Bauer reiterated that when it comes to top-quality bass -- the kind that’ll have you thinking about a Master Angler Award application -- anglers need to do some homework on private waters. “You certainly will expect to find less fishing pressure on private waters,” he stated, “and that is going to improve your chances at catching a big bass this season. There are big bass in many, many small private lakes around the state. Those anglers who do the legwork and gain permission to fish then are going to enjoy some great action.”

That shouldn’t, however, leave you feeling as though private waters will be the only ones with nice bass available. “The lakes in the Sand Hills, for example, have fairly low bass densities,” Bauer said, “so fishermen won’t catch quite the numbers of bass there that they will elsewhere. But these lakes are home to some of the prettiest, fattest bass in the state. Some good examples are the lakes on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge.”

There’s also the diminutive Carter P. Johnson Lake, near Fort Robinson State Park in the Nebraska Panhandle. “It’s only 15 acres,” Bauer noted, “but it is a really good fishery, and it has excellent big-fish potential.”

He also included Ravenna, the little oxbow with a new life, thanks to full rehab. And there’s also Burchard Reservoir in southeastern Nebraska. “It’s about 150 acres, and it’s a flood-control impoundment,” Bauer related. “It’s a native-grassland watershed with really good water quality, and it produces some big bass every year.”

Bauer also noted again the potential of the Interstate Lakes when it comes to big bass. It certainly is different to contemplate a series of smallish pits full of nice largemouths that boast of four-lane-highway access along a 450-mile-plus stretch of America’s interstate system. Without question, this is one of the most special bass fisheries in the whole country.

When you think about it, though, Nebraska’s bass fishery generally falls into that category. It is mostly made up of lakes that are small. Few of them are going to provide an opportunity to put the 20-foot bass rig on the water and open up the 250-horse outboard! Lakes like that exist in Nebraska, but as noted earlier, they are not home to the best bass action. Instead, the biggest bass in the Cornhusker State generally are going to be found on the smaller lakes, pits and ponds. Most of these locales boast outstanding water quality, which also means plenty of vegetation and other cover for the bass.

With water levels back where they should be, year-classes of young bass should be really good again, too. So as good as the bass fishing will be this season, it ought to keep getting better. The low water doesn’t make for good recruitment, so there aren’t going to be a lot smallish “yearling” bass this season. But they’re on the way. And they’ll keep getting bigger, making the fishing even better.