INFORMATION FOR: FORECAST • • • • Forecastfor17 2021 Best Waters toCatchLargerFish Guide toFishingNebraska SamplingCharts Fish Species

OutdoorNebraska.org 2021 2021 Sampling Charts A GUIDE TO FISHING NEBRASKA IN 2021 By Daryl Bauer, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, outreach program manager

WALLEYE reservoirs will offer the most wipers for of like crappies, but can offer some program and are open to public walk-in Nebraska’s largest reservoirs are the state’s anglers in 2021. Calamus, Red Willow, of the biggest, fattest, black crappies in access. Check out the Public Access Atlas at best walleye habitats and consistently provide Davis Creek and Branched Oak also will the state. Hackberry and Cottonwood- outdoornebraska.gov/publicaccessatlas. the best fishing. The highest total sampling offer some good wiper fishing. Anglers looking Steverson lakes will be the best of the rates of walleyes in the fall of 2020 were at for trophy wipers will find McConaughy, Sandhills this year. CHANNEL CATFISH Winters Creek, McConaughy, Merritt, Branched Oak, Harlan and Elwood hard to Channel catfish are a popular fish in Nebraska Davis Creek and Calamus reservoirs. beat. Remember all wipers caught at Branched LARGEMOUTH and are found widely across the state. Winters Creek, Davis Creek, Sutherland Oak immediately must be released. thrive in water bodies that Sutherland, Branched Oak, Midway, and Maloney will be best in the state for offer stable water levels, clean water and an Sherman, Pawnee and Minatare all eating-size 15- to 20-inch walleyes in 2021. BLUEGILL abundance of shallow water cover, especially will offer good numbers of 16-inch-and- Anglers targeting big walleyes should plan Anglers can take their kids to catch some aquatic vegetation. In Nebraska, small larger channel cats in 2021. For fish longer trips to Elwood, Merritt, McConaughy “sunnies” on just about any small body of reservoirs, Sandhills lakes, pits and ponds than 24 inches, anglers should plan to fish and Lewis & Clark. Smaller reservoirs in water in Nebraska. Our state can produce tend to provide the best of that habitat. Some Meadowlark, Iron Horse Trail, Wagon eastern Nebraska are less ideal as walleye large numbers of 8-inch-and-larger bluegills, of those waters can have high densities of Train, Wildwood and Red Willow. habitats, but Wanahoo, Wildwood, as well, and there will be a bunch of waters bass, which tend to produce excellent panfish Voluntary catch-and-release of large, trophy Holmes, Wehrspann and Wagon Train will that will do that this year. Small- to medium- fishing as largemouth bass keep panfish catfish is a practice that should be considered offer anglers opportunities to catch walleyes, size reservoirs across Nebraska offer some numbers in check. However, waters with by anglers on any Nebraska water as it takes including some big fish. of the best bluegill fishing every year, with lots of bass may not necessarily be the best years to grow channel cats to that size. Olive Creek, Wanahoo, Iron Horse Trail, for producing big bass. When looking at the Catch-and-release of catfish is required at WHITE BASS Summit and Duck Creek topping that list sampling data for the best bass waters, those Wildwood. For a different experience, do not White bass also are open-water predator fish in 2021. Sandhills lakes offer lower densities with the highest numbers of bass may not overlook Nebraska’s warm-water rivers like that thrive in Nebraska’s largest reservoirs. of bluegills, but can produce some trophy offer the best opportunities to catch fish larger the Missouri, Platte, Elkhorn or Niobrara, The best white bass fisheries in 2021 will bluegills, with the biggest fish in excess of a than 15 inches. Lower densities of largemouth as they also are excellent catfish fisheries. be found at Harlan, Swanson, Medicine pound. The best Sandhills lakes in 2021 will bass can offer anglers the best opportunities There are some areas where public access Creek, Calamus and Enders. Most of the be Smith (Wildlife Management Area), to catch bass larger than 15 inches. Some is available on Nebraska rivers. Also check white bass at Harlan will be less than 10 Swan, West Long and Frye. Anglers should small- to medium-size reservoirs that will be out the Open Fields and Waters program for inches long this year, but that big year-class remember that bluegills that big are rare fish particularly good this year include Verdon, additional access to warm-water streams and should produce great fishing in years to come. and worthy of having a picture taken and Grove, Wanahoo, Summit and Czechland. rivers on private lands. In addition to the reservoirs already listed, then returned to the water. Pits like Sandy Pits and ponds are some of the best bass Davis Creek, Sutherland and Red Willow Channel No. 4 and Sandy Channel No. 8 fisheries in the state; Two Rivers No. 3, OTHER SPECIES will offer fewer white bass overall, but also will produce quality bluegills this year. Sandy Channel No. 8 and Fort McPherson Nebraska is known for its diverse fishing good numbers of fish larger than 12 inches. will offer some excellent bass fishing. opportunities. Besides the species highlighted Midway, Johnson and McConaughy will CRAPPIES Sandhills lakes also can be good largemouth in the fish-sampling graphs, there are a variety be best for some big white bass – fish larger Crappies are panfish that can be found habitats and produce some pretty, chunky of other fish that can be pursued. than 15 inches. throughout Nebraska, with anglers always bass. Duck, Rat & Beaver and Frye lakes on the look for waters that will produce fish will be good bets for some 15-inch-and-larger Nebraska offers opportunities to catch other WIPERS larger than 10 inches. Whitney Reservoir bass. Private waters always produce some of sunfish species such as REDEAR SUNFISH Wipers are hybrids of white bass and striped is a perennial favorite and will be in a class the best bass fishing in the state, and many at Fort McPherson and War Axe interstate bass, and like their parent species, they also by itself in 2021. Other reservoirs that will be Nebraska anglers have permission to fish at lakes and Duck Creek and Wildwood are most successful in open-water habitats good will be East Twin, Sherman, Wagon least one of those privately-owned waters. In reservoirs. – Nebraska’s largest reservoirs. Swanson, Train, Willard Meyer and Wellfleet. Again, addition, some private pits and ponds have Elwood, Harlan and McConaughy Sandhills lakes tend to have lower densities been enrolled in the Open Fields and Waters can be caught at War Axe, Johnson and McConaughy, as well as the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska.

BLUE CATFISH can be found in reservoirs like Pawnee, Medicine Creek and Swanson, but look to the Missouri River in southeast Nebraska for the biggest blue cats in the state – some weighing triple digits.

FLATHEAD CATFISH are another species of large catfish that can be found in the Missouri River, as well as in reservoirs like Harlan, Sherman, Branched Oak and the Tri-County canal system. All flatheads at Branched Oak must be released immediately after capture, and anglers should consider releasing big flatties on other fisheries as well. cool-water northern pike, but Wanahoo is relatively new and has some pike habitat SAUGER fishing will be best on Lewis & now. All pike are required to be released at Clark Reservoir and the Missouri River in Wanahoo. northeast Nebraska, but Johnson Reservoir and the Tri-County canal system also have The “king of freshwater sport fish,” good numbers of sauger. MUSKELLUNGE, also can be found in Nebraska waters. To catch this trophy, toothy SAUGEYE are a walleye and sauger hybrid, predator, anglers should target Merritt, and stocking is producing some excellent Calamus and Zorinsky reservoirs, as well opportunities for anglers to catch those fish in as Mormon Island West, Grand Island’s Big Alkali, Meadowlark, Big Indian 11a, L.E. Ray Lake, and Timber Point. Blue Lake, Willard Meyer and Pawnee. Nebraska also has waters that support YELLOW PERCH always are a tasty and cold-water fish year-round where anglers popular panfish; in 2021, some of the best can pursue a TROUT Slam, catching yellow perch fishing will be found at Rat & rainbows, browns, brooks, and possibly even Beaver, Watts and West Long lakes in the cutthroats and tigers (brown trout and brook Sandhills. trout hybrids). Most of the cold-water trout streams are found in western and northern Sandhill lakes are some of the best parts of the state; the East Branch of NORTHERN PIKE habitats in the state as Verdigre Creek, Long Pine, Soldiers and well, and, once again, lakes on the Valentine Ninemile creeks are favorites among trout National Wildlife Refuge, Hackberry and anglers. In 2021, the rainbow trout fishing Dewey will be some of Nebraska’s most at Lake Ogallala will continue to be good, popular pike fisheries. Box Butte Reservoir and anglers might even catch some cutties in the Panhandle also has an excellent pike from the White River and Soldier Creek in . Reservoirs in southern and eastern Nebraska’s Pine Ridge. Nebraska are typically are too warm for Photo: Nebraskaland Magazine/NGPC