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Conservation

The Duck Stamp…One Of Our Best Ideas…

Federal Duck Stamps will go on sale today and will be followed by thousands of waterfowl hunters as they pay homage to conservation efforts that have been supporting wildlife for nearly 85 years.   But, like all stories, the facts are worth learning about. As the United States thrust forth into the new century, the trajectory for our Nation’s wildlife was dark.   This large scale loss of flora and fauna was exacerbated by the 1930s with the onslaught of the Great Depression …

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Top Edge

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I used to think that top-water baits were a specialized fishing presentation appropriately used ONLY under the best of conditions:  A warm, calm, sunrise with a few wisps of steam rising off the water?  Sure, there is nothing funner than catching a fish on a top-water bait, but my thinking was that there were usually better ways to catch more and bigger fish.  Throw a top-water bait first thing in the morning and maybe you could get a surface strike …

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‘Reel in’ that discarded fishing line

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As soon as we arrived at the Chadron City Ponds for a short family fishing excursion, our dog Benny’s attention turned to the shoreline. His eyes were fixed on a bird dangling upside down from the rushes. Sadly, just as I suspected, the American robin had become tangled in fishing line. That bird flew off with a dangling leg for an undetermined fate as soon as I clipped the braided line free – a better fate than many of the …

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Rubber Worm Rigs

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If you fish for bass even a little bit, you know how effective rubber worms are and your tackle box likely has 23 different varieties, styles, and sizes in 123 different colors.  You hard-core bass anglers do not need me to tell you how to rig those rubber worms, but on the other hand, there may be some folks reading this that are newer to the fishing game, newer to the bass-fishing game in particular.  Someday I am going to …

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Carp-O-Rama, Branched Oak 2018

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Tomorrow is the day!  Time for the first of our annual carp carnivals! If you want more information on the whole carp fishing game, how about a little Carp Appreciation?! This event will go, rain or shine, the carp don’t care.  I tell folks that when we are holding events like this, we are basically just out there having fun and we hope that you bring the family and have fun with us!

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Twenty Years of Aquatic Habitat Program

A soon-to-be underwater view of the aquatic habitat and angler access improvements underway at Conestoga Reservoir southwest of Lincoln. Excavation, basin sculpting, rock piles and root wads are great for fish, while the new breakwater and ADA piers will be great for fishing. To see drone footage of this project, visit OutdoorNebraska.org/aquatichabitatprogram.

The year of our Lord two thousand and seventeen was a really big year in Nebraska.  Sure there was some little thing called the sesquicentennial, but that is not what made it a big year.  What made 2017 a BIG year was the 20th anniversary of our Aquatic Habitat Program!  It was so big that NEBRASKAland Magazine got around to doing a story about it: Aquatic Habitat Program Celebrates 20 Years To maintain, restore or enhance the capacity of a …

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Catfish ID

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Judging from the messages, e-mails, phone calls, and just general “chatter” I have heard this morning, I can tell you the channel cats are getting close to spawning.  Why do I say that?  Because every year about this time there are a bunch of mistaken identifications of “funny-looking” catfish.  Simply put, male channel cats get fat heads and darker colors during the spawn, and some folks not used to seeing that mistakenly believe those fish are “blue cats”.  So, if …

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KVD for CFO

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I have not made a Friday post on KVD lately, well, he’s up to something again. . . . Seriously, I am not sponsored by anyone, I am not endorsing or “pushing product”, I just think the videos are hilarious.  If you want, check it out, Mystery Tacklebox. It’s the weekend, remember it is supposed to be fun, and GO FISH!

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“Yes, We Have No Muskellunge”

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The internet is a funny place, but you know you can believe everything you see and hear there. . . . Recently, I was admiring some photos and the stories that went along with them about some really nice muskies that had been caught and released.  Yes, I was jealous especially knowing they had been caught from a Nebraska waterbody.  Somewhere in the discussion that followed someone asked, “Which state?”, as in “surely those had to be caught from someplace …

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What Lurks Beneath, June 2018

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It has been awhile since I have teased you with photos of some of the big fish that our field biologists have had their hands on.  Time to change that. . . . We do a lot of our fish population sampling in the fall, but there is also some that is done in the spring and summer.  Again let me say that when pointy-headed fisheries biologists are sampling fish they are NOT just trying to catch the biggest ones, …

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