Tag Archives: Fishing skills

You have probably heard it said that 10% of the water contains 90% of the fish.  I do not know about the exact percentages, but on any given day it is certainly true that there will be a whole lot of water that simply does not contain the fish you want to catch.  You cannot catch ’em where they ain’t.  Successful fishing involves the ability to eliminate unproductive water and find fish, and the best anglers do that well. How?  …

I have been a fisherman all my life.  Have worked as a professional fisheries biologist for 30-some years now.  I have spent a lot of time on the water, and an awful lot of time observing anglers.  I have come to a conclusion:  By far, most anglers are sheep! What do I mean by that? I mean that most anglers follow the herd. If you have launched on one of our most popular fisheries and found a pack of boats …

You likely have heard my philosophy about when to fish:  The best time is whenever you have time, every time you have time.  In practice that means I have a lot of fishing trips that last a couple, three hours, I fit them in whenever I can. Ideally, those short trips are made at prime times.  I would rather spend a few hours fishing during the right time than lots of hours at the wrong time, but sometimes you just …

I will always tell you that May and June are two of the best months to fish open water in Nebraska.  It does not make any difference what species of fish you want to catch, what waterbodies you want to fish, during May and June, “do not pass “GO”, do not collect $200″ just GO FISH! If you look at your calendar right now, you will note that we have entered the last half of June, 2019.  As we progress …

Did a little video for FaceBook yesterday.  Might as well make a quick blog post out of it too! https://www.facebook.com/NEGameandParks/videos/680755042345942/ Weather has been great this week, and so have the fishing reports!  GO FISH!

Found this posted on the PK Lures FaceBook page.  This is about the worst job you can do netting a fish! https://www.facebook.com/pklures/videos/353282555291314/ That is why everyone needs a good net man! Keep the net out of the water until the fish is ready, don’t rush it. Hold the net in the water and lead the fish into the net, HEAD FIRST! Then and only then, reach and scoop with the net, get the head in as far as possible before …

There is no doubt spring is the most popular time of year for fishing.  Everyone thinks they are an angler in spring (or at least everyone should think that!).  The spring fever runs high and folks just cannot wait to get on the water and catch some fish.  Problem is with relatively cold water temperatures, the bite can be tougher than hoped for. Walleyes are the fish most preferred by Nebraska anglers, and as a cool-water fish they can be …

I was out and about a little bit at the end of last week.  No, I do not have any fish to show; did note some turkeys in a few places. I drove by several bodies of water and here in southeast Nebraska the water clarity in almost all of our reservoirs is still relatively dirty.  Early in the spring every year I note that the first open water of the year is a tough bite because the water is …

When doing seminars and workshops about Nebraska fishing I often note that we have no closed season for fishing in the state, and that I will spend at least some time fishing every month of the year.  An ideal autumn is one where I go from late fall, open-water fishing to first ice, ice-fishing in just a couple of weeks.  Likewise, I ride late ice as long as I can, as long as it is safe, and ideally transition to …

A few weeks ago I blogged about my adventures on the ice and according to the calendar I titled it a “mid-winter ice report”.  Well, you all know what the weather has been like since then, and even though the calendar says it is the end of February, all the snow and slush on the ice tells me we now are in mid-winter. Certainly our weather and ice conditions have been what we usually see in mid-winter, but I still …