Conservation

Trash. A large amount and variety of trash. Plastic bottles. Plastic grocery bags. Fishing bait containers. Spent fishing line. Cigarette butts. Banana peels. Food wrappers. Diapers. Broken lawn chairs. Old tires. Now, add single-use face coverings and rubber gloves plus empty hand sanitizer containers. Whew! The list of trash items seems endless. So many people are visiting outdoor places and spaces during the current COVID-19 pandemic. In Nebraska, fishing and state park permit sales are up. Float trip outfitters report …

Several small news items I want to call attention to today.  These are not necessarily a big deal, but they do involve fisheries resources and fishing access.  So, many of you will want to know.  Let me just copy and paste the news releases here: This one likely will be true only for today: Calamus’ Buckshot Bay ramp to temporarily close July 13 LINCOLN, Neb. – The Buckshot Bay boat ramp at Calamus State Recreation Area near Burwell will be …

LINCOLN, Neb. — The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission recently received a $250,000 award from the Nebraska Environmental Trust to help landowners complete grassland habitat improvements on 45,000 acres of private lands across Nebraska. Game and Parks and Pheasants Forever will co-lead the project known as the Grassland Enhancement Initiative, which will help landowners implement prescribed fire, tree removal, herbicide application, disking, grazing, or herbaceous seeding, among other habitat improvement practices. In doing so, the initiative will counter threats to …

Seems like I have heard a lot of complaints about the wind blowing this year.  No, not talking about some of our recent storm events; just complaints about the wind always blowing.  I even saw a TV weather geek put up a chart to prove that June was windier than “normal”. What in the world is “normal” in Nebraska? I will tell you, “normal” is the average of the extremes! Complain about the wind blowing?  Sure it does, this is …

Like all anglers, I love big fish.  The bigger the better.  Big, bad, predator fish turn my crank. But, I also love the variety.  In fact I spend at least some time every year just tossing a small “bobber” and catching some sunfish. Does watching a bobber go under ever get old?  Or maybe I should ask, are you ever too old to not get excited seeing a bobber go down?  If you do, then you should quit fishing. Now, …

Quick blog post before I head out the door for a long Independence Day holiday!  The “4th of July” has always been one of our favorite holidays, if not THE favorite.  We love the time spent with family, the feasting, fun, and, of course fireworks.  We usually slip away for some fishing too! I have shared this quote before, from our country’s second president, John Adams.  Seems particularly meaningful to me this year: The Second Day of July 1776, will …

The July issue of Nebraskaland has a story about some of the improvements that have been done recently at Lake McConaughy and Lake Ogallala (Lake McConaughy Recreation Area, Big Changes at the Big Lake).  Let me focus more specifically on some of the angler access improvements done at Lake Ogallala.  Beside the Nebraskaland story, let me share some photos and details.  First, the photos: Colby Johnson is our regional park superintendent out in those parts, and he sent me most of …

I usually have an idea of what I am going to blog about for the next week or two.  But, what good would blogging be if you did not post the “hottest”, most recent, breaking information? Most of you know that we have had a couple of notable state record fish caught in Nebraska the past two weeks.  First it was a big flathead catfish, then a big hybrid striped bass.  I was joking with my supervisor yesterday that fishing …

Beauty or beast, this woodpecker has an eye-catching appearance Aerial proficiency to swoop and snatch prey from the sky. Symmetrically arranged talons for clinging to vertical surfaces and a chiseled beak that hammers hardwood surfaces at 1,000 times the force of gravity. A long barbed tongue, three times as long as that self-sharpening dagger-like bill, for retrieving victims from deep within a crevice. All that, and a fiery red head. If readers were to consider that description alone, they might …

With all the cornonavirus “stuff”, I have not been able to spend any time meeting with any of Nebraska’s angler groups.  I do not get around to every meeting for every group, but usually drop in on at least a few.  However, this spring the Cornhusker Fly Fishers have done a couple of FaceBook Live meetings, and I was able to drop in on them. Last week the topic of discussion was bass.  Yes, specifically that would have been bass …