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I've been fishing the pinery since I got home in hopes for a wiper season carried over from tennessee as is usually the case when I get home. However, while I've been away my lake has changed. The wiper are there but not by the numbers. usually by now when the water temp is where it is I am hooking atleast five a day. However, I have been skunked this entire last week. After speaking with the ranger out there I have made my own hypothesis on the situation.
Last year they dumped in some 100,000 walley frey and to keep the wiper off them they added 50,000 fathead minnows. In only a 26 acre lake, that is a lot of food for a shrinking population of hybrids. As a result those fish don't have to look far for a meal and certainly aren't going to go cruzing looking for a single fly in the mix. I've tried it all topwater, deceivers, bunny flies...you name it I've chucked it.
Furthermore, I have begun to get an interesting perspective on keeping wiper. I personally will release all my fish. However, last season when they put a gill net out on the pinery for 2 hours the net became filled with wiper all in the 8-15 pound range. That says that all those fish are about 7 years old and the life expectancy of a wiper is about that. So for that reason, it might be ok to keep a big hybrid.
Last year they dumped in some 100,000 walley frey and to keep the wiper off them they added 50,000 fathead minnows. In only a 26 acre lake, that is a lot of food for a shrinking population of hybrids. As a result those fish don't have to look far for a meal and certainly aren't going to go cruzing looking for a single fly in the mix. I've tried it all topwater, deceivers, bunny flies...you name it I've chucked it.
Furthermore, I have begun to get an interesting perspective on keeping wiper. I personally will release all my fish. However, last season when they put a gill net out on the pinery for 2 hours the net became filled with wiper all in the 8-15 pound range. That says that all those fish are about 7 years old and the life expectancy of a wiper is about that. So for that reason, it might be ok to keep a big hybrid.