Barbs and Backlashes

Just want to post up a few pictures from our ice-fishing clinic at Yanney Park in Kearney last Saturday.  We had a great time! The Kearney ice clinic is a little bit different in that we do a classroom session in the morning.  The Environmental Resource Center Building there right beside the pit makes a great setting for the classroom session and we had 60-some people packed in there.  Don Cox, Andrew Svoboda, Rob Greer and myself rambled about a …

I want to call to your attention to another fishing article in NEBRASKAland magazine.  The January-February 2017 issue is available on-line right now, and in it you will find an excellent article by Ryan Sparks on learning to fly-fish.  The title is Wading In, check it out! Unfortunately, many people equate fly-fishing with trout fishing.  The first thing I always say about fly-fishing is that it ain’t just for trout!  In fact, if you wish, and some fly-anglers do, you …

You would think as long as I have been ice-fishing, some lessons would have been learned a long time ago.  Yes, that should be true, but sometimes I am a little dense.  How many fish have you lost at the hole?  If you have been on the ice for awhile, I am betting more than one. It happened to me already this ice season; hooked a nice largemouth bass, I am guessing 18-inches plus, spent some time playing it, finally got …

Had a great ice fishing clinic at Lake Wanahoo this past Saturday.  If you were not there, you missed a beautiful day on the ice, and you missed catching fish! “Hey, what’s that banner doing out on the ice?” Bring your baby doll if you wish! Class in session! FLAAAAGGGGGGG!!!!!!  (No, not the big event banner, the tip-up!!!!!) “I know you’re down there, BITE!” We had a lot of folks come out, I have not heard the official count, but …

It is Friday and we have ice!  Whatcha doing this weekend? If you don’t understand that memey thing I stole from the interwebs, you need to come out to our Ice Fishing Workshop at Lake Wanahoo tomorrow and I will explain it to you! “Hellllloooooo!”

We are nearing the middle of January, and I just realized I have not blogged about any of my ice-fishing adventures, yet. . . . Hmm, let me think, I have been on the ice nearing a dozen times now, have been on waters from the central and west-central parts of the state to the southeast.  I will not tell you that my partners and I have dried off any exceptional fish so far, and perhaps that is why I …

Just this morning I had a gentleman ask me questions about getting started ice-fishing.  I had an easy answer for him!  Attend one of our Discover Ice Fishing Clinics! The first of those for this winter is scheduled for this coming Saturday, Jan. 14, at Lake Wanahoo just north of the town of Wahoo.  We will “set up shop” there at the main boat ramp on the west side of the reservoir and will be there from 1:00 p.m. to …

If you read the title to this blog, I hope your answer is “spending some time on the ice”!  Assuming you have some safe ice to fish on, that is exactly what I would tell you to do!  However, if you are bouncing around the Omaha area this Saturday, perhaps cashing in some of those holiday gift cards, you might want to swing by here: If you do, stop by and tell me an ice-fishing story, ask some questions, show me …

I want to get a blog post about this up right away. . . . You can now see the 2017 Fishing Guide. The “hard copy” versions will be delivered early next week and we will get them distributed around the state ASAP!  If you are worried about not seeing the 2017 Fishing Guide yet, about not having a hard copy to take fishing with you, I can tell you that there are NO fishing regulation changes for this year. …

The equipment advances on the ice-fishing front in the past decade or two have literally been mind-boggling.  There is so much modern ice-fishing equipment available now that makes it a lot easier to ice-fish and makes us a lot more effective catching fish through the ice.  It all works, they are all different tools for different jobs, the key is using the right tools. A variety of small jigs have been the standard for catching panfish through the ice for …