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Floated the river for the first time last weekend starting at Cronell Bridge on the National Wildlife Refuge. Wonder if there is any worthwhile fishing along it. Lots of good looking spots but never saw anything or anybody trying.
Not sure if the water quality would support trout but might make a top notch smallmouth bass fishery. Catch and release with barbless hooks and fly rod on a streem like that full of smallmouth would be quite a trip. The party doesn’t start till Berry Bridge so there’s 9miles of piece and quiet through the refuge that would be great even on weekends. Below that week days might be your only chance to cast between the tubers.
What’s anybody know about fishing along that part of the river.
The only stretch of the Niobrara River that can support trout is located in the far western parts of Nebraska, close to Wyoming. The stretch east of Valentine that supports all the float trips is too warm for trout during the summer.
There are a few smallmouth bass in that stretch; I have caught a few below Cornell Dam. But even there the Niobrara is a typical prairie river that has as much or more sand flowing downstream as it does water.
We do know that stretch can support an excellent channel catfish fishery but upstream migration of channel cats right now is blocked by the Norden Chute–a natural fish barrier. It is likely before Spencer Dam was built that there might have been a variety of other fish migrate up the Niobrara including perhaps sauger.
Daryl Bauer
Fisheries Outreach Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission
[email protected]
Bauer’s Barbs and Backlashes
