Nebraska Fall Fishing

I recently stumbled across this site and have been trying to pick up clues as to what might work in my State. (Nebraska)
I am fairly new to the fall fishing as I usually follow the BigRed, but as many know we aren’t fairing to well this season. So, that opens up the fall fishing, I never realized that this is supposed to be some of the best for walleye! You wouldn’t know it by looking at the lakes around, no one on them! I guess my question is, does anyone know any secret fishing techniques on the Nebraska reservoirs? I have been out recently to Elwood, and Branched Oak and have marked amazing amounts of shad and baitfish, but can’t seem to hook-up. Any info would be greatly appreciated because my 10 yr old son is starting to lose interest in fishing because I can’t seem to put him on the fish.

Welcome to the site. There is a Nebraska forum area which there are many people to get you started in the right direction, some may not get right back to you though, they are getting ready to make the trek to Mille Lacs lake in Minnesota.

You mean a Nebraska forum on this site?

Welcome to the site – while I haven’t fished in Nebraska for over 30 years I want you to know that I am a die hard Husker fan and it’s more than a bit painful this year. I was born during the back2back champ’s in the early 70’s and was wrapped in a red blanket with an ‘N’ on it for one of my first photo’s.

Well at least the Gophers and Hawkeyes aren’t doing any better either…

Again welcome!

ted

Welcome to the greatest fishing site out there, Husker!

Go to ‘forums’ and you’ll scroll down a ways until you see a link for ‘Nebraska’. Click on that, and you’ll see all the forums we have there.

I’ve been to Elwood quite a bit this year, and have done extremely crappy. Of course, Johnson is no better. I’d really like to make another trip down to Harlan, we’ll see.

See ya on the Nebraska pages!

What is the secret on Elwood? I’ve never done all that well out there. I was out 2 weekends ago in the rain and caught a couple of wiper and a walleye, 10″ er, didn’t even know Elwood had small eye’s. Everyone I’ve caught out there is in the slot or bigger. You ever fish Sherman much, and if so, is it any easier to fish than Elwood?
Thanks,

Great, another stinkin’ Husker fan. Just kidding, I’m a closet fan.

Welcome to IDA , no doubt you’ll gain some knowledge on the lakes you are targeting by reading up in the NE forum. Luckily they don’t let me in there anymore or the rash of BS would go on forever. Right Ben, Zack, Brian….

Welcome

Personally I find fall walleye fishing in most of Nebraska reservoirs to be tough. Our state has large populations of shad which are at their peak right now. The better fisherman with jigging spoons can get their fish and occasionally trolling can be a good option.

For me the fall fishing on the Missouri River system is the place to be locally though I’m sure you’ll find other opinions. The tailwaters at Gavin’s and Ft. Randall can be excellent for jigging, the river above Lewis & Clark along with Lewis & Clark itself can be good also. The fish will be congregating on the south drop-offs of LC along with the Marina area and outlet shortly if they haven’t already.

Francis Case is a personal favorite to troll with boards and leadcore for me in the fall. Fish like these my tourney partner John is holding can be found off points, creek mouths, and flats where you find the schools of shad balled up and and being herded. This picture off a X-15 from a few years back on Case shows a good example of what I like to find>> balled up baitfish with walleye under and probably in them. This is a classic spot up there, a channel in a creek mouth with timber on the edges. We’ll run leadcore and boards to target these fish.

Good luck, I wish I had better answers for your ten year old. I’d probably be thinking jigging at Gavin’s. Maybe anchor up in an current seam or an eddy and have him jig or use a crappie rig with minnows. With stable weather usually you can get some bites (the snags can be a pain though, anchoring might help lessen that for you).

You will only be able to use the landing closest to the dam (Francis Case)and run from there. everything else is high and dry. Above the dam that is.

Cool screen shot of the sonar, it gets my blood pumping seeing that sonar of balled up baitfish for chasing suspended eyes. Thanks for sharing Todd.

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Luckily they don’t let me in there anymore or the rash of BS would go on forever. Right Ben, Zack, Brian….

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I have NO idea what you’re talkin about!!

Yup, it’s been tough for me. I know a few guys who have Elwood figured out….I’m not one of them. Lots of drops there, and I’m starting to narrow down a few that seem to hold fish. Those are the ones I want to target with jig/minnows, spoons, or something I can get those fish up with. I’ve been trolling that lake a lot this summer, and haev been striking out a lot too. Not even an accidental muskie. It’s been bad. I’m starting to agree with a few people who say that lake is really screwed this year with fluctuating water levels, of the likes they’ve never seen. Water coming in, seeping down, comin in, seeping……it’s gotta be screwing with those fish. First they move up into the weeds because now they have a place to go. Then the water receeds, and they have to go somewhere else. I was over there Monday and that lake has lost a lot of water the last month. I was telling people that you’ll be able to use the temp ramp well into May and maybe even June if they don’t add any water. Now I’m starting to doubt that.

As for Sherman, I think it’ll be a better lake after all the renovation is completed, which I think is this year or early next. I haven’t been up there this fall, and probably won’t go either. Last year it was nothing but a big mudhole because it was so low, and I’m sure that’s the way it is now. I’ll wait till next year.

Welcome to the Forum and don’t let Brian convince you that Sherman is nothing better than a mud hole. Well it is a mud hole but we do catch some really nice walleyes out of it during the fall and winter months. This fall has been an exception to that rule though.

http://www.in-depthangling.com/forum/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/588324/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/186/fpart/1

As far as what will happen as the water cools; one can only hope that it starts to ball up the shad a bit and brings the walleyes into some shallower haunts. I have a cabin on Sherman and don’t plan on putting the boat away for at least a few more weeks.

Reason One: They have to feed up for the winter.
Reason Two: The Huskers are not worth watching on TV so why not fish.
Reason Three: To catch some before Ben gets them all through the ice again this winter.

Good fishin’
jorg

Welcome to IDA Husker! Glad you found us.

I live in Hickman and fish a lot of the Lincoln area lakes. I hit Branched Oak quite a bit in the spring and late fall. Last year we had some luck at BO trolling at night when the water temp finally fell below 50. For me the fall bite doen’t start until that 50 degree mark. Some years you can count on lakes not being good because of “out of control” shad populations. I’m guessing that finding a good fall bite this year will be tough. Shad populations seem to be up. Especially at BO along with the white perch. Stick with us here at IDA and we’ll get you on track. I haven’t been out around here lately but as soon as I get back from Minnesota next week I’ll be ready to hit the water around here. Maybe you could even join me for a day sometime.

Oh yea, one more thing. That mud hole by Loup City (Sherman)…… it should be on fire in a week or two if it’s not already.

WELCOME The mud hole at L.C. is not on fire yet. Bait is not bunched up real well and hasn’t been all year long. In fact the crappie are even spotty on the dam and that is hardly ever the case. The fall has been tough for me too so don’t feel alone. There are a lot of walleye somewhere in Sherman and one would think that some day soon they are going to show back up in full force. If your son is getting discouraged about fishing, shoot me a pm and this next spring we will get him on some fish. Stick around here and the IDA family will hook you up with some GREAT info.

I really appreciate the feedback you guys have given, and makes me feel a little better about not doing so well!

It’s been a real struggle, man. Don’t even get me started on Elwood.

We get back from MN I’ll be out there next week and see what happens. Hopefully I can coerce SOMEthing into eating.

I have heard rumor about a nite bite using a floating glass shad rap with rattle in it and just twitching it from the shore out to the boat and getting whacked by fat eyes Supposed to be off the main points across from the boat dock. I guess it has to be dead calm though. I tried it the last time I was out there and ended up getting the poop scared out of me by some catfish (small) right up by shore though!

Has anyone heard anything about Davis Res. I have wanted to fish it but have never run into anyone that has fished it recently? Is it a shad lake as well?

Davis is a lake FULL of shad. Unlike Sherman that is only ten miles away where we can hardly ever find a school of shad; Davis fishing is tough due to its overabundance of shad.

It is a lot like Elwood in that it is a very deep impoundment. Many of the large walleyes come from Davis when water is flowing into the lake and people fish the inlet area. Many large walleyes fall victim to bank fishermen in the inlet area using both live bait and jig/plastic. Others prefer to fish the inlet from boats and the “Fergie spoon” has been electric in the inlet on the drops.

Probably the greatest year was a few years back when a large number of alewife came down the canal from Calamus. Must have been a large number of huge walleyes that came with them because the fall fishing was like a smorgasborg. It has cooled off significantly since that time.

Good fishin,
dj