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One Down, One to Go!

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?”

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Bring your baby doll if you wish!

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Class in session!

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FLAAAAGGGGGGG!!!!!!  (No, not the big event banner, the tip-up!!!!!)

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“I know you’re down there, BITE!”

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We had a lot of folks come out, I have not heard the official count, but I am guessing over a hundred.  Most of them had never ice-fished before.

Success!

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Way to go, Frank!

Yes, we had some Game & Parks staff there to drill holes and help people fish, but we could not accomplish this workshop or any others without the help of  our volunteer fishing instructors.  Several of them are pictured here, THANK YOU to all!

The workshop wound down at 4:00.  Of course some of us stuck around; here is what we did “after work”. . . .

Fisheries biologist Jordan Katt dried off a pike.  Jordan whooped when he got ’em through the hole.  It was not so much for the size of fish that he had just caught, as it was that pike ate a small, gold, tungsten jig Jordan was jigging for bluegills and crappies.  It was the last gold, tungsten jig Jordan had, and well, tungsten jigs are a bit pricey.  When Jordan saw that he had a pike hooked, he figured he could kiss his last gold, tungsten jig “goodbye”.  But, in the greatest exhibition of ice-fishing skill of the day, Jordan landed the toothy critter on light line with no steel leader and was still fishing his last gold, tungsten jig when it got dark and we walked off the ice.

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I also have to tell you that pike was tagged, #4040 if I remember right.  That was kinda neat because Jordan is the biologist in charge of the pike-tagging at Wanahoo.  He tags ’em, and catches ’em too!

It was a learning experience for me too, I got some hardcore instruction on using a palm reel!

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Rob Greer photo. Thanks, Rob!

I cannot think of any group who did not catch fish at Wanahoo during our clinic Saturday.  Sure there were some on hotter holes than others, but I believe most everyone was persistent enough that they caught at least one fish!

On To Kearney!

We have one more ice-fishing clinic coming this next Saturday in Kearney.  Here are the particulars, Discover Ice-Fishing Clinic.

The Kearney clinic is a little different in that we have a classroom session on Saturday morning followed by getting on the ice and fishing Saturday afternoon.  There is limited space for the classroom session, so make sure to register ahead as specified in the link above.  Our classroom session will be more advanced, beyond beginning ice-fishing, but I will still cover some basics on gear, equipment and ice safety.  The rest of the classroom session will include several other instructors and seriously, these guys are some of the best ice sticks in the state.  You will want to hear what they have to say, and we usually have some deep (pardon the pun) ice-fishing discussions where several of us “chime in”.  I am looking forward to it!

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Oh yes, the fishing will be fun too!

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About daryl bauer

Daryl is a lifelong resident of Nebraska (except for a couple of years spent going to graduate school in South Dakota). He has been employed as a fisheries biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for 25 years, and his current tour of duty is as the fisheries outreach program manager. Daryl loves to share his educational knowledge and is an avid multi-species angler. He holds more than 120 Nebraska Master Angler Awards for 14 different species and holds more than 30 In-Fisherman Master Angler Awards for eight different species. He loves to talk fishing and answer questions about fishing in Nebraska, be sure to check out his blog at outdoornebraska.org.

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