Category: Bluegill - Fins and Fur Outdoor Adventure Guide - Guided Fishing and Hunting Trips

Great Day of Fishing at Flanagan

8/8/2020

A good Bluegill bite as a mother and teenage son joined me for fishing at Flanagan Lake. They jigged among the trees and cast/finesse fished with small 1/32 oz. jigs with bling tipped with medium sized leeches and crawlers. No disappointment in the quality of fish caught and the bite today at this new lake in northwest Omaha. A number of fair sized Crappie up to 9” with jigs tipped with plastic bodies. Trip was a short one but a few small Bass were hooked in the same depths as the Bluegill. A fun morning fishing at this catch and release fishing lake for these two anglers.

Bass Fishing was HOT at Wanahoo!!

8/3/2020

Plump 18” bucketmouth caught at Lake Wanahoo. The bass bite was hot!!

The bass fishing was hot! Really hot catching 20+ bucketmouth on the edge of these drop-offs using the ultralight rods and light line jigs with leeches and crawlers. Picked up a number of fair Bluegill up to 8.5” (Catch and Release, read my thoughts on this technique here), one 10” crappie, and a dreaded 16” carp, but fun to catch on light tackle. Best bass fishing (12”-18” fish) for the year at Wanahoo!

Quality Bluegill caught on jig and European nightcrawler

Big 16" bass caught on drop-off with jig and crawler

Nice bass from Lake Wanahoo

Trolling with Crankbaits at Merritt Reservoir

7/30/2020

Fishing with a friend - We caught 4 smaller Smallmouth Bass and a ½ doz. Bluegill using this technique, no keeper walleye. We then tested the trolling rods as we hooked on a couple crankbaits, a # 7 Flicker shads and a #11 Flicker minnow. We spooled out 125’ of line on the line counter reels and pulled them in the 2.5- 2.7 mph range. Trolled the 11-13’ depths, couldn’t buy a bite on the cranks after covering a couple miles of shoreline while often banking the bottom! We searched numerous locations and found some fish so we anchored up and jig fished over 10-12’ depth. Caught small walleye, a nice yellow perch and always fun on ultralight large Channel catfish on #4 test line. Yep, 2 trips around the boat with that cat but kept him out of the troller and the anchor rope.

Nice smallmouth bass

Merritt Reservoir Morning and Evening Trips

7/27/2020

Very nice morning and evening trips with friends! We started by anchoring up in 5’ of water and casted 1/32 oz. jigs with ½ crawlers and leeches. Both morning and evening fishing catching numerous small Walleye, Smallmouth Bass, Drum, Bluegill and Yellow Perch. We casted jigs into shallow waters<5’ depths and jigged them back to the boat. Also placed a dead rod/dead stick in a rod holder to dangle live bait just off the bottom for the followers. We caught some nice Smallmouth Bass and a nice mess of Bluegill using this technique, no keeper size Walleye but we had fun. Never got the Walleye Chop winds but a nice morning of fishing at Merritt reservoir. Evening trip had some winds but not a good Walleye Chop, picked up one keeper Walleye to stink the skillet!

Big Channel Catfish caught on light tackle.

Yankee Hill Fishing With Crank-baits

7/17/2020

Nice Friday morning trip to Yankee Hill Lake with the boat. Busy place with boats and yakkers out enjoying fishing! Good morning to test out the trolling rods, research different crank-bait depths with #10/4 diameter braided Fireline at various boat speeds. Short stay trip - I trolled crank-baits extensively covering a lot of the lake pulling various sizes of crank-baits checking running depths, picked up one 14” Bass, no Wally. Switched to anchoring a top the rock shoals and fished slip bobbers, jigs, Satra special rig and leeches & Euro nightcrawlers. I fished 4’ to 7’ depths using ultralights, and I had luck catching Bluegill to 8.5” on the edges of the large rock and drop offs. I caught 14 nice Bluegill and kept 9 fish which I gave to a yak angler at the boat ramp. He didn't have any luck fishing and was looking forward to a few fresh fish to eat, I helped him out! Had fun catching the Bluegill on light tackle at Yankee Hill Lake.

Flanagan Lake Fishing

7/10/2020

A morning recon trip to Flanagan Lake seeking out active fish. Flanagan is a new lake in northwest Omaha, basically located at 168th & Fort Street. Time to fish it since last visiting it on the hard water in February! Flanagan is a total catch and release lake with a no wake boating regulation. A great place to fish with a small boat, canoe or kayaks. The lake does not have an accessible fishing pier but numerous breakwaters to fish from if you are a shoreline angler.

How was fishing? Non-stop catching fish! I fished a variety of techniques to target all the species stocked in this lake with abundant aquatic habitats and structure. Scaled down on the sizes of bait, jigs and plastics!
Surface water temps were 78-80F not uncommon to early July in Nebraska reservoirs. Hummingbirds sonars/fish finders had fish all over the board but I focused on 8-9’ depths as I patterned the numbers! Tough to get a hook down to 9’ at times because of bites or bait thieves - that's a good thing! I caught mainly Bluegill ranging from 4” to 7.5” with a few fish in very good condition to 8”, numerous crappie were caught in the 7-8” range, fun on ultralight rods and reels and light terminal tackle. Did not target the bass but saw plenty of them “cruising” looking for a meal. Caught Bass measuring up to 16” among the plentiful structure.

Very nice lake to fish and it will only get better, the fish are growing fast and lots of them. Only took a few pix at the end of the trip, what happens when you leave the camera phone in the Jeep!

Conestoga Lake Evening Trip with Father and Son

7/2/2020

Kodak moment, Yes- a fish will flop when it gets its picture taken!

Father & Son had a good time fishing at Conestoga Lake near Denton.

Nice bass caught at Conestoga Lake.

Proper handling is important when you catch small fiddler catfish! Fun trip for this young man!

Busy night catching fish for these 2 anglers - they caught and landed 90+fish - a very good bite! We caught lots of small Bluegill 5”-6.5” in size, and Green Sunfish from 4”-7” we found in 5’-12’ of water fishing with jigs, Satra Special rigs, and slip bobbers tipped with leeches and Euro nightcrawlers. The guys caught numerous Bass of all sizes, 11-12 fiddler Channel Cats and a handful of small Black Bullheads. Father and son had a great time catching fish and learning new techniques to catch fish. Nice evening of fishing with a light breeze. The rock breakwaters and drop offs to 8’ were “hot” late as the sun was setting. They kept a handful of fiddler Channel Catfish to stink the skillet! Otherwise Catch and Release the fish! It is always fun to explore the variety of aquatic habitats and structures that Conestoga has to offer!

Conestoga Afternoon Fishing

6/27/2020

A hot Saturday afternoon fishing trip with my lovely daughters and their mom (book reader) at nearby Conestoga Lake. We fished using light tackle, small jigs w/plastic bodies and live bait Euro nightcrawlers and small ribbon leeches. Practiced a lot of catch and release fishing with the young, small immature, 60+bluegill (4-6.5”), 40 +green sunfish (3.5-7”), bass 12" and the 3 fiddler C. Catfish (12-16"). Read that Rock Bass, Crappie and Walleye had been stocked, none sampled again with Hook & Line methods, likely too small yet to hit a jig with a big leech. The small Bluegill dominated the catch from mid- lake fishing sites!! A fun afternoon of fishing with my daughters who like to catch fish no matter the fish size and they enjoy the hot afternoons better than early mornings. Their awesome fishing guide doesn't like the hot 90 F heat, not so much. We had fun though at newly rehabbed Conestoga Lake.

July 9th

7/9/2019

On Sunday morning I took friends TJ and Karie to Lake Wanahoo for some fun fishing! We started fishing by "dipping" in 9' of water. The walleye came slow but no complaints as we were catching crappie and some really nice bluegill on jigs and leeches and crawlers. As usual, the W eyes were finicky and we went to finesse fishing with a Satra Special rig as they seemed to be biting short! We ended up catching 8 short walleye but had fun with them. TJ thought he was jinxed catching walleye but he worked through it and caught few! Bass had Karie's number and she had fun landing 2 in the 16-18" range and 2 other hog bass took her jig into snags and pulled lose. Guess they didn't want their photo taken with Karie ??
I gave a demo on fishing the satra special rig and on the demo caught a small walleye. Usually don't happen like that........even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile!!!

Recent Adventures!

3/11/2017

I have been so busy with outdoor ice fishing, hunting, and trapping trips that I have neglected my web page. We made numerous ice fishing trips to the Valentine NWR near Valentine, Nebraska. Also, I guided trips to Lake Wanahoo, Wildwood, and Meadowlark. Here are just a couple of pictures of some nice bluegill and crappies.

August 16 Frogging Trip

8/17/2016

On last night's frogging trip there was very little wind - an important part of successful frogging - and the frogs were aggressive. I caught 11 frogs and kept 8 (the limit) nice frogs. I keep scouting really great frogging locations that I can't wait to share with people. Frogging is fun!

June 3rd - 5th

6/6/2016

Bluegill

Channel Catfish at Maple Creek

Recent weekend fishing trip to Davis Creek and Calamus Reservoir in Central Nebraska with Jake and Chris. We caught numerous small walleye, a few white bass, and pesky drum. Our last day of the trip we loaded up and headed to Maple Creek Reservoir to see if we could find a few more, larger size walleye and more action overall. We caught walleye, c. catfish, largemouth bass, really nice bluegill, and one big bullhead (pictured) at Maple Creek. It was a nice weekend and the lakes were busy with anglers! Don't cuss the wind it can blow even harder on these trips. Always ask for a walleye chop.

Walleye from Maple Creek

June 1st Fishing Trip

6/2/2016

Kayak fishing trip at Wildwood on a nice evening with lots of action. Steve and I were kept busy catching bluegill and crappie and the occasional small bass using leeches and crawlers for bait. It was Steve's first time using an Ultralite rig and my "Satra Special", so I walked him though how that's fished. It didn't take long to catch on and soon enough he was landing fish. Steve enjoyed fishing from the Hobie Kayak and is considering purchasing one himself.