Nebraskaland Magazine

It’s autumn. It’s heavy sweatshirt weather. It’s the season for football and pumpkin-spiced everything. And, it’s time to pick pumpkins and harvest the last of the tender crops from your vegetable garden. But, did you know that beyond the pumpkins and the squash, fall marks the time of year for gathering and preparing tasty fare from wild places? Sure does. The landscape that surrounds us in Nebraska is actually more lush with wild edible material during autumn than you would …

The scenery alone is worth a trip to this spot in the Pine Ridge. Don’t forget the fishing rod, though. Story and photos by Justin Haag Without knowing better, the name might lead some to assume Sowbelly Creek is a stream of manure oozing from a pig farm. Far from it. The clear, babbling brook between rugged sandstone buttes in Sioux County represents the best attributes of northwestern Nebraska’s Pine Ridge. If it were not located in one of the …

Going to post a video for the Friday/weekend blog post this week.  Nope, the video has nothing to do with Nebraska.  It does have everything to do with fishing, the fishing lifestyle and fishing culture.  I liked it, take a few minutes and watch, you might like it too. . . . Now, it is the weekend.  Hope you get a chance to get out there and practice it!  If you get really good, and are a glutton for punishment, …

October marks the beginning of the waterfowl migration to their wintering grounds. By Olivia DaRugna, Watchable Wildlife Biologist October marks the start of migration for many waterfowl species as they make their way back to wintering grounds. At the start of migration, it’s a trickle of just a few individuals here and there, but as the month progresses, that trickle turns into a stream of ducks landing on water bodies throughout the state, typically swelling into large aggregations as winter …

There has not been a lot of activity on the state record fish front.  However, I do have a couple of new state records to tell you about. . . . Rod & Reel Chronologically, the first to mention would be a silver carp caught on June 17.  Keith Bader from Bellevue caught this 37 pound 6 ounce silver carp from a private sandpit in Cass county.  The fish was about 41 inches long and was caught on a spinner. …

Just got word about current access to a couple of waterbodies.  I know it is fall and many of you will not care, but again, if you are still fishing these waters, you will want to know: Cottonwood-Steverson WMA boat ramp to close for repairs The boat ramp at Cottonwood-Steverson Wildlife Management Area, located north of Hyannis in Cherry County, will close temporarily starting Oct. 2 so repairs to the boat ramp may begin. There has been significant undermining, settlement, …

Booo! … It’s the month when Halloween festivities and candy are aplenty. It’s the month when combines dot the rural landscape for the crop harvest. It is the month when the smell of wood smoke from fireplaces and backyard fire pits permeates the air. And, it’s the month when leaves turn color here in the Cornhusker State. Eastern cottonwood tree leaves beginning to turn their pretty yellow color along the Platte River near Gretna, NE. Photo by Greg Wagner/Nebraska Game …

My wife and I spent some time hanging out at a busy boat ramp on a recent weekend.  I have always said you can see a lot of funny things at a busy boat ramp: No, we did not see any one quite that proficient.  We did see a few folks that really knew what they were doing. Also saw a few that did not have a clue. By the way, the more sparkly the boat and the nicer the …

You may recall a couple of my previous blog posts about hybrid fish, Hybrids, Hybrids, More Sunfish.  My intent with those posts was to call attention to some of the interesting fish you likely will encounter in Nebraska waters.  In addition I hoped to point out some tips on fish identification. You may have noticed the “theme” in those previous blog posts being hybrids of the sunfish family, Centrarchidae.  More specifically I blogged about hybrids within the genus Lepomis which …

Botanist Gerry Steinauer shares photos taken of a fall day near the central Niobrara River. Photos and story by Gerry Steinauer, Botanist In an early October day last year, dawn arrived cool and crisp on the central Niobrara River. Although the sun was still below the horizon, its rays painted the eastern sky a light blue and the scattered clouds muted reds and purples. When the orb peaked above the skyline, the bluff tops were first to be illuminated, then …