Tag Archives: predator/prey

Gonna return to one of my favorite themes again today, but this time with a little bit warped, humorous twist for the weekend: First time I watched that I sat and laughed out loud. As I have discovered, that is the ZOOperstars “Mackeral Jordan”.  BRILLIANT! We are in the middle of summer and that means the middle of baseball season!  Lincoln has its American Association minor league team, the Saltdogs.  When the Lincoln franchise was started they were looking for some mascot …

It is Friday, let me get up a quick blog post before the weekend. . . . You all know I am fascinated by predator/prey interactions, especially those that occur below the surface of the water.  This week our Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium posted a video on their FaceBook page.  You need to watch it! Cat Eats Trout I love going to aquariums, especially our Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium where I can see Nebraska fish!  I can stand and watch fish in an aquarium …

One theme I continually return to, and one that some may get tired of hearing me repeat, is that of predator/prey relationships.  Often, when asked for the best place on a body of water to be fishing or the best bait to be using, I reply with a question:  What are the fish eating?  A basic understanding of predator/prey relationships is doubly important to anglers because we not only have to find the fish, we have to make them bite. …

If you live near some of our deciduous forests in eastern Nebraska, or if you are visiting there, you right now have an opportunity to experience an amazing and rare wildlife experience.  In fact I would rank this right up there with the annual sandhill crane migration, turkeys gobbling, elk bugling, or a surface-feeding frenzy of big wipers.  This is even more amazing because it only occurs once every 17 years! The year 2015 is the year of the emergence of …

Some of you may remember that fisheries managers for the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission tried an experimental fisheries management technique at Pawnee Reservoir a year ago last fall, Pawnee Renovation.  Unlike typical rotenone renovations where all fish are removed from a body of water, the effort at Pawnee was one where we hoped that a relatively low dose of rotenone would selectively eliminate gizzard shad and white perch. Let me share some more of what we know about that fisheries …

Sunday is Mother’s Day.  What mother does not like baby ducks? Oh, my grandmothers liked baby ducks as much as the next mother, but my grandmother’s also were pike fisherwomen.  They liked catching big, bad, baby duck-eating pike! Grandma Roth even got a Master Angler Award for that fish.  I have the award here on the book shelf in my office. Mom got in on the pike-catching too.  I am guessing this pike ate little baby ducks. I have posted …

I have played with underwater cameras only a little bit on Nebraska waters.  In many cases I believe the clarity of our waters limits the usefulness of underwater cameras.  However, like with all technology, it keeps getting better and better and the new “micro” versions of these cameras intrigue me (Aqua-Vu Micro).  Take a look at this video and you will see what I mean. . . . That may just be a tease, because I am not sure how …

I am still waiting for safe ice.  Got a little teaser for the rest of you that are doing the same: I know the underwater camera technology is advancing just like all electronics technology.  I have played with an underwater camera just a little bit on Nebraska waters and in most cases, even under the ice, I consider our waters to be stained enough that the underwater cameras are of limited use.  But, I am sure there are some situations …

The day after Thanksgiving has become known as “Black Friday”.  It is a day when millions of shoppers hit the stores for the opening day of what has become our commercialized, gift-giving, Christmas season.  A day when thousands of soccer moms and urban dads who would never think of going afield to harvest any kind of living creature nevertheless prove that they are instinctively HUNTERS. . . . Think about it.  By the time the rush to the stores has started, folks …

Some of you may know that we recently started stocking some striped bass in Nebraska, again.  There is more to the story. . . . Striped bass are a marine species that migrate into fresh water to spawn (anadromous is the big pointy-headed term for fish that live in the ocean but spawn in freshwater).  Sometime in the middle of the last century it was discovered that striped bass did not necessarily have to live in salt water, they could very …