Wiper Bass on the Fly at Southfork Reservoir, Nevada

The wiper bass, a hybrid cross between a white bass and a striped bass, is making its mark across the country as one of the most hearty and hard-fighting game fish around. As the Wild Fish Wild Places crew made their way through the high desert toward our base for the week in Elko, Nevada we had little idea of what great fishing awaited us. Our objectives for this filming trip were to catch these elusive, marauding predators in two different reservoirs, Southfork and Wildhorse.

Our first morning found us talking with a local wiper fisherman learning what the wipers were doing most recently and which type of flies and line we should use. Wiper angling is a finicky and time-sensitive type of fishing, if you aren’t in the exact spot using the right gear it can make for a long day. We felt we had the right setup and moved out on the water to chase these elusive fish. The fish were staging in about 10-14 feet of water using submerged trees to ambush prey. It was approximately 8:30AM and the fish were starting to get active. As we started to present our chartreuse clousers around the trees we began seeing some action, but only on one particular setup. The wiper fishing was really good for the guy who was using the #4 uniform sink line and not so hot for the fast sinking tip. The fish were keyed in on the more horizontal movement and not so much on the jigging movement demonstrated by the fast sink tip, striper line.

As the next three days progressed we had some amazing wiper fishing, with 90 percent of the fish coming on the uniform sink line. We experimented with different chartreuse fly patterns that we would tie in the evening, and they all caught fish. We fished different parts of the lake that were similar to where we were catching fish and none produced wipers other than the half square mile of water we found them in the first day. The wiper fishing was great at Southfork Reservoir, but paying attention to subtle differences and figuring out the different patterns was the key to being successful.

The key to being successful for wipers; many small differences added up to catch fish on this trip and we would like to share our techniques.

• Adamsbuilt 8wt flyrods were key for throwing big heavy flies and line
• Chartreuse flies with flash and marabou for extra movement in the water seemed to trigger the most bites
• Stripping at a very fast pace with a strip-strip pause strip-strip pause was very important
• 10-14 feet of water with maximum cover around the south end of the lake
• Most importantly a #4 uniform sink fly line to get that fly in the strike zone and moving horizontal in their face

These few small things were instrumental in being successful for catching wipers at Southfork Reservoir. Next stop Wildhorse!

Wild Fish Wild Places

FISH AND FISHING. TWO WORDS HAVING A MYRIAD OF MEANINGS TO A MYRIAD OF PEOPLES. TO FISH FOR FOOD, FOR LIFE, FOR SURVIVAL; OR TO FISH FOR FUN, FOR SPORT, FOR MONEY.

When, almost 5,000 years ago in China, man first attached a hook and line to a bamboo rod to catch carp a little further from the river’s edge, little did he know that this creation would evolve into an industry which at the early part of this, the twenty-first century, is worth over $108 billion annually to the US economy in terms of sport fishing alone!

The variety of fish species is infinite. From cold water inhabitants such as members of the Salmonidae family, to warm water, tropical dwellers like the Cichlids. From the gigantic Tarpon of the Florida Keys to the gentler Arctic Charr spectacularly attired in their vivid courtship colors in the frigid rivers and streams of the arctic tundra. Take the celebrated Coelacanth, over three hundred million years old and still found today in the warm seas of the Indian Ocean around Madagascar, or the seemingly ubiquitous Golden Orfe, or the goldfish, which completes endless circuits in so many glass bowls in family homes in every corner of the world.

In this series, we will seek out great predatory fish. Fish that are much revered, fish that strike terror at the very mention of their name and fish that are the staple diet of many peoples subsisting along the shorelines and riverbanks of the great waters we will visit during our odyssey. Positioned at the very top of the food chain, these apex predators reign supreme in their own domain, be it mighty river, great lake or ocean.

Our quest will take us across cultures and continents to exotic locations of immense beauty and wealth as well as lands poleaxed by poverty. We will explore not just these wild and wonderful places, but the significance of our target species to the different groupings of peoples in terms of social, economic and cultural values.

Our travels in search of extraordinary predators will take us from the cold, unforgiving waters of the West of Ireland to the steaming jungle swamps of India. From the frozen, pristine wilderness of the Canadian subarctic to the sun-baked backwaters of Northern Australia. This will be a series of contrasts and comparisons where we will meet people who live to fish and people who fish to live.