WIPER - Hybrid Bass - Johnson Lake Inlet on August 11, 2022

This was Wiper #13 of the day and the very last one as I told myself I was leaving the one before which was a good 8 to 9lbs, then I made another cast and this one hit. This was about 10AM and I began fishing around 6:30 or so and if I ever get all the videos edited you will see it was Non-Stop Action from the second cast.

I have been fishing in this spot at Johnson Lake Inlet / Spillway for 17 years with my good friend Jim Daily who taught me how to fish it as he was catching fish when no one else could and showed me his style with live bait using light weight egg sinkers, swivels, small snelled hooks and light line with a solid brand name rod.

Over the years we have learned where the fish sit to ambush bait so we cast accordingly with the appropriate weight to find the sweet spot, always have to adjust weight as the current changes.

For this Wiper I was using a very small #10 snelled hook, baited with a shad and I believe I was using 1/2 ounce weight, I was using only an 1/8th a couple days before and catching the but the water seemed a bit faster today so I adjusted to a quarter and then moved up to a half ounce and that was even better.

I didn't get a weight or length on this fish, I didn't have the ruler with me, but I know it was well over 27 inches. The longest one I have caught was 31 1/4 at Elwood Reservoir and this one long but not very wide or it could of weighed a lot. The fish was worn out and so was I so I quickly released it to live another day or two.

Since this was my 16th fish - 13 wipers as big white bass and two flathead, my GoPro of course on the last fish began beeping as hard drive space was low. It did shut off but thankfully somehow I got it going long enough to see the fish and take a couple quick pictures.

The GoPro doesn't do justice on the true size of this fish. Even the 16 inch white bass looked small when I was viewing.

I am still learning the editing process, I tried to put all of the fishing clips on a timeline on Davinci 18 and it ended up being over 49GB, I have some learning to do.

Notice how far I had to walk down to land this one. Not the biggest I've caught by far, but definitely is in the top 10 for all time fighters.