02-20-2016, 02:21 PM
[quote Jiggy81]Great report.. do wipers start biting this early in the season?[/quote]
[#0000FF]As already stated, wipers slow down but do not become dormant in colder water.
But, their feeding habits also change from now until the newly hatched shad are large enough to eat. There is usually a big dieoff of smaller shad under the ice each winter. And the survivors from last year's spawn are mostly too large for wipers to eat (7-9 inches). So wipers and walleyes have to forage harder for food.
This time of year the predators scour the bottom for dead shad, live crawdads and other invertebrates...and the young of other species...like perch, bluegills, crappies and even catfish. That's one of the reasons why those who use crawlers and mussels often score some good catches of wipers. They are hungry and they aren't as picky as they get when baby shad are their main forage.
I catch a few wipers on the chub minnows I drag for cats and walleyes. And I have also caught them on carp meat and perch meat.
You can catch wipers and walleyes on lures when the water is colder, but you will usually do better by fishing plastics low and slow...rather than dragging a shallow-running crankbait at warp speed. And as the walleye specialists start dragging their crawler harnesses as paint-drying speed they will also get to play with some cold-slowed wipers.
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[#0000FF]As already stated, wipers slow down but do not become dormant in colder water.
But, their feeding habits also change from now until the newly hatched shad are large enough to eat. There is usually a big dieoff of smaller shad under the ice each winter. And the survivors from last year's spawn are mostly too large for wipers to eat (7-9 inches). So wipers and walleyes have to forage harder for food.
This time of year the predators scour the bottom for dead shad, live crawdads and other invertebrates...and the young of other species...like perch, bluegills, crappies and even catfish. That's one of the reasons why those who use crawlers and mussels often score some good catches of wipers. They are hungry and they aren't as picky as they get when baby shad are their main forage.
I catch a few wipers on the chub minnows I drag for cats and walleyes. And I have also caught them on carp meat and perch meat.
You can catch wipers and walleyes on lures when the water is colder, but you will usually do better by fishing plastics low and slow...rather than dragging a shallow-running crankbait at warp speed. And as the walleye specialists start dragging their crawler harnesses as paint-drying speed they will also get to play with some cold-slowed wipers.
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