Tag Archives: Bluegill

I have been blessed to have opportunities to fish with some really good anglers.  Had another couple days on the ice deep in the Nebraska sandhills doing that again this winter. It all started when a buddy let me know he had a legendary ice angler coming down to spend some time chasing big Nebraska bluegills.  He invited me to come out and fish with them.  It took some shuffling of my schedule, but I jumped at the chance.  Who …

Time for my “annual report” on state record fish in the past year.  As with most years there was some state record activity and there were some surprises! Surface Spearfishing  There were no fish entered for surface spearfishing records in 2017. Underwater Spearfishing We had four fish certified as new underwater spearfishing state records in the past year.  The smallest of those was a whopping 1 ounce alewife taken from Lake McConaughy. In September, a 10 ounce shortnose gar was …

Just want to get a quick blog post up today and say that we’ve got ice and our ice-fishing season is “on”! My “New Year’s Day 2018” was deep in the Nebraska sandhills.  I see these news stories about New Year babies and so forth, well here’s mine, first fish of the year! No, it was not a big bass, but it was the first fish of the New Year, it hit shortly after dropping a bait down an ice …

Last winter I told you about a little trip I took to the beautiful Nebraska sandhills; a trip to assist with some filming for a TV fishing show, TV Ice Fishing. Obviously, that filming was done for a couple of ice-fishing episodes for Jason Mitchell Outdoors.  The filming last winter was done for ice-fishing episodes that will be airing this ice season.  Well, they started airing ice-fishing episodes on Jason Mitchell Outdoors a couple of weeks ago, and the second …

I again have a few state record applications to clear off my desk; this is the time of year when they are mostly spear-fishing and bow-fishing records.  Let’s go underwater to start: Underwater Spearfishing Three applications for state record fish taken by underwater spearfishing are in the stack.  All of those fish were taken in July, let me start with the first taken on July 6. . . . Dylan Trauernicht of Gering was doing some diving on a private …

You all know that big fish turn my crank!  The biggest, baddest predator fish swimming in a body of water, “GET ON MY LINE”!  I spend A LOT of time on the water each year trying to do just that.  The thing is when pursuing those biggest, baddest, top-of-the-food-chain, apex predators, there never are a lot of them and there are a lot of hours of effort for each one hooked.  Yep, sometimes a lot of hard fishing in miserable …

I like to post a lot of fish pictures on my blog–I cannot get enough of big fish pictures and I have learned there are a lot of other folks that think the same way.  One other purpose in doing that is to again let folks know that our Nebraska fisheries workers are always busy, always doing something, and our fisheries biologists spend a lot of time in the field handling a lot of fish.  No, we do not necessarily …

I suppose it is not really fair to blog about ice fishing when most waters in Nebraska are pretty much liquid now.  However, even as I write this there might be a place or two in the state where you can still get on the ice and catch some fish. . . just make sure you are very, VERY, careful. Ice Safety Tool Having said that, let me say that I will be on the ice as soon as possible …

A couple of days ago I told you that last week was a busy week, and I told you about one of the things that made it busy–the MidWest Fish & Widlife Conference.  During that conference I took a break to do an orientation session with a couple of our new commissioners here at the Game & Parks Commission, and then I headed out of town to help with another little project. . . . I have referred to some …

I have still been on the ice every chance I get and again have had a chance to roam the state a bit. . . . Yes, ice conditions are variable.  With the stinkin’ mid-winter rains we have had, ice conditions in southeast Nebraska especially have not been nearly as good as many of us would like.  The run-off has softened the ice around shorelines and in some cases other parts of several waters.  In addition, our pits and interstate …