Fishing

I don’t believe I’m the only one who feels the winter of 2013-14 is dragging on unnecessarily. With that statement, you might assume I’m not much of an ice fisherman, and you would assume correctly. I know the recent record lows had some ice heads real excited, so I joined them and took the opportunity to travel with some friends in search of fish. We ventured out to western Nebraska and fished areas that none of us had ever seen before. …

I actually knew about this the day after the fish was caught, but I was heading out of town the next day, and was waiting to hear how the anglers involved wanted to handle it.  I knew by the time I got back to the office this would be all over the internet and many have already heard about it.  But others of you have not, and I want to blog about it! Last week we had what was potentially …

“Take Me Fishing” is running a promotional sweepstakes right now on the best family fishing spots in the country. Nebraska has four waters entered in the sweepstakes and I believe a person can vote on multiple days.  Sign up, vote for your favorite Nebraska waters, have a chance to win a fishing trip! Oh, and do not forget to gather the family and GO FISH!

Unless you literally live under a rock, you have noticed that we have had a lot of wind lately.  That is an understatement.  I am not going to say “it has never been this windy before” or “I never remember it being this windy” because I believe such statements are usually wrong.  It seems like anything that happened more than 5 years ago is considered ancient history anymore and does not count.  We all know that the Great Plains in …

Our Fisheries Division here at the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission received some national recognition recently and I want to tell you about it.  Here is our news release: Game and Parks’ Fisheries staff was recognized by the Fisheries Administration Section (FAS) of the American Fisheries Society for incorporating fish and angler-friendly features into new reservoirs being constructed by Natural Resources Districts. The FAS annually selects the nation’s outstanding Sport Fish Restoration Program-funded projects in three categories: Management, Research, and …

One of my favorite sounds is the “booming” that ice sometimes makes.  I tried recording those sounds last winter: DSCN0001 I did not do a very good job, you can hear more of the sounds of my depth-finder and the crunching of my ice-creepers, two other favorite sounds by the way, but if you listen close, you can hear what sounds like doors being slammed and that was the sound of the ice that day. Recently I got a better …

Got a hardcore fishing, ice-fishing blog post for today.  Let me share some thoughts that have been rattling around inside my head while on the ice the past couple of seasons. If you want, there is some theme music to go with this post, click on it, start the music, read my post.  Multi-media! All baits and lures ever invented will catch fish when used in the right place at the right time.  The trick is working through all the …

The growing outdoor sport of ice fishing will be featured on my Weekly Outdoor Report airing on Omaha’s WOWT 6 News Thursday night LIVE during sports on the 6 p.m. CST newscast with Ross Jernstrom. See video of action on the ice at the Mahoney State Park CenturyLink Lake while I provide some quick tips and reminders for you ice anglers with a focus on ice conditions and safety for beginners. Fish caught through the ice are absolutely delicious! Tune in …

I suspect that some of you have already heard about this fish, but just in case you have not. . . . First of all, you should know that the Omaha World Herald has a new outdoor webpage, gooutdoorsne.com .  We, the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, have partnered with the World Herald on that page.  You will find a ton of outdoors, hunting and fishing, “stuff” there and if you have not checked it out yet, you need to.  Look …

It has come to my attention that various sites in the cybersphere are reporting that Nebraska has a law on the books prohibiting the capture of whales by fishing, Stupid Laws, Nebraska. Oh really? Try as I might, I cannot cite you “chapter and verse” where that law is in writing.  You know, “Chapter 66.4, page 32, column A, section C14, paragraph 12, line 7 of the Nebraska Legislative Code, 1867, states that no members of the Order Cetacea may …