Tag Archives: state record fish

Wanna share with you some things I have been seeing on the interwebby lately.  Blue catfish are the coolest of our large catfish species.  When I say that I do not mean they wear shades, I mean they are the most active in cold water.  Sure, we get some excellent channel catfish fishing around Nebraska as soon as the ice is gone, and channels can be dried off through the ice too.  But, big predatory blue catfish are actually very …

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has certified three state fishing records so far this year – all set on rod and reel. The records are: — Kelly Macke of Lincoln on Jan. 3 pulled a 1-pound, 14-ounce redear sunfish through the ice at Wildwood Lake in Lancaster County. The 11¾-inch fish ate a tungsten jig and wax worm. — Wade Williby of Grand Island caught a 3-pound triploid crappie March 5 from Kea Lake in Buffalo …

Back in November I gave what I believed was my final “State Record Update” for 2016.  Nope.  Wouldn’t you know it, no sooner had I got that done and another state record application showed up on my desk.  This one was another fish taken by rod & reel, but it was a bit of an unusual catch–a grass pickerel! On October 17 this fall, Christopher Butts of O’Neill captured his state record pickerel from a highway borrow pit in Holt …

It has been a few months since I have given a state record update and there are a few applications sitting on my desk. . . . Most of the activity in the state record program over the past few months has been in the bowfishing section, but I have one fish caught on rod & reel that I need to tell you about. Rod & Reel Yellow Bullhead We have had a run on state record Yellow Bullheads in …

I started getting notifications about a big fish caught over the weekend, a really big fish.  So, I realize this has been all over the internet already and has hit at least one newspaper; you may have already heard about it, but even if you have, I know folks love hearing about and seeing big fish! It appears our rod & reel state record for paddlefish has been broken!  Tom Keller from Malcolm was enjoying our paddlefish snagging season in …

Time for a state record update.  This is the time of year when we see the most activity in the spear-fishing and bowfishing state record categories.  I have a few bowfishing updates to share with you. . . . Hybrid Sunfish The first one is a hybrid sunfish, a green sunfish X bluegill hybrid that was taken on July 1 by Zachary Welch of Ainsworth.  Zachary found his 14.4 ounce, 10-inch hybrid sunfish in a private sandpit in Brown County. …

I have a few state record applications sitting here on my desk; time to give you an update.  Let me just take ’em in order. . . . Tiger Trout Tiger trout are a brown trout X brook trout hybrid.  Tigers have never been stocked in Nebraska waters, but we have a few Pine Ridge streams where both brown trout and brook trout are present and hybridization in the wild is a possibility.  We had the first rod & reel …

It has been a few years since we had any state record fish that have been caught through the ice.  We had a couple of fish caught & released through the ice last winter that were state record class ( Big Fish! , Big Fish! Its Happened Again! ), but none in recent years that have been certified as state records.  I have one that was caught through the ice this winter, and it is a bit of an unusual …

It is approximately 24 miles from Valentine to Merritt Reservoir.  I have made that trip to go fishing many times.  I can remember as a kid it seemed closer to the 200-some miles I now have to drive to get from home to those holy waters.  I am not a patient boy when I am on my way fishing.  On one of those long drives from Valentine to Merritt I can remember asking my Uncle Ivan what he thought was …

I actually knew about this the day after the fish was caught, but I was heading out of town the next day, and was waiting to hear how the anglers involved wanted to handle it.  I knew by the time I got back to the office this would be all over the internet and many have already heard about it.  But others of you have not, and I want to blog about it! Last week we had what was potentially …