Barbs and Backlashes

If your ice-fishing season is not over, it soon will be.  At this time, many Nebraska anglers are chomping at the bit to do some open-water fishing.  On the eve of a new open-water fishing “season” many of us like to plan our strategies, pick out new lures we would like to try, think about new techniques we would like to master.  Maybe you have thought about learning how to drop-shot for bass this year, troll lead-core for walleyes, learn …

This has been mentioned before, but I want to bring it up one more time.  I have mentioned our volunteer youth fishing instructors and the great things they accomplish for us many times on my blog.  If you would be interested in becoming one of those instructors and pitching in to help, we could use you and here is a chance for some of your to take the certification workshop:

Wow, it has been one of those mornings for me.  Judging by the “alligators nipping at my behind” this morning there must have been a bunch of folks who had a bad Valentine’s Day.  So, lighten up!  It’s Friday, here is another stupid fishing commercial for you.  Hard-core bass anglers will appreciate this one. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj7BNjC_Dy0[/youtube] If it were only that easy to get Iaconelli to shut up. Have a good weekend, get away from the phones and computers, go outside!

One of my favorite things I get to do in my present position here at the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission is keep track of our state record fish.  I will periodically give updates and show a few pictures here on my blog; at this time let me summarize the state record activity for 2012. We had 14 fish certified as state records in 2012.  We recognize state record fish in four categories, hook & line (or rod & reel), …

There was a brief mention of this in the Omaha World-Herald last week and Nebraska residents, especially those in eastern Nebraska that might trailer boats over to northwest Iowa, need to be aware of this. Zebra mussel collected in Iowa Great Lakes SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa – The Iowa DNR recently collected a single live juvenile zebra mussel from Upper Gar Lake on a sampling plate used to monitor for the presence or absence of zebra mussels. Additional sampling was immediately …

Friday, here is another “lighter side” blog post.  Last Sunday was the Super Bowl and it seems that the viewing of the commercials is almost as much fun as viewing the game.  I have heard a lot of discussion about those commercials this week; might as well add my $0.02-worth. You might guess that the commercial about the cheetah and gazelle caught my eye. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuBwAE14L4c[/youtube] That was “cute”.  I guess. OK, I don’t like it.  Why does the guy tackle …

At no time this winter have I have been completely convinced that we were going to have a long ice-fishing season.  Yes, we have had some cold weather, have had plenty of ice to be safe, but then we have these bouts of warm temperatures.  It has been cold in between thaws, but not cold enough for long enough.  Since I have not been convinced it will last long, the past couple of weeks I have been on the ice …

Just a quick blog post today, a reminder of the Trout Unlimited Nebraska banquet coming up this Saturday evening. If you believe in trout and the habitats in which they are found, and who doesn’t?, plan to be there!  There will be lots of raffle prizes and auction items, and a bunch of folks who like to fish and talk about it!  This is an important fund-raiser for TU Nebraska.  Contact information is listed on the poster or go to …

I am “out” on an adventure, deep in the Nebraska sandhills (i.e. “God’s Country”!).  I will take some time to tell you all about it when I get back.  For now, just a quick post for the weekend. This commercial is extremely corny, stupid. . . . And that is probably exactly why I like it! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JiYjgfp9GM[/youtube] One thing bothers me about that commercial:  Why did that bass shake off a waterdog?????  Maybe there really are no magic baits?  There …

Once again I am going to say something that makes me sound really old:  I have been thinking while on the ice the past couple of weeks that I have been watching a depth-finder dial while ice-fishing for over 20 years now.  Let me tell you that we caught a darned lot of fish through the ice before the fancy depth-finder gadgets were adapted for ice-fishing, and you can still catch fish through the ice without a depth-finder.  But, if …