Are you sick of hearing about Lake Monroe wipers?

All of our readers (seriously, both of them) are tired of the same old wiper fishing stories.  They've requested more content devoted to craft beer and recipes.  So, taking those critiques under consideration, I'd like to tell you about the wiper that I caught this morning.

It was almost chilly here, in the low 50s before the sun really crested the horizon.  Being a Monday, most fisherman were behaving themselves and going to work, but I decided to stop at the spillway for a few minutes before heading in myself.

I got the "good" spot between the stairs and the spillway itself, which has access to the rushing water and a relatively calmer but deep pool beside it.  I started by casting around my Goture swimbait, but for once, nothing was chasing it.  With my free time running short, I rummaged through my tackle box trying to figure out what to tie on next.  I almost went for a blade bait, which I actually found at the spillway a few weeks ago, but decided to go with my 3/4-oz bucktail jig instead. 

In a half-dozen casts or less, I hooked into a monster.

I could tell right away that this water donkey was a big one.  It was pulling drag like a mofo (as the kids say), and every time that I reeled it in a bit, it would make another run for the current.  This tug of war went on for a few minutes until I finally got the wiper to the surface.  It was hard to tell how big it was while it was still in the water, but when I got him toward shore, I immediately dropped my net.  There was no way this thing was fitting in my admittedly too-small landing net.  Instead, I hooked him by the gills and hauled him out of the water:

I don't have a fish scale (yet), but this was undoubtedly the biggest wiper I've ever caught.  It had to have weighed more than my 8.25 lb personal best, and it was easily longer than 24 inches.  I briefly considered keeping it just to weigh it at home, but work beckoned, and fish wasn't on the dinner menu this week.  I tossed the behemoth back into the water, halfheartedly cast my bucktail a few more times, and then packed up.

So there you have it, another wiper tale from the crypt.  Don't forget to leave comments below, and follow us on Twitter (@WaterDonkeyAdv1) and Instagram (@H2ODonkeyAdventures)!