Wipers are fun to fish and found all across Iowa

We all know the old saying about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence.

Iowa fishermen frequently travel across state lines to fish different water, me included. We head north for walleyes, smallmouth bass and muskies. We head south for largemouth bass, crappies or saltwater fish.

Maybe when we want a change of pace we shouldn’t always think of traveling though. We could just try fishing for a new species right here in Iowa to change things up.

The Iowa DNR does a great job of creating multi-species fishing opportunities. I could target at least a dozen different fish species, all within an hour of my home in West Branch.

I targeted a new fish (new to me anyway) a few years ago and, to my surprise, it is now one of my favorite fish to catch. The fish is the hybrid striper, a.k.a. “wiper.” It is pound for pound one of the hardest fighting fish you will ever catch, not only in Iowa, but anywhere.

It also grows well into double digit trophy weights. Hook into a wiper and you’ll soon be addicted to its rod bending, drag screaming action.

Iowa DNR Biologist, Chris Mack, was kind enough to take some time to chat with me about wipers. Mack has been with the Iowa DNR since 2004. He oversees our Gazette-area lakes and rivers, including the Coralville Reservoir, Lake Macbride and Pleasant Creek.

He actually spends a lot of his free time fishing for wipers himself.

The wiper is a hybrid cross of a white bass and a striper, hence the nickname wiper. Being a hybrid, wipers cannot reproduce naturally, so they must be stocked by the DNR.

Mack says that the stocked fry and fingerlings come from hatcheries in Arkansas. In recent years, the specific cross has been female white bass and male stripers.

This mix has an additional nickname, sunshine bass. That variation is easiest for hatcheries to make. A male white bass and female striper is nicknamed palmetto bass.

White bass are native to Iowa and the state record is 4.7 pounds. Stripers are ocean fish but can live in fresh or saltwater. Stripers are stocked in southern reservoirs, and the Arkansas striper record is 64.5 pounds.

The wiper hybrid can reach well into double digit weights with the Iowa state record being 19.6 pounds (Saylorville Reservoir, 2005).

In 2025, I saw a few wipers over 10 pounds in my boat. I caught one that weighed 13.2 pounds, a guide client caught a 12.6 pounder, and my son caught one that was just shy of 11 pounds. I know of others caught in our area over 15 pounds.

Wipers grow at incredible rates. Mack shared some age to length charts from DNR sampling. Wipers reach almost 14 inches on average at 2 years old, 20 inches at year 4, 23 inches at year 6, and 24 inches at year 8.

Twenty-four inches is the minimum length to qualify for the Iowa DNR Master Angler Award.

These are average lengths, with the samples showing wide variation in lengths of same aged fish. For instance, 6-year-old fish in the sample varied from 19 to 26 inches.

Wipers are also horizontally broad so weights can fluctuate a lot between fish of the same length. From my catches and guide client catches, I’ve seen 25-inch fish weigh anywhere from 6 to 8.5 pounds.

Twenty-seven inches in my experience is where you start seeing 10-pound fish. My 13.2-pound Wiper was nearly 29 inches.

According to Mack’s charts, those 10=pound plus fish would be 10-13 years old. For reference, a 20 inch and 5-pound largemouth bass could take 10-12 years to grow in Iowa lakes. Both largemouth and wipers have a life expectancy of around 13 years.

To identify wipers from a white bass, first look at the stripes. White bass stripes are all straight, while wipers usually have broken sections in the stripes. A foolproof identifier is the tooth patch(es) on their tongues. The white bass has one patch of sandpaper teeth at the back of its tongue. The wiper has two small strips of teeth on its tongue.

Mack says that wipers are primarily stocked for their trophy potential, not for shad population control. He explains it as “utilization more than control,” meaning that wipers are stocked where shad populations are adequate to support an extra predator fish.

Wipers are stocked annually in Pleasant Creek, Lake Macbride, and the Coralville Reservoir but are not stocked in our rivers.

They are, however, found in abundance in our rivers as wipers are drawn to current and some flow out of the outflow into the rivers below. Other Iowa reservoirs like Rathbun, Red Rock and Saylorville see this same migration through their outflows.

The Iowa River and Des Moines River produce giant wipers with these “escapees” from reservoirs. The Iowa River in Iowa City has famously produced 10- and 15-plus-pound fish for shore anglers.

Although the escaped Wipers are good for river fisherman, it brings up a question about how the reservoirs are affected by fish leaving the system. Physical barriers on the outflow tubes are not an option due to the risk of clogging, blocking proper water flow needed for flood mitigation.

Mack said that fish barriers have been researched for 20 or so years by Lake Rathbun biologists. Electronic, light and bubble barriers have been discussed, but a solution has not yet been found.

Coralville likely loses a high percentage of its stocked wipers due to its high amount of flow through the outflow. According to Mack, the water in Rathbun takes, on average, a year to flow from the upper reservoir though the lake and out the overflow. Coralville’s water only takes about 10 days to flow through. That’s a big difference and might explain the better success of wipers in Rathbun vs Coralville.

Stocking fish farther north and away from the dam in Coralville is a new strategy being employed to help limit the escape of new stockings. Lake Macbride has a fence barrier at its overflow which helps keep its larger fish from flowing out.

Fishing for wipers can be easy when a school of them is attacking shad on the surface. Cast topwaters, spoons, or soft plastic baits into the boils to catch aggressive feeders.

Surface activity usually happens in the early morning or evening. When not actively feeding, wipers can be found deeper, either schooled up around structure or suspended somewhere near schools of shad.

For suspended fish, I like to use a jig with a shad imitating plastic or a spoon. Work the bait just above them. Alabama rigs can be good and mimic a school of shad. Remember that Iowa regulations only allow two hooks on an Alabama rig. Match the size of your lure to the predominant size of the shad at that time of year. Live shad dropped vertically below the boat works well too if you can catch shad and keep them alive.

For bottom structure oriented wipers, I like to use a heavier jig head and plastic, working it near the bottom. Jigging raps and blade bait style lures can also work well.

In rivers, look for current seams below a dam. Cast a jig and plastic upstream into the current seam, bringing it back with the current. Active fish will be near the seam feeding, while inactive fish will rest further off the seam in the slack water of an eddy or hole.

To locate lake and reservoir fish, cover water and use your electronics. Trolling crankbaits or Alabama rigs can be a good search method. It’s not my favorite way to fish for them, but it is a good way to cover water while you look for fish.

Once you find a school of wipers, stop and cast, covering the area thoroughly. Wipers tend to feed up by attacking a school of shad from below and pushing them to the surface, so it’s best to keep your bait above the depth that you see wipers or shad on your electronics. Keep an eye out for opportunistic seagulls diving for stunned shad on the surface which will indicate wipers feeding below. Wind can also help you determine where large amounts of shad may be positioned. Wiper rule No. 1 is where there’s shad, there’s wipers.

As for equipment, I will use baitcasting combos for topwaters and trolling, but I use spinning equipment with most everything else. My favorite setup is a 7-foot medium-heavy spinning rod with a 3000-size spinning reel with a good drag system. I use 20-pound braided main line with a 2- to 3-foot leader of 15- to 17-pound fluorocarbon line for its invisibility and abrasion resistance.

The heavy line and strong drag system is important because wipers, pound for pound, will fight as hard as any fish that swims. With their powerful runs, they can bend out hooks and straighten split rings so make sure you have sturdy terminal tackle.

As table fare, they’re no walleye or crappie but they’re still pretty good, especially smaller 2-4 pounders from cool water. The fillets are thick enough to be grilled or cut in strips and fried. They do have a thin layer of red meat next to the skin and down the lateral line which I find best to shave off.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to tangle with some drag pulling Wipers, I really think you should give them a try.

If you’ve already discovered them, good for you. They’re a fantastic fish that we have the Iowa DNR to thank for.

John Hierseman owns and operates a multispecies guide service. Find out more at www.hershfishing.com or his Facebook page @Hersh Fishing.