I know many Nebraska anglers have been eagerly awaiting the re-opening of Burchard Reservoir.  Here is some news, and a date on that re-opening, BUT READ CAREFULLY.  There is both good news and “bad news” in this announcement; make sure you know what it all means. Burchard WMA to open to access July 1st Burchard Wildlife Management Area will be opened to limited public access beginning July 1, 2013.  An aquatic habitat rehabilitation project was completed earlier this year on …

Sunday is Father’s Day.  In honor of that, let me share some memories and old photos. I was rummaging through some boxes and albums of photos and found this one of my Dad and me. That is a picture of the two of us holding Master Angler smallmouth bass.  The fish I was holding was my first Master Angler fish, 3 pounds 7 ounces, caught on July 22, 1972 from Merritt Reservoir.  It bit on a nightcrawler fished on the …

I slipped out of the office one day last week and helped some of our field biologists do some flathead catfish collecting at Branched Oak Reservoir. Got your attention now? I have blogged about this fisheries project at Branched Oak before and am not going to repeat all of that again here.  What I would like to do in this blog post is share some of the things that have been learned about those big, beautiful flatties in Branched Oak. …

I have a couple of quick updates about some of Nebraskan’s favorite fishing spots to share with you. . . . Burchard First of all, read this closely, Burchard is NOT OPEN, yet.  For the past several weeks that has been, by far, the most frequent question I and my co-workers have been asked.  That is OK, I am glad people want to know! We are still waiting on water levels at Burchard to rise.  Yes, we have had significant …

OK, if you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that I have a warped sense of humor.  You know that I watch fishing shows on TV just so I can laugh at the commercials.  And, you know that on Fridays, I sometimes share some of my stupid humor in my blog.  You can imagine my delight when I found a whole video of bloopers of Bass Pro Shops fishing commercials! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS6f890sJCQ[/youtube] Have a good weekend, get outdoors, …

A couple of months ago I warned that I would be “out of the office” as much as possible.  Well, I have been; have enjoyed this spring immensely.  In fact I have enjoyed it so much that I have not given a fishing report recently.  Time to get caught up. . . . Lewis & Clark To start, I have to go back a couple weeks, back before the Memorial Day holiday.  Some of the Nebraska Walleye Association folks, http://www.nebraskawalleye.com/ …

I was thrilled to look at the front page of the Omaha World-Herald last Friday and see this story, http://www.omaha.com/article/20130531/NEWS/705319908/1016#volunteers-keep-nebraska-trout-stream-the-perfect-spot-to-spawn .  I would post a copy here, but I am sure the World-Herald would rather have you go to their website and read it.  Doooo it! While you are at it, make sure to check out Nebraska Trout Unlimited’s website: http://www.tu710.org/home/ They have a great series of photos of the work they are doing on the East Branch of Verdigre …

Got a video I have to share with you this Friday; take 5 minutes or so to watch it.  You will not be sorry. As soon as you see the beginning, I know what you are going to think:  “Hey, that ain’t Nebraska”. Yeah, whatever.  I have been to the place shown in the video; it is beautiful and the fishing is unbelievable. But, that ain’t why I have to share this video.  No, listen to the young lady that …

Let me again refer back to our current fishing promotion and commercial for this blog post. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IohDx0fuqxQ[/youtube] We kicked around a lot of ideas for that promotion and settled on the “It’s Never JUST Fishing” theme.  That theme means a lot of different things to hard-core anglers.  One meaning that many of us thought of was all the logistics and preparations that go into a fishing trip–getting the boat ready to go, putting new line on reels, finding bait and …

One of the most enjoyable things I get to do in my job is meet a lot of outstanding anglers and outstanding people.  One that I originally crossed paths many years ago is Teeg Stouffer, the founder of an organization called Recycled Fish, http://www.recycledfish.org/index.htm .  Teeg is one of those folks who seems to have boundless energy and enthusiasm, you know the kind of guy who has caffeine coursing through his veins.  His energy and passion is infectious and you …