Fishing

Outdoor writers, wild game cookbook authors – Jenny Nguyen and Rick Wheatley of rural western Douglas County, NE – pay a visit to Saturday Morning’s Great Outdoor Radio Show to talk about their new, hit wild game cookbook – Hunting for Food. This isn’t your typical, run-of-the-mill wild game cookbook, it’s different. Amazon writes: “Hunting for Food is a practical field guide that will teach new and experienced outdoor enthusiasts how to hunt, fish, clean and cook delicious, hearty meals of wild game. Learn …

There is no question that the question of the day recently has been “When are the trout going to be stocked?”  I always tell folks that we have to wait until the water cools to stock those catchable-size rainbow trout, a cold-water fish, in parks and urban waters around the state.  That happens every fall in October, pretty much the same time from year to year. We cannot tell people when and where until we know.  These fish come from …

Here is the fall edition of our youth fishing instructor newsletter: If you want to see a little “cleaner” copy, and follow the links, Fish Tales, Fall 2015. Again, I know that many have already seen this newsletter, especially those who are already certified Nebraska youth fishing instructors.  I always try to post the newsletters here to my blog hoping that it might prompt more of you to get involved.  Here is your chance! Become a Certified Youth Fishing Instructor Oct. …

By the time you are reading this, I will be somewhere in the Bessey National Forest helping with this year’s main Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BO-W) workshop.  By my count, this will be the nineteenth year I have helped with that program.  This video will give you an idea of what happens over the weekend.  We have a lot of fun and learn a thing or three in the process! If you are a lady and you are reading this, sorry, …

Get a bunch of hard-core anglers together and pretty soon there will be a discussion on the best times to fish.  I will always tell you the best time to go fishing is whenever you have time, but you will find a diversity of opinions on the subject.  It is an important question because fish spend much of their time inactive, conserving energy.  In some cases they may be actively feeding for only a small percentage of time each day or …

A couple of weeks ago I shared a story with you about a largemouth bass caught recently by the son of one of my co-workers, It Is a Fish Eat Rat World.  That fish had consumed a kangaroo rat not long before being caught.  Recently, there has been another picture making the rounds on the internet, I was pointed to it on the Ice Team FaceBook page. This time the fish was another top-of-the-food-chain, apex predator, and one of my favorite fish, …

In recent months I have highlighted at least a couple of national publications or organizations that have mentioned some of the excellent fishing opportunities we have in Nebraska (e.g. McConaughy Makes Top 10!, Nebraska Waters Make Top 100!).  I was surfing the web recently and found another one! 10 Top Trophy Bluegill Destinations That title caught my eye, and I had to read the entire article.  If you are talking trophy bluegills, fish that honest-to-goodness weigh in excess of 1 …

My blog is all about the fish most of the time.  As such you can count on my calling attention to the current issue of NEBRASKAland magazine and the picture of a cutthroat trout on the front! The cover refers to an excellent story on the inside–Justin Haag’s Pine Ridge Streaming.  Be sure to check it out on pages 52-57!  Justin’s story highlights some of the trout fishing opportunities that can be found in Nebraska’s great Pine Ridge region.  In addition …

The weather has been relatively hot in Nebraska the past couple of weeks, but the calendar says it is fall.  The calendar is not wrong.  The fall bite has started and I have been trying to spend as much time on the water as possible the past several weeks.  Some evenings, as I stand in the water waiting for a big fish, my mind wanders back to autumns past, of fish caught and memories made. I guess I am old enough …

Time for a state record update.  This is the time of year when we see the most activity in the spear-fishing and bowfishing state record categories.  I have a few bowfishing updates to share with you. . . . Hybrid Sunfish The first one is a hybrid sunfish, a green sunfish X bluegill hybrid that was taken on July 1 by Zachary Welch of Ainsworth.  Zachary found his 14.4 ounce, 10-inch hybrid sunfish in a private sandpit in Brown County. …