...and then a north wind. And, so it went all morning. The wind would blow strongly from a new direction every few minutes. The poor fishies were . We joked that all the shad were probably stacked up in a big vortex out in the middle of the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nary a bump on plastics for the first hour. No wiper activity and the fish we saw seemed to be suspended and inactive or neutral. So, as usual, we baited up with minnows and played with kitties for awhile.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At 9:40 FC squawked on the walkie talkie that there were wipers working along one shoreline. I looked over my shoulder to verify and threw up a rooster tail with my fins getting over to the action. When I got there, FC was already casting to the area they had been working, but the fish were down.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I fired my trusty pearl shadlet into the area and went BENDO. First wiper. As soon as it was in the basket I made another cast and WHAM, game on again. That convinced FC that my little shadlets might be the ticket. I got one more in that area while he scored a quick two (after changing).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nothing more for a long hour and then I hung another 19 incher. I followed that with my fifth and final wiper...18"...from the same area. Neither of us could get bit any more and there was no more visible activity. We called it a day and headed for the fillet station. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Of course we were laughing about all the gas we had burned running all over the lake, trolling along the dikes in the high winds. Sure, we had been windblown, but not nearly as bad as if we had been on the outside, rather than safely inside the marina. And, no PWC's were injured in the making of this report.[/#0000ff]
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Now that's a great trip! Nice fish! Those wipers really provide great sport. It's super when you can connect with multiple fish that have good size. Your's certainly did.

We've been dealing with that multi-directional wind here in Oregon lately, too.

I was wishin' I was fishin' with you.

[cool]I'm gonna go back and look at those pictures again.

z~
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[cool][#0000ff]Hey Z, you would really love those wipers. They are about the hardest fighting fish you can imagine. They pull good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Also, they are pushovers for big white flies. We have several Utah tanglers who specialize in flyrodding for wipers. When you can find them up and active you can make short casts with a floating line and it's GAME ON. You need a good drag and some patience. It usually takes a while to get one to wanna visit your tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Truth to tell, though, I miss steelhead and would gladly trade a few wipers for a steelie or two. You don't got it so bad over there. You just gotta get out more.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The key word is FIND. They tend to roam a lot, looking for small shad...their primary forage species. My last few trips have been inside the north marina of Willard Bay. It is deep enough to attract both shad and wipers. The latter get the former bottled up on the far end of the marina and push them up against the bank. Then a gang of wipers will charge in and start "boiling" in very shallow water. Exciting stuff.[/#0000ff]
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Nothing gets my heart going like seeing those shad start flying outta the water being chased by the wipers. You've never seen a fat man like me kick so damn hard in your life. []
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[cool][#0000ff]I'm bigger and "heftier". I know I burned off a few calories when I kicked in my afterburner. Good I had those burritos the night before.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As any dedicated wiper chaser finds out, you gotta get there while the action is hot. Once the wipers quit feeding and move on, you can keep casting but you are only "washing lures".[/#0000ff]
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Yes, yes, I'd love to catch wipers. Specially if they would take fur and feathers. I just don't thing we have any of them around here.

I can't believe I haven't been steelheading even once this year. Boy! Part of it is time and part of it is that I'm enjoying the tube so much.

z~
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[cool][#0000ff]Unless you find yourself on a trip to Utah or Colorado, you are probably not likely to get any wiper action. They are used as a management species in waters where a top end predator is needed for the control of smaller prey species, but where they do not want a runaway population. Wipers are sterile hybrids of the white bass and striper.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]They were planted in Willard Bay Reservoir as a means of keeping the gizzard shad in check. They have also been planted in Newcastle Reservoir, in Utah, to control the illegally introduced golden shiners. The resident trout and smallmouth bass were not doing the job and the shiner population was exploding. The wipers are growing quickly and should provide another Utah wiper fishery by the end of this year. it is a bit more distant though. Might as well go to Lake Powell for the stripers. [/#0000ff]
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Hey TubeDude, I believe the DWR planted the gizzard shad in Willard on purpose as a food source for wipers.
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[cool][#0000ff]You are correct. However, all of the plantings of wipers since then are predicated upon how healthy the shad population is. Fewer shad equals fewer wipers. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fortunately, the shad population has remained healthy. When it was down a bit, during the drought, DWR increased the Wiper limit from 2 to 6 and has left it there. That is good for anglers, as long as they keep dumping in plenty to harvest.[/#0000ff]
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I thought the Gizzard Shad came well before the Wipers... Shows you what i know!
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[#0000ff]As I understand it, the gizzard shad were one in a long series of forage species introduced to Willard in an effort to find a food supply for the walleyes, crappies and cats. The other species included such exotics as the emerald shiner, etc. Virtually all of the others didn't ever show up after the initial planting. It got to be fun to try to guess what new and exotic trials there would be each year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Gizzard shad, on the other hand, just about took over the lake. The young sucked up all the zooplankton needed by the fry of other species, reducing "recruitement", especially among crappies. Then, they grew so fast that they did not provide much of a forage base except for a couple of months each year. Not good enough.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The wipers were brought in to help keep the shad in check. And since they are sterile, they provide a good fishery without the potential of overrunning the lake themselves.[/#0000ff]
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That's the way I understood it. So the shad did come 1st then right?[]
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[cool][#0000ff]I was not living in Utah at the time of the shad introduction, but I have tried to maintain contact and stay in tune with what was going on. My reckymembry is that it was indeed the shad first and then the wipers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Interesting note on the gizzard shad. Willard Bay is about the only place in Utah that can get federal approval for stocking them. All other watersheds drain into other waters in which the gizzard shad might pose a problem with native species...like the precious prehistoric suckers and chubs. If they managed to get out of Willard Bay (which they have) they cannot get beyond the salt marshes and then into salt lake...where they are doomed. No more downstreamers from there. There are lots of gizzard shad in the outlet and downstream. Some of them are huge and fight hard when you hook them. Too bad they can't be harvested for bait...but that is a no-no.[/#0000ff]
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