Michaelangelo

Yeah state record off top of my head is like 23 pounds. Only a couple off the world record which I think came from Arkansas. Don't quote me on that. As far as freshwater, only thing I've caught that fights harder is Peacock Bass.

I'll have to check it out. We should meet at the lake sometime and go fishing. I fish by myself mostly, and it'd be nice to fish with someone who is into wiper also.

Yeah I was just wondering if you have ever fished it. I've never made it out there. Never heard of a lake in Olathe. Is it a city lake? Never been to the other lake either. So what's your favorite lake for wiper? Ever fished Herington?

Those are a regular 6500 C3 or C4 with "Striper Special" painted on them and are a different color. The "Catfish Special" is the same way, and a different color, but there's no differences in either reel over a plain 6500, other than each of those have a power handle. Get a Calcutta 400B. Has a bait clicker, on top of all the other features you want, and is hands down better than a POS Cardiff. My guide uses those and either he doesn't maintain them well or they just aren't a Calcutta. I use a Conquest 400, the new version, and it's a precision machine, but no bait clicker. To remedy that I mainly use a Tekota 500LC for trolling, on a St Croix Mojo Cat rod - perfect action.

Those are fat. Look like Wolf Creek wipers which usually seem shorter length but taller and fat. Milford they seem to be long and lean. Herington has a lot of 4-6 and they are built similar to Milford. My biggest was 27 inches, forgot the girth, but a striper chart put a striper that size just over 10 pounds. I have not forgot my scale since haha. That was Milford. I've tried LaCygne but they were still deep and we didn't have a good technique, but I know they get big there. What is the small lake you're talking about? There's no secrets from me. Clinton? I know there's a few others.

Nice. I know the lake pretty well. Lots of schools in around 20 feet of water straight N of the pier in the hot water. We troll from there to the flats up N and catch fish. Top picture is Wolf Creek, bottom one is a 27 inch fish from Milford around this time of year 2015.

Nice. I know the lake pretty well. Lots of schools in around 20 feet of water straight N of the pier in the hot water. We troll from there to the flats up N and catch fish.

Good info. I work at Wolf Creek and fish it more than anywhere else in the winter. Catch a lot of fish in the hot water and on the flats coming out of the hot water. What do you use when you fish for them deep as far as crankbaits? Do you slow roll?

Might be good for wiper, especially when you are in a school and need quick catch and release. I actually recently took off my rear hooks on a few lipless to address this problem. Put a bigger, beefier front hook since the tail end is where you get the most swing anyways. I'm gonna try this. What I'm curious about is how will it affect the action of the lure, or how will the action of the lure affect the blade...

My boat never stays on the water overnight, and I take all my gear our when storing, so theft isn't an issue. I had a bass boat and sold it for a fish and ski. My boat handles rough water much better, and I like the versatility since I do both activities. The only issue I have is rod storage. I didn't store below deck even in my bass boat. I had rod straps but that's not really a good option for my current boat. I get into my front compartments very frequently. I'll see if I can find a picture.

How deep do you fish in the winter? What do you look for? Do you slow troll, or cast?

Do you have problems in your small boat with the back end doing what it wants to? Wanna fix that? I custom made a rudder that has easily adjustable length, angle, cant, is easily removable, and made out of all urethane for long life. I searched for hours and hours trying to find something to fix the tail of our plastic bass boat from swinging and there's just nothing good out there. My rudder fixes it. If there's any interest just let me know.

So I have a Skeeter FS180, 18 foot fish and ski, and I have nowhere good to store rods. I keep stuff in my floor storage so that's out. I have no compartments that come close at all to storing rods. I keep my reels on my rods and will not take them off, prefer something with quick access that doesn't mess with casting while stored. Any ideas? Or custom stuff you have done?

Very true. It's all about either knowledge or dumb luck to get something huge. So either do your homework or get drunk and grab random lures and fish like a beginner haha

1/2oz white Terminator spinnerbait citrus shad Mann's Baby 1 Minus Xcalibur XRK 50 chrome/black I don't really need anything else, total confidence with those 3, but...I still have 100's of others bc variety is the spice of life ?

Of course it does. Fish a deep diver from the shore of a weedy pond and see how that goes.

I'm curious about this too.

Xcalibur one knockers in chrome/black. When I need fish, of any species, that's been my go to for years. Only time I ever get skunked is if I'm just testing a rod and reel. If I need clutch, I don't reach for anything other than that Xcalibur. There's a reason they sell for 20 a piece on eBay still to this day.

Most rewarding is finding ones you previously lost, especially ones you know catch fish.

Just remember, you get what you pay for. I would not recommend your first setup to be specific to one type of fish, especially in Florida where you have excellent bass fishing. I'd recommend a 2500 size Shimano and probably a 6'6" medium power, fast action rod. Spool with quality 8lb line, and you could pull off panfish and bass fishing. I'd highly recommend raising your limit to 100, the quality jump will be VERY noticeable. Reply if you'd like some setup ideas.

Tekotas are nice, and all you need is probably a 500. 7000 doesn't have a line guide either.

If you have side imaging, use it to find shad in less than 10 feet of water and the wiper will a lot of times appear as singles or paired up when not in schools. Don't burn your lures, and I use almkst all lipless, and prefer either an Xcalibur one knocker or Red Eye 2 Tap, both in chrome black. This method works when they're not actually on the surface. If they're on the surface, you could throw a cat turd in them and catch one, but I prefer big lipless baits. My favorite is an Xcalibur XRK100 in chrome and black, but any lipless in 1/2oz and up works really good, and I only recommend chrome. Also, make sure your line stays good, and you have beefy hooks.

A reel that's often overlooked I have a couple of and work pretty hard are Shimano Ultegra. They're a lot cheaper than a Stradic Ci4 but still a very good reel. I'm a Shimano guy, and basically have all Shimano, but my biggest complaint to this day is their bail system is crap compared to Daiwa and Pflueger. I have an Ultegra 3000 and Stradic Ci4 3000, both JDM special order from eBay, both 5.0:1 which makes them much better for all around use. I throw everything from 1/8oz spinners to 3/4oz spinnerbaits.

What's your technique when they're not surface feeding? We can chase with the best of em, but have no good techniques for catching them if they're not on the surface. One thing we've done recently is use the side imaging on my Lowrance Elite 9Ti and that has been working really good, especially to find the shad. When I see individual fish or schools I call out which side of the boat and the distance and we cast that direction. We've caught about 40 wiper between 3-6 pounds at Herington per trip doing this, but we want to catch them when they aren't shallow and that's where we don't have a good technique.

NY is the CA of the East Coast