Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Nebraska’s bass fishing outlook this season is a good news/bad news story. The good news is that lakes of all sizes across much of the state have finally gotten some relief from the drought conditions that saw them shrink to dangerously low levels. The bad news is that anglers may find more challenges in catching bass because of all the new aquatic vegetation and cover available to the fish.

“The drought was statewide, and water levels were down everywhere as a result,” said Daryl Bauer, manager of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s Lakes and Reservoirs Program. As this issue of Great Plains Game & Fish was being prepared to go to press, the northwestern panhandle region was still extremely dry, but, Bauer said, things are looking up elsewhere -- especially in the eastern half of the state.

“Things have improved a lot in eastern Nebraska,” Bauer said, “but the fishing is going to be tougher, because there has been so much good cover flooded as the lakes have returned to levels closer to normal.”

Nebraska bass fishing is for the most part a small-water game. Some large impoundments are found in the Cornhusker State, but they don’t make for the best largemouth action within Nebraska’s borders.

“Our big reservoirs serve the primary purpose of providing water for the irrigation of agricultural land, and they are going to endure dramatic drawdowns throughout the hotter, drier parts of any year,” Bauer said. “Those dynamics don’t provide the kind of stability that leads to good bass fishing. Our best bass action consistently occurs around the state on any number of smaller pits and ponds. And there are some good public waters that bass fishermen can enjoy throughout Nebraska.”

Before getting into them, Bauer also noted the need for Nebraska bass fans to scout out and obtain permission to fish private waters. “Many of the Master Angler Awards we issue annually are for bass that come from private waters,” Bauer said. “There are small ponds and pits in literally every corner of the state that, collectively, provide some of the best bass fishing in the entire region.”

To support that claim, Bauer noted that Nebraska issued 435 Master Angler Awards for bass in 2006, the most recent year for which data was available. That compares favorably with totals from the preceding years. There were 465 awards issued in 2005, 444 in 2004, and 530 in 2003.

Anglers can apply for Master Anger Awards regardless of whether they keep the bass they catch. If they do, the fish must weigh a minimum of 5 pounds. If they release the bass, it must have a minimum length of 20 inches. “We seem to have at least one bass heavier than 8 pounds come to light through the Master Angler Awards each year,” Bauer said. There is little question, then, that the state does offer some quality bass action.

When it comes to quantity, the state offers opportunity at just about every turn. “We have plenty of lakes around the state where anglers can expect to catch good numbers of bass on a given outing,” Bauer said. He noted that state biologists annually sample more than 50 public waters around Nebraska to learn about the overall quality and health of those fisheries. Those samplings also help Bauer single out some of the better lakes around the state.