50,000 Hybrid Striped Bass Restocked At Lake Elsinore

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — It's been 15 years since the city last stocked Lake Elsinore with wiper fish. On Wednesday, that drought ended when approximately 50,000 of the young gill-bearing creatures were sent swimming in Southern California's largest freshwater lake.

The Lake Elsinore restocking has been in the making since 2017. Through the city's partnerships with Golden State Bait and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a supplier was finally found — in Arkansas, according to city spokesperson Nicole Dailey.

The sterile wiper is a hybrid between a striped bass and a white bass. Here's what FishExplorer.com has to say about wipers: They are "an aggressive, hard-fighting, punch-packing, schooling fish that love to corral baitfish and attack with vigor. You'll be able to see this 'busting' behavior, which is common to its parent species, the striped and white bass, with baitfish jumping out of the water and wipers splashing."

Wipers are considered low-light fish, meaning they are most often found in the morning, evening and on cloudy days, according to the website.

"Wiper fishing is not, by any means, limited to these times, it's just that they are harder to find when they are not active near the surface," the website reads. "Catching wipers on a fly is a lot of fun and very possible if you are in the right place at the right time."

The newly stocked wipers in Lake Elsinore are about 2-inches long now, but they grow to about 7 pounds in three years — and can be as big as 20 pounds, according to Dailey.

"Good game fish for the angler," she said, noting that the last time a wiper was caught at Lake Elsinore was in 2012.