Brase fishes almost exclusively with a baitcasting outfit loaded with 10- to 12-pound-test line.

Phil Sullivan, a federation director and member of the Lincoln County Bassmasters Club at North Platte, regards Merritt Reservoir as his favorite for largemouth bass.

"The water level is down quite a bit in Merritt, but it's still the best for bass within a reasonable driving distance for me," he said. "I fish Boardman Bay, the Powderhorn and Farmers Pond areas on the lake. My largest bass to date was a 7.8. My favorite lures are the floating worms, Brush Hogs and a purple jig-and-pig.

"In addition to Merritt, I have a couple of ranch ponds near Ogallala that are pretty good, and also fish some of the Interstate 80 sandpit lakes, such as the one at the Hershey Interchange."

Elmer Brauer of Bridgeport loves to fish for bass, but in his view, bass fishing is far from great in Nebraska's Panhandle. "I fish the sandpit lakes at the Bridgeport State Recreation Area as well as Box Butte and Oliver reservoirs and Lake Minatare," he said. "The water table has been down pretty bad in the latter lakes, but you can still catch a decent bass or two if you work at it.

Brauer, 71, reported that his largest bass was a 24-incher weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces that he caught at the middle Bridgeport Lake on a spinnerbait in March 2005. "I don't fish the Bridgeport pits much in July and August; there's just too much traffic on the area and too much fishing pressure," he said.

A review of the Master Angler awards serves up a profile of the venues from which big bass have been taken. However, other waters enable bass anglers to catch good numbers of fish that don't make the award minimum of 5 pounds or 20 inches in length. Some of those include the lakes on the Valentine Refuge such as Pelican, Clear, Hackberry, Duck and Dewey.

Looking at the top public waters for bass in 2006 in each of the Game Commission's six districts in the state, fisheries managers made this call: Panhandle -- Smith Lake and Box Butte Reservoir; North-Central -- Valentine National Wildlife Refuge lakes and Cozad, Tower, Cub Creek, Cottonwood, Home Valley, Frye and Shell lakes, as well as Merritt Reservoir, which also serves up some smallmouths; Northeast -- Summit, Maskenthine, Grove and Yankton lakes, as well as the Missouri River and Lewis and Clark Lake for smallmouths.

In the southwest it's Rock Creek, Hershey and Wellfleet lakes for largemouths and Lake McConaughy and the NPPD Canal Below Lake Maloney for smallmouths; South-Central Cottonmill, Darr-I-80, Sandy Channel, Mormon Island West, Coot Shallows I-80, and Willow Island I-80 for largemouths. Johnson Lake and the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District's canal system offer pretty good smallmouth action. Southeast -- Wehrspann, Zorinsky, Burchard, Verdon, Olive Creek, Czechland, Iron Horse Trail and Wagon Train lakes. In addition, anglers report fair to good bass fishing at Merganser, East Twin, Hedgefield, Wagon Train, Branch Oak and Pawnee -- all Salt Valley lakes.

Many of the lakes and small reservoirs in eastern Nebraska have restrictive bag and size limits. Some examples include Zorinsky, Wehrspann, Olive Creek, Stagecoach, Wagon Train, Yankee Hill, Burchard and Verdon lakes have a 21-inch minimum size limit. Lakes such as Louisville, Bennington, Two Rivers lakes No. 3 and No. 4, Holmes, Memphis, Wildwood and others are total catch-and-release lakes on largemouth bass.