Barbs and Backlashes

Heading north again to meet with my friends in the Siouxland Fly Fishing Club.  They meet every month at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center on the edge of Sioux City.  If I remember right, they get together to do a little fly-tying at 9:00 a.m., meeting starts at 10:00, and I will start rambling some time shortly after that.  This time I have a program on the role of fish stocking in fisheries management to share with them. Once again …

I do not think I am that old, but I suppose I am old enough that this old dog has new tricks, new technology, to learn about.  I was forced to upgrade to a “smart” phone a few weeks ago, still learning how to use that.  Thank goodness I have kids that can teach me! Gonna branch out and try something else new tomorrow.  I am going live on FaceBook! Yep, tomorrow, June 22, 12:00 noon, central time, FaceBook Live …

I always say that every body of water in Nebraska is a vital resource and is important to Nebraska anglers.  Most of our rivers and streams are warm-water, prairie rivers and streams; they may not have trout and salmon swimming up and down them, but they do have a variety of fish species and are important resources.  Surprisingly, fish in some of those warm-water rivers and streams have some of the same challenges that folks are more commonly aware of …

A few weeks ago I stumbled across this headline:  “Sociable crayfish get drunk more easily than loners”.  OK. . . . WAIT, WHOA, Say what????? Drunk crayfish? No, seriously, you can read all about it HERE. Apparently, some very pointy-headed scientists have been studying the nervous systems of crayfish and how they react to various stimuli.  Some of those reactions vary depending on the social status of the crayfish, friendly or curmudgeon.  You can read the article if you really …

You all know that big fish turn my crank!  The biggest, baddest predator fish swimming in a body of water, “GET ON MY LINE”!  I spend A LOT of time on the water each year trying to do just that.  The thing is when pursuing those biggest, baddest, top-of-the-food-chain, apex predators, there never are a lot of them and there are a lot of hours of effort for each one hooked.  Yep, sometimes a lot of hard fishing in miserable …

Twin Lakes south of Bassett have been a couple of very productive and popular sandhill lakes over the years.  I just want to point out that there are some improvements coming to those fisheries! Boat ramp improvements planned at Twin Lakes WMA LINCOLN, Neb. – Angler access improvements are planned this summer at Twin Lakes Wildlife Management Area in north-central Nebraska. New boat ramp facilities will be built at both north and south Twin lakes. South Twin will have an …

Lately, I have been seeing this commercial on TV a lot. I love it! “This is my participation trophy”! It is summer, it is the weekend, you know what I am going to say, “Grab the kids and GO FISH”!  You will never regret one second of the time you spend together on the water, and you never know what you might catch, what memories you will make!

Once again I want to give you an update on the sampling activities of our Game & Parks Commission fisheries biologists and give you an idea of some of the fish they are seeing out there! You know my usual disclaimer, when fisheries biologists are sampling fish we do NOT necessarily go out and just try to collect the biggest fish.  Anglers as a group will see more big fish, and often the biggest fish because anglers target big fish. …

This blog post is going to be a real easy one for me, I am simply going to tell you to follow a link and read another blog post done by one of my Game & Parks Commission co-workers.  Recently, Justin Haag was able to tag along with a couple of our fisheries biologists in western Nebraska while they horse-backed into one of our most remote, and unique, fisheries to do some sampling.  Justin blogged about it here, Fisheries Work …

I have been hearing some “chatter” in a variety of places about the handling of black bass, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, especially concerning the way they are held.  I want to chime in with some comments: First of all, black bass conveniently have relatively large mouths, large enough that an angler can grip those fish by the bottom lip.  Yes, they have teeth, but those teeth are nothing more than very rough abrasive paper.  You know the grip I …