Tag Archives: Ice Fishing

Long range forecasting of the weather is filled with uncertainty, so I will not pretend to know how soon it is going to start getting cold.  The calendar is soon to read “December” and chances are there is some cold weather in our future, but how soon we will have enough ice for ice-fishing is anyone’s guess.  In Nebraska “normal” is the average of the extremes, and I have been on the ice as early as Thanksgiving.  However, most years …

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 …

Recently I got “tagged” on FaceBook with a picture of a channel catfish that had been caught through the ice. The fish was a little over 5 pounds, a very respectable channel cat, especially through an ice hole, but the big surprise came at the cleaning table when the stomach contents were examined: Look close, it has been digested a bit, but laying just in front of the catfish’s head is a bullfrog that came out of that fish’s stomach! …

I have a hard time convincing ice anglers nowadays that there actually was a time when we caught fish through the ice WITHOUT A DEPTH-FINDER!  Certainly, many of the “millennials” or “Generation Z-ers” or whatever, cannot even imagine being on the ice without that technology.  But, as the Sonic commercial jokes, some of us are “perennials”–thought we were dead, but we just keep coming back–and we can remember when we caught fish, lots of fish, through the ice while fishing …

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 …

At our ice-fishing clinic in Kearney last Saturday, during the classroom session, someone asked a question about the size of ice holes allowed in Nebraska, and what size ice auger a person should have.  Mostly for safety reasons, the largest diameter ice hole allowed on Nebraska public waters is 10 inches. While answering the question about what size of auger an ice angler should invest in, I started with one of my favorite answers, “It depends”.  There are more ice …

You would think as long as I have been ice-fishing, some lessons would have been learned a long time ago.  Yes, that should be true, but sometimes I am a little dense.  How many fish have you lost at the hole?  If you have been on the ice for awhile, I am betting more than one. It happened to me already this ice season; hooked a nice largemouth bass, I am guessing 18-inches plus, spent some time playing it, finally got …

Had a great ice fishing clinic at Lake Wanahoo this past Saturday.  If you were not there, you missed a beautiful day on the ice, and you missed catching fish! “Hey, what’s that banner doing out on the ice?” Bring your baby doll if you wish! Class in session! FLAAAAGGGGGGG!!!!!!  (No, not the big event banner, the tip-up!!!!!) “I know you’re down there, BITE!” We had a lot of folks come out, I have not heard the official count, but …

It is Friday and we have ice!  Whatcha doing this weekend? If you don’t understand that memey thing I stole from the interwebs, you need to come out to our Ice Fishing Workshop at Lake Wanahoo tomorrow and I will explain it to you! “Hellllloooooo!”