Where have you been catching them?

 

They are stocked and cannot reproduce but fight like the dickens.

 

It's a great fish, a hybrid between a male striper and a female white bass I believe. Since they don't mate naturally, every one you catch has been stocked. Strong fighters, they school up and break like rockfish. In the TVA lakes of the southeast they can run with either white bass or rockfish. Not unusual for all three species to break together.I've caught some over 15 pounds in Cherokee Reservoir. Here's a shot of a 3-pounder my wife caught a while back. Note wide body and broken lines. I'd like to know more about the stocking history in Maryland.

 

Very big, disproportionately large tails, when combined with the typical "hybrid vigor" of a sterile critter (devoting none of its resources to production of any gonads or other reproductive-related expenditures), can equal drag-screeching power.

These stocked fingerlings used to get into the lower 'teens (#-wise) in the Ohio River where I fished for them a fair bit back when. Give them a fairly fast downstream current against lighter tackle, and some folks WILL get involuntarily spooled... often losing the works in tailwaters when bank-bound. I never found nor heard of them being too tasty from that body of water.

I like catching them, especially where forage fish need thinning. Don't think I ever got one on feathers, but they weren't too easy to reach with anything short of surf tackle. Their junior 'cousin' white bass, caught a gazillion of those... spunky, but see very few > 15-17". Wipers, otoh, can exceed #20 under more ideal circumstances than I've ever heard about regionally. That size class of this frankenfish could really, really stretch a string, I think!

BY ALL MEANS ENJOY. They may cavort with either of their progenitors during the latters' spawning migrations, but I gather that back-crosses are exceedingly rare.

 

I feel like I just lost the Preakness by a nose, to a better horse!:clapping2:

 

No, you had better info, Don!

 

You know that pics trump text, c'mon man!

Plus I neglected to mention their topwater proclivities, especially in cooling, autumn reservoirs with mud / gizzard shad for forage. Dramatic blow-ups possible. DNR has put some into a smallish nearby lake (Broadford), heavy with stunted crappies, but as yet no reports of their progress have reached my ears.

And, you showed an anglerette... the unassailable triple whammy of fishing board life in winter, especially!

Shawn, there is just no question that on tidewater, I am not worthy to even un-slip your dock lines, and everybody knows it. Appreciated the gesture tho'! :thumbup:

 

Years back, in the spring, my Dad and I were bank fishing right below the Conowingo Dam and caught a bunch of them about the size Shawn's wife is holding in a 3/8oz white bucktail with a gold grub trailer. I think they would have hit anything that day. They were almost right at our feet in the eddy 10-20' off the bank.

Years later (early 90's I think) I caught a nice one mixed in with the stripers that were on the points at the mouth of the Bush river.
Haven't caught one since then.


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Last time I was there a guy said he got one that went 30#. Didnt see it though. I have seen them busting on small minnows but the strange thing is I cant get them to bite minnows, they want worms and even corn intended for carp. Might not have the right size ones that they are feeding on. Most of the ones we are getting are small, wonder how long ago they were stocked. They are all nice and healthy looking.

 

MD stocked them in Loch Raven, Conowingo Lake and several other impoundments in the 80s. They made it below Conowingo Dam and for several years in the mid-late 80's and early 90's, you could easily target them in the tailrace. Saw them up to about 30 inches up there. Caught one about 10 lbs. by accident in Loch Raven around 1988. They were big fun for the period they were plentiful. Last one I caught below Conowingo was around 1996 and by then they were very few and far between.

 

Rattletraps will get them in the WWD at the plant.

 

Just for giggles here is a nice one from todays adventure.

 

I caught quite a few at Loch Raven in the early 80's.
They were all around 13 inches.

 

In the 70's we would run a heavy 16' aluminum boat from a launch at the town of Peach Bottom to the other side of the Susky to the Peachbottom NPP. Often we ran through skim ice but would not go if it was too thick. At that time hybrids were being stocked by PA and they were great fun to catch on FW bass tackle. Had them to 15 pounds and they were hot. We used lures and 6" Arkensas Shiners. If you think CCNPP is a small area that can only support a few boats, PB is much smaller. We ran in the dark to get the first slot. Two or three boats were about all that could fish it most days. It was one of those 3 AM wake up calls to do it.

The story I got was that MD asked PA to stop stocking them, because even though the females were sterile, it was possible for the hybrid males to fertilize the pure females. It was feared the regular striper stock would be stunted--no more 50 pounders. The stocking stopped and they thinned out to the point where the cold winter run was no longer worth it. In addition I bought boats capable of fishing bigger water in winter.

Hopefully a marine biologist will be able to clarify the fishermen's tale about male wipers fertilizing pure female stripers. I really do not know if it is true or not.

Often thought I would like to go to some inpoundment down south and target wipers. They are fast and strong.

 

Looking over the PA fish comm stocking records which just go back to 1991, they don't mention stocking any hybrid or wipers in the Conowingo pool. They have stocked striped bass every year but a couple from 1991 to 2006, and haven't stocked them since. Wonder where the hybrid Tiderunner caught came from? Is MD stocking them now?

 

i dont think MD stockes them anywhere anymore. hybrids SB are easy to obtain from private hatcheries, so its possible someone is stocking some. i know some still show up above and below the dam.

as to the reproduction- the breeding of hybrids to pure fish is called backcrossing. it doesnt happen all the time, but it can.

 

i dont think MD stockes them anywhere anymore. hybrids SB are easy to obtain from private hatcheries, so its possible someone is stocking some. i know some still show up above and below the dam.

as to the reproduction- the breeding of hybrids to pure fish is called backcrossing. it doesnt happen all the time, but it can.

The thing is we arent just catching a few, we are catching them in bunches and mostly the same size which suggests to me that they were the same size fish stocked at the same time. And being of relatively small size (pound and a half or less) suggests that they werent stocked that long ago. Im guessing they grow quick.

 

Hybrids can live in a private pond and spill out during high water. I know of a guy who has them in the mountains of PA in what we would call a farm pond.

 

I've also heard they can cross up, and I think aquacultural science is still working on refining the genetic make up, same way they breed dogs for better hunting. I don't know what traits they go for, I would guess hardiness and quick growth, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they're looking for unbroken lines on the side of the fish. That would explain the look of Tim's fish and some others I've seen from the upper Bay area, i.e. very wide body, small mouth, but the lines aren't as broken. (Although that may just be a fat young rockfish.) I've also caught yellow bass in the south that look like white bass except they're dingier. Throw in the different names for them in other parts of the country, for example in Tennessee, striped bass are "rockfish," white bass are "stripes," and I never heard of "wiper" until I moved here - just called them hybrids. It gets pretty confusing.

 

I always called them hybrids also. It wasn't until I saw them called wipers on different forums did I ever hear the word/name.



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We catch them every now and then below the dam, had one about 10# two years ago.

 

here is an actual DNR response to an angler.

http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/fishingreport/single.asp?ID=1195

 

MD stocked them back in 70s-early 80s when there werent many rockfish around. We used to burn them up down at Chalk Point in the winter. I moved to Texas A&M in the mid-90s and targeted them using good ol chesapeake techniques of the day (poprs, bucktails and big traps). Showed dem coyboys a thing or 2 while they threw mostly bait and spoons (slabs), had the lake record at Somerville for several years at 13.5#. Great fish.

 

Aren't there a bunch of them in the tank at BPS?

 

I believe I did see some there the other day as I went by.



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I caught one early this fall caught while Walleye fishing... Great fighting fish! I guessed it came down from Pa on the high flood water... I thought Pa still stocked them... Raystown Lake is supposed to have some... this one was twenty inches and thick...didn't eat very well, needed salt for my taste...would not kill many more to eat.