Willard with WH2 1-15-14

[Fin-S-Fish]

It's the movement patterns that make wiper so hard to catch even in the open water season. I've iced a good number of 16 to 21 inch wipers a long time ago like a decade ago or more but never iced any since. The main pattern for wipers is that you can't pattern them. That is what makes them so elusive. A boat helps immensely to chase them down or an atv. Wipers will have some movement patterns and set up in places during a given time of year but then years later when a new year class grows up, those will establish completely new places to reside at new times that are completely different than the predecessors. So far I haven't found wipers moving into the north marina or any where easily accessible during the drought years nor did they come back during the high water years under the ice. Wipers hit the same lures that a white bass will but a LOT less aggressively. A tiny little tap like a perch tap and it won't tap again. Set the hook on that tap or it's over with. You likely will not get another bite that day lol. When you do set the hook on a wiper don't attempt to reel any line in, just keep it tight. Several times with 12lb xl and an open water 5ft ugly stick light rod, the fish fought hard enough I had to thrust the entire pole into the hole so the line wouldn't snap. My drag was fairly tight and failed to slip lol. When it does come up to the hole, it will come up sideways and be stuck. You have to keep working it till the head comes up but it will always try to plunge it's head downward even though your hook is pulling on it's lip, it won't usually come up lip first. Wipers are weird in many ways. White bass are nomadic and can be hard to find but wipers even more so.
[signature]