Justin Gibson of Alliance says he fishes just about every piece of bass water in the Panhandle.

"Chadron City Reservoir has been good to me and has hooked me up with some big largemouths," he said. "Last year I beached a 6-8 on that small reservoir using a plastic crawdad.

"Box Butte Reservoir offers pretty good bass fishing. I haven't caught many big ones there, but there are good numbers of 15- to 18-inchers. I also fish the Bridgeport pits as well as Walgren and Smith lakes. Island Lake on the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge north of Oshkosh was renovated and restocked in 2005, thus, it will likely be a couple of years before we see the bass fishing take off again."

Gibson said April, May and June are his best months for bass. "Once it gets hot, weeds become a problem on some of the good bass spots such as Walgren, Smith and Island," he said.

The Alliance angler said he fishes almost exclusively with a bait-casting outfit and most often Texas-rigs soft plastic lures.

"My favorite is an 8-inch lizard, and I like the pumpkinseed color the best," he said.

Kendall Meyer of Ogallala used a spinnerbait to fool a 6-pound, 12-ounce largemouth in June while fishing Clear Lake on the Valentine Refuge.

"I fish the lakes in the Sandhills from a float tube," Meyer said. "I usually plan a three-or four-day trip to lakes such as Pelican, Dewey and Duck on the Valentine Refuge or up to Smith, which is south of Rushville, about the second week in May. Weather and time permitting, I'll likely hit them again about the first week in June. After that the weeds can be a bit of a problem. I can usually maneuver through the cattails and bulrushes in the shallows, but the surface weeds can be a challenge to fish because they can become so thick it's hard to find an open spot to throw a lure into.

"I really enjoy fishing out of a tube, but it does have some disadvantages," said the 65-year-old retired school teacher. "Wind always seems to be a factor on the lakes. If it's blowing out of the south I fish the south shore; north, the north shore. You don't want to fish with the wind. Some of the lakes such as Pelican and Smith are fairly large and if the wind catches you it can be a long hike back to your launch site.

"Box Butte is a good bass spot too, but I never catch any much over the 3-pound mark," Meyer said. "I like to use a variety of tackle. Sometimes I even use a fly rod. If I'm fishing lakes that have both bass and northerns in them, it can get pretty hairy if you put the steel to a northern in the 5-pound-plus category on the fly rod."

Checking on a few of the anglers catching trophy bass reveals they used a wide choice of lures, fished a variety of lakes, ponds and reservoirs.

The top five public waters for trophy bass last year in Nebraska included Burchard and Louisville lakes, along with Maskenthine Reservoir. They accounted for nine awards each. The others included Dewey Lake on the Valentine Refuge, seven, and Stagecoach, seven. From that point on other public lakes, ponds and reservoir served up anywhere from one to six. It's hard to ignore the fact that anglers reported taking 270 from private ponds and 40 from sandpit lakes.