Walleyes, Wipers and Crappies are Biting in Nebraska

It’s amazing what a little nice weather can do -- it allows us to get out and get some projects done, gives our gardens a shot in the arm and really turns on the bite. By the time you read this, many of you will already know that several species of fish have gone nuts across the state. The walleyes and wipers have been eating everything in sight with crappie, bass and catfish not far behind.

An assortment of fish caught out of Nebraska lakes recently.

As for our area, things have vastly improved. The Tri County canal above and below Johnson Lake has been hot. We have been picking up quite a few fish, and quite the variety, on crankbaits. Saugers, crappies, even northern pike have been very active. The crappies that have been coming into the boat have been very nice sized, and mostly suspended. Along with being caught over open water, this tells me that they are nearly finished up with their spawn. The weather this spring really pushed their spawn back, but they are getting back to normal rather quickly. The sauger bite has been good, and we even lost a very nice northern at the boat. He was all of 32-34 inches and very thick. I believe we also lost a flathead that hit a crankbait as well. These fish are being caught at all depths, but the deeper pattern has prevailed thus far.

Speaking of northern pike, I spent time at a reservoir recently that I don’t fish very often. My friends have a cabin at Jeffrey Reservoir out near Brady and they were busy last week breaking in their new pontoon boat. I was happy to be able to tag along and hopefully get some fishing done in the process. Using their new motor to troll proved to be a productive pattern, and we had one of our best fishing days ever at Jeffrey Reservoir. Dragging crankbaits over points produced 3 nice northern pike on consecutive points, with a total of five. Four of these fish were 28-30”, and it’s clear that they were strategically placed on the tips of points waiting to ambush prey that was unlucky enough to swim by. Every pike was in the same area on each point, and hit the exact same lure. The most miraculous part of this day was that we caught five pike on a lure and actually still have the lure! Throw in five nice crappies and a few white bass in just a couple of hours, and you have yourself a good day. While Jeffrey Reservoir is primarily known as a great catfishing lake, you never know what you’ll catch there. A regular added bonus of fishing another canal lake.

Wipers are another species we’ve been targeting with good success. I’ve written in the past about one of my favorite waters being Elwood Reservoir and how its future is in question, but right now there are some nice wipers in that lake. The alewife are abundant, and the wipers are taking full advantage. In three days we caught over 300 fish, with many of those being wipers. The most interesting thing about that number is that while there are wipers, white bass, pike and catfish included, only one walleye added to that count. In years past, we would catch several walleyes either before or after the wipers were present. That pattern hasn’t existed for us this year. I have been told of several walleyes caught in other areas of the lake, but I have yet to catch one there myself this year. After catching 92 walleyes there in 2012, but only 10 in 2013, their absence still seems odd after being so plentiful so recently. Personally, I have no problem with this change. There are quite a few days when I am very happy with catching wipers over walleyes, and I doubt I’m alone. Hopefully the lake will receive water from the floods out west and the good fishing can continue for the short term future.

Cooler weather has come once again with some rain involved, so that should keep water temps down a bit for a short time. I look at this as a good thing in that some successful patterns that have prevailed will work just a bit longer before changing. It’s clear that fishing has taken off recently, so get out and enjoy it. June is going to be a great month for catching fish.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Robinson

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
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Fishing Outside Your Comfort Zone in Nebraska

It finally seems that the cold wintery weather has disappeared. Since we’re well into a late spring, my biggest fear is that it’ll turn into a hot summer in a very short amount of time, which would leave some windows open for a short time to catch specific fish at specific times. Right now, we’re taking what we can get.

Fishing on a lake in Nebraska. 

Water temps across the central Nebraska region have slowly been rising, only to be pushed back down at times by cold fronts. We recently had a few outings that showed the temps to be in the upper 50s, almost creeping into the 60s. This is a good thing, as some of our summer trolling patterns start in the low 60s range.

At Harlan, we found water that was in the 60 degree range and tried trolling, just to see if it would work. It turned out to be a great day for us as we boated 19 walleyes, the largest being 20 inches. The best part was, we caught most of these fish with nobody else around. All fish were over 15 inches. Throw in some nice white bass, a few drum and one wiper, and it was a fun day to be out.

The next day we returned to closer water at Johnson Lake. The water there is a bit cooler, but we tried trolling anyway. We picked up two saugers, and saw very few other fish caught. We decided to hop over to the Tri County canal, only a few miles away. We ended up picking up three more saugers, a couple of real nice crappies that were in full pre-spawn mode, and a few more white bass. I had a real nice fish on that came undone with about 20 feet of line to go. Even though with water temps around 63, I figured it might be a bit early for the flatheads to be real aggressive, but I’m sure that’s what it was. Flatheads are built for power and strength, so even a 10 pounder feels like a beast.

The good news is, the water temp is rising. The bad news is, it probably is not rising much this week on account of our temps barely being over 60 degrees most of the time, with lows dipping all the way down to 30 degrees. I try to look at the good part of this, which is if you have a pattern that’s working, it’ll keep working for a while longer. Maybe longer than usual, with this weather. I know lots of fish are being caught using crawlers now, instead of minnows, which means the fish are only becoming more active and aggressive. Sometimes we get in a rut and try things that we’re used to, and force those tactics to work, and then they just don’t. So don’t be afraid to try different things with these fluctuating temps. A perfect example is that previous to this past weekend, I went away from my plastics and crankbaits and actually used live bait, which is something I used to do exclusively. I ended up getting a limit of walleyes in the Tri County Canal near Johnson Lake, with two smallmouth bass, two more walleyes and a sauger being added by my friends. Never hurts to try things outside of your comfort zone.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Robinson

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
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Fishing Before the Cold Midwest Weather Sets In

By now, most boats have been put away, and we’re now in the waiting period between the time of open water and all out ice fishing in Nebraska. Area anglers are eagerly awaiting safe ice to walk on, while I’ve heard of others who have already headed north for some fishing. Even though we were on the water less than a week ago, this weather makes it seem farther back than that. We made one last effort that lasted four days, and some of the fishing was fairly decent.

Elmwood Reservoir before dark. (Courtesy of Brian Robinson) 

My friend Ward and I, and his son Parker fished Lake McConaughy before this cold weather set in. While it was a bit chilly, the fishing conditions were still comfortable. I’m sure we would have been warmer had the fish been cooperating. The fish were clearly spread out in larger areas of the lake, including the dam, sand flats, and numerous drop offs. Fish we did find seemed to be negative and proved hard to hook. This went along with the information we had heard the week prior as well. It was still a great trip that provided us with four nice fat walleyes up to 22 inches, with a few bonus pike in the 30-inch range.

On our trip home, we stopped and fished Elwood Reservoir for a few hours. It took us a while to find fish, but once we did, these fish were much more cooperative. While I caught the walleyes at McConaughy, Ward and Parker really put on a show and left me far behind. Ward reeled in a Master Angler (MA) wiper at just above 24 inches, while Parker came very close to MA status on a nice white bass that went over 16 inches. Numerous fish were caught on slab spoons, including one walleye. Ward hooked a monster of a fish, which unforfunately left us shaking our heads as it popped the hook. It’s possible that it was a large wiper, but Ward believes it may have been a muskie. I have heard of far fewer muskies caught the past two years, but some still prowl the waters of Elwood, and I believe some of them are quite large. I also believe they are extremely rare in Elwood due to past low water levels, but I know of a recent 46-inch catch that resides in my neighbors house just down the road. My uncle hooked it in the spring of 2012.

The results prompted me to return the next day, along with it being the absolute last nice day before the winter front was to arrive. The weather proved to be great at 65 degrees, and the fishing wasn’t bad either. I caught numerous white bass up to 16 3/4 inches, and five wipers up to 23 inches. This time of year the fish will make you work to find them, and this day was no different.

Now, winter boat projects are in order to make next year even better. In the meantime, making new jigs and spoons, arranging a few ice fishing trips and finding some open water to fish are at the top of the priority list. Stay warm if you can, and enjoy the ice fishing season. With these temps, safe ice will be formed before we know it.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Robinson

© 2013 population-we, LLC 
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Creative Writing II: 'The Bait'

I wrote the following creative writing story some 23 years ago of an encounter between a SCUBA diver and a few fish. The goal for the assignment was to write a character sketch from a picture (shown below). Today, Brian and I are avid SCUBA divers! May 2013 marks our second year of diving; we both are PADI and SSI certified open water divers, as well as belong to Greater Omaha SCUBA Club. So, after a recent shark tooth dive trip to Venice, Fla. (I'll blog on that later), and several encounters with fish on our dives, I decided to share the story below with fellow population-we™ readers.

The Bait

The puked greenish fish hesitates before lunging forward to devour probably its easiest catch of the day. One eye rests upon the waving piece of meat and the other curiously scans the man grasping the bait. The fish ponders the thought of attempting to snatch the prey from the strange looking creature.

Alfred, a month old Hagfish, happens to be new to the stony shallow coral. He's out exploring on his own the river notches, clefts, canyons, and tunnels when he unexpectedly came upon an obscure looking creature. Stunned at first, Alfred didn't know what to think of the strange creature's appearance. He had never seen a beast with tentacles jolting from its mouth that curiously connected to a blue hump on its back before. The beast spoke with echoing gurgling sound followed by the materialization of bubbles. Like an octopus, the beast had two strange arms and unusual sized webbed feet. As Alfred stared into the creatures eyes, he could catch a glimpse of his own curious reflection and then noticed two buggy eyes staring back. 

Alfred wasn't the only fish that noticed this peculiar kind of species swimming around. Lance, a Kingfish, that looks like an oversized Yellow Angelfish with a bad attitude, is hovering over the strange creature, trying to get a better view. Ralph, a Stickleback, with food always on his mind, swims over to investigate what curious edibles the beast is holding. All of the fish had one thought on their mind and that was what was this beast doing here.

The creature lunged the meat forward towards Alfred but he countered that action by jerking backwards. Now the seaweed and algae covered rocks flew through the water because of the commotion. The onlookers watched attentively now as ever, because of the creature's sudden hasty movement on their friend. Alfred, feeling a little unsure about this situation, floated a couple feet away planning his next counterattack. To Alfred's long scaly appearance, the man appeared to be a blue mammoth-sized beast, who had entered their domain. Alfred closed in on the beast for the kill. Yes, he decided to take the bait. The aroma was too strong and the circumstances too sporty for him to turn away now. Alfred threw a couple cold glances toward Lance and Ralph warning them to stay away from the beast.

Alfred wouldn't have thought twice about seizing the opportunity to snatch the meat from the man again, except for the voice of his mother nagging him in the back of his head. She would always lecture Alfred not to take food from strangely dressed creatures. Remembering his mother's wise advice, he backed up slowly, turned around, and started to swim home to his mommy. He didn't look behind himself, but in the background Alfred could hear the faint cries of Lance, whose stomach undoubtedly got him in trouble for good this time.

I hope you enjoyed my high school creative writing story; in fact, I earned an "A" for the assignment. Who knew I would some day, along with my husband, take up the sport of SCUBA diving. Read additional SCUBA diving posts at Finding Inspiration at Sea and [Earth Day Edition] pop-we Highlights Greater Omaha SCUBA Club's Project AWARE Efforts. Also, watch in the week's ahead for a blog post on our May 2013 Florida shark tooth dive. Keep Diving!

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2013 population-we, LLC 
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