06-24-2006, 06:52 PM
[cool][#0000ff]TubeBabe and I hit Willard Bay Reservoir (Utah) yesterday. Our primary goal was wipers...the sterile hybrid between striped bass and white bass. They are fairly plentiful in Willard, but are typically taken by trolling, from a boat. More of a challenge to find them and catch them from a tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We launched from Eagle Beach just after 6 AM. We threw all kinds of lures for first half hour but neither saw many fish on sonar or had any whacks on artificials. So...we went to plan B...bait.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We have a Utah 2-pole permit so we each rigged one rod with dead chub minnows and one rod with carp meat. Both wipers and catfish will take the minnows, but usually only the channel cats will hit carp meat. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We had only a couple of light bites before the sun came up over the mountains to the east and hit the lake. Then, we each got several cats in quick succession. But, since I still wanted wipers I kicked off to the north, in the direction of the north dike of the manmade reservoir. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I got into one area that held a lot of fish. I was getting bites on my minnows about as fast as I could pin one on and send it out. Some were small channel cats, but others were wipers. Before I ran out of minnows I had caught quite a few cats and three wipers. After that, I could only get a few cats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe agreed on the radio to come over and hand off some of her minnows. She had not had as much action and still had most of her minnows left. We met up and exchanged some minnows for a new swivel rig leader for her rod. Fair trade.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Shortly after pinning a new minnow on my line, I hooked up into my largest wiper of the day...a 21" fish that weighed just over 4#. Thanks, TubeBabe.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Everything kinda shut down after that. TubeBabe missed a couple of wiper bites, but neither of us caught anything else before we finally hit the beach about 1 PM.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I gotta tell ya. Those wipers hit like heavyweights and run like freight trains. I was using medium spinning gear, with good 8# line and I am glad I had a smooth drag. The fish I caught all took off on runs that would have broken poor line with a sticking drag.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I ended up with 4 wipers and kept about 5 small channel cats...out of maybe 15 caught. TubeBabe did keep a couple of 16" cats. Those little kitties from Willard are really good eating. So are the wipers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We launched from Eagle Beach just after 6 AM. We threw all kinds of lures for first half hour but neither saw many fish on sonar or had any whacks on artificials. So...we went to plan B...bait.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We have a Utah 2-pole permit so we each rigged one rod with dead chub minnows and one rod with carp meat. Both wipers and catfish will take the minnows, but usually only the channel cats will hit carp meat. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We had only a couple of light bites before the sun came up over the mountains to the east and hit the lake. Then, we each got several cats in quick succession. But, since I still wanted wipers I kicked off to the north, in the direction of the north dike of the manmade reservoir. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I got into one area that held a lot of fish. I was getting bites on my minnows about as fast as I could pin one on and send it out. Some were small channel cats, but others were wipers. Before I ran out of minnows I had caught quite a few cats and three wipers. After that, I could only get a few cats.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe agreed on the radio to come over and hand off some of her minnows. She had not had as much action and still had most of her minnows left. We met up and exchanged some minnows for a new swivel rig leader for her rod. Fair trade.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Shortly after pinning a new minnow on my line, I hooked up into my largest wiper of the day...a 21" fish that weighed just over 4#. Thanks, TubeBabe.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Everything kinda shut down after that. TubeBabe missed a couple of wiper bites, but neither of us caught anything else before we finally hit the beach about 1 PM.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I gotta tell ya. Those wipers hit like heavyweights and run like freight trains. I was using medium spinning gear, with good 8# line and I am glad I had a smooth drag. The fish I caught all took off on runs that would have broken poor line with a sticking drag.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I ended up with 4 wipers and kept about 5 small channel cats...out of maybe 15 caught. TubeBabe did keep a couple of 16" cats. Those little kitties from Willard are really good eating. So are the wipers.[/#0000ff]
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