Tag Archives: Fishing skills

All of us who love to fish have a story or two about the one that got away, don’t we? Invariably, the tale involves hooking the fish of a lifetime and losing it to unforeseen circumstances or mistakes. Trust me, I have made my share of mistakes when it comes to large, prized game fish. Your blogger mishandling a nice-sized channel catfish. Photo by Rich Berggren/Conservation Officer with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Without question, these stories, however embellished, …

All of my channels of communication have exploded this week with fishing reports and fish pictures.  In short, right now, do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200,  GO FISH!!!!  I always say that May and June are the best two months for open-water fishing in Nebraska, whatever species, whatever water.  GO FISH! Do not wait for someone to give you a report, do not ask if the fish are biting–they are! If you cannot decide where to go, pick …

Today is the first of May.  Let me post this as a reminder: Another season of family fun scheduled with Community Fishing Events Join the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for another spring and summer of fun with Community Fishing Events. Community Fishing Events provide opportunities for people of all ages who have never fished or have not fished in years to learn and enjoy the activity. Rods and reels, as well as bait and fishing instruction, will be available …

I am assuming that most of you reading my blog are serious about your fishing.  I am.  If you are like me you devour any and all information you can find on fishing, how-to, techniques, gear, thinking, theory, biology, limnology, etc., etc.  There are a lot of things I read, watch and listen to.  Yes, I subscribe to a whole list of YouTube pages. On one of those subscriptions, I recently came across a series of videos about being a …

A week ago I blogged about a favorite discussion topic among anglers–lure or bait color.  Actually, I did not blog about it so much as stole my buddy, Greg Wagner’s blog post on the subject.  That topic generates a lot of interest among anglers.  I have blogged about it before. That got me thinking.  I will always tell you that you should worry about a lot of presentation variables before you worry about color.  Anglers tend to jump to color …

March can be a bit of a “‘tweener time”.  You know, the ice is too thin to walk on, but too thick to cast into.  The water may be liquid, but the weather is bad.  As a result, some of us sit and stare at our tackle boxes.  Or, we make a trip to our favorite tackle shop, walk the aisles and drop some $$$$$.  While doing that, I know what goes through your mind, “Wow, that looks like a …

I am not done ice fishing, yet.  Oh sure, I know parts of Nebraska have open water now.  I also know that other parts of Nebraska still have plenty of ice.  As long as I can find ice, I am going to take advantage of it.  “Stay tuned”. But, yes, this is definitely “tweener” time, in many places the ice is too thin to walk on, but too thick to cast through.  What do I blog about at a time …

Yep, I have still been on the ice, have been on it as much as possible.  I will give you a quick report of what I have been catching. . . . I have been out in different parts of the state a couple of times.  Spent a couple hours one evening on a spot, and managed one of these! Then of course, I could only catch one.  Walleyes through the ice can be frustrating.  I would tell you that …

I had something happen on the ice last week that I want to tell you about. . . . You better believe I religiously ice-fish with a depth-finder in my hole just like every other hard-core ice angler these days.  No, I have not jumped into the forward-facing sonar pool yet, but the Vexilar gets turned on before I drop the first bait down the first hole and it gets turned off just before I walk off the ice.  That …

Quick blog post today; just want to give a little report on what I have been seeing on the ice.  Yes, ice fishing 2023 has been good, have been on the ice quite a bit so far this season.  Mostly I have been fishing small waters, pits and ponds.  There is no real reason for that, no real strategy.  It has just worked out that those are the waters I have fished the most.  Actually, my new year did start …