By Daryl Bauer, Fisheries Outreach Program Manager
To tell you the truth, you are late. . . . By last fall, I was already taking advantage of every opportunity I could to fish Lake Ogallala and the associated canal and river for trout. Following a renovation a year before that, the trout fishery there once again has rebounded quickly. Quality fish were there to be caught, both rainbows and cutbows!
The fishing has only gotten better since then.
Now, we are not talking about the usual 10-12-inch “catchable” trout that are stocked spring and fall in waters across Nebraska. Yes, we stock those same trout in Lake Ogallala, but that fishery then supports them year-around. Like tailwater fisheries every where, it is extremely productive and trout stocked there grow at rates up to and over an inch per month! Right now, there are lots of quality trout there to be caught, fish well in excess of twenty inches!
If you want to go drift ‘crawlers, that presentation will catch a lot of trout there. However, if you have ever caught trout on ‘crawlers, you know they immediately swallow them. With a daily limit of no more than one rainbow or cutbow larger than 16 inches on the lake and river, you WILL be releasing fish. So, let me suggest other presentations that will catch just as many fish, and most days even more. Best of all, you will be much more likely to release those fish in good condition.
These presentations work there, guaranteed:
Cannot finish without mentioning that fly fishing and fly patterns are also very effective on Lake Ogallala, the canal and river. In fact, I have seen days where worms would not work and very specific fly patterns were the ONLY thing that would catch fish.
Between Lake Ogallala itself, the canal, and river downstream, a person can catch trout twelve months out of the year. The trick is figuring out what they want to eat!