Nebraska ABA Fishing Club

Just wandering if anyone would be interested in the http://www.americanbassanglers.com central nebraska division. If so then PM or email [email protected]

I’m curious as to where you fish. With Nebraska’s no culling and our size limit restrictions I find it very hard to have tournaments in Nebrasks. Nebraska offers some very good bass fishing, but the states fishing regulations aren’t very tournament friendly for bass anglers. I wish we had groups who could stand up and lobby to get some changes in some regulations or offer some choices with tournament permits allow culling or smaller size limits. The 15″ limit isn’t the problem, it is the 1 bass 21″ or larger. I’ve got friends in Minnesota and they can actually get regulations changed. I’ve talked to game and parks several times about this and there answere was simply “There is no way”. So you bass anglers out there this is why there are’nt really any tournaments around here. Small club paper tournament are about all we get. My weeknight tournaments kind of work, but we don’t get to fish the good lakes since they have a 1 Bass 21″ or larger limit. While only fishing a couple hours no one has caught more than our 5 bass limit. Also since it is a team tournament we can have as many as 8 bass at one time and take the 5 largest to the scales. It would be nice to have other options out there. I wish our bass groups could get together and ask for more friendly regulations. All the other species are far less restrictive.

Jason

I fish for bass at Norton, Kirwin, Wilson, Glen Elder, Cedar Bluffs,Kansas….Merritt Res., Big Mac, Johnson Lake, Elwood, Davis Creek, Red Willow, Cambridge, Harlan, Sherman, Calamas, Cottonmill Lake Kearney, Yanney Park Kearney, And Sandpit south of Gibbon Nebraska. I also don’t have a problem with the regulations for Nebraska, those are some of the almost same regs. WALLEYE fisherman have to put up with so what’s the BIG DEAL!!!

I’m not trying to start an argument, I was simply curious as the where you guys can fish in state and weigh then release bass. The problem we have in eastern Nebraska is that every good bass lake has a 1 bass greater than 21″ size limit if it isn’t totally catch and release. There are few exceptions, however. Around Lincoln the Czechalnd is the only lake worth having a bass tournament at. At 85 acres it limits the size of tournaments. We’ve hit other lakes and it sucks to fish a lake where you have 10 teams and only one bass is caught. I was just curious as to what lakes you fish. Our ABA division has quite a few members. Therefore lake size and regulations force us to fish outstate. The only Nebraska water we can fish is the Missouri River. For groups who weigh and release fish it is near to impossible to have a good tournament. Most reservoirs in Nebraska a good walleye fisheries. I doubt you would have a tournament on a lake that you could only put 1 fish over 25″ in you live well. I thought maybe you guys out west had the same problems we do. Maybe that is part of the problem with us having groups to help set or ask for regulation changes. Half of the state doesn’t have a problem with them therefore it is a much smaller group wishing to have some changes. We have some great bass fisheries out here. They keep renovating our lakes and as they do this they implement size limits that simply don’t allow for wiegh-in tournaments. Our small bass clubs run paper tournaments, but each year there are arguments as to whether someone was cheating or not. With payout between $500 to $1,000 it would be hard to trust that no one cheated in our ABA or NBAA tournaments. That’s what we have to deal with out here.

When will your divisions tournament schedule be online? I’m sure some of the eastern guys might be interested in a few.

Well, first of all I wasn’t trying to start anything. Second I need members or I will be having a tournament by myself, that’s not so bad (I win, I win every tournament)haha….No way would I have a paper tournament. And yes I do have a problem with the regs. because it does hamper the end result, but I don’t have a problem if I’m stuck with it! I just fish around it! But I do agree with you it needs to be changed!

Minnesoat is ripe with slot limits and regulations that the tournament guys fish around. For both walleye and bass.

All walleyes from 20″ – 28″ must be released immediately and cannot be weighed on many of our best walleye lakes. We’ve had 200 boat tournaments on that same lake when the “keep” slot was 14″ – 16″… all other walleyes had to go back.

The entire state went one walleye over 20″ per angler this past season… but the tournaments keep going strong.

I’m surprised that a 1 over 21″ rule has such an impact.

I don’t know if bass over 21″ get kept by some people. There are a couple lakes in south east Nebraska that you can catch quite a few big bass, but seldom do you see one over 21″. Last year a caught on that went 22″ and it took a summer to catch it. Personally I think anything over 20″ should go back. Those fish got big for a reason. It would be better to protect the fish with the best genetics. That way the can produce others just like them. There aren’t realy any options to fish around them other than to go out of state. Size regulations and lake size really hurt us tournament anglers. It’s been a while since I’ve looked at Iowas tournament permits, but it seems like the had a couple options with culling and such to work with the tournament anglers. All of our fish are released in pretty good shape. Whether there is any post release mortality who knows. It would be nice to get the option to hold a tournament and still keep the short fish to be released later. Tournament anglers are smart guys. You avoid a lot of problems by not having a tournament. during the hottest summer months.

Jason, I can see why this would be a big problem but since I have not fished a tourney before I hadn’t even thought about how tough that must be.

James, this regulation is one over 21 inches PERIOD, meaning that is all you can bring to the scales. There are NO fish under 21 inches allowed. Everybody bringing one BIG fish or no fish at all to the scales wouldn’t make for much of a tourney.

It’s something that the state needs to look at. It’s appropriate management for some waters, but a little more liberal slot could be attempted on some the lakes.

The risk is that some of the fisheries could be hurt by overharvest. Unfortunately there are still too many people who think they have to keep everything they catch.

Oh…. gotcha! So then it is just like the size limit on smallies up on mille lacs. I read it is a one over 21 per angler but that they could still weight fish under 21″.

Yeah, a one over 21 inch size limit pretty much blows the whole tournament deal all to heck. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

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Oh…. gotcha! So then it is just like the size limit on smallies up on mille lacs. I read it is a one over 21 per angler but that they could still weight fish under 21″.

Yeah, a one over 21 inch size limit pretty much blows the whole tournament deal all to heck. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

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Yep, just like smallies on Mille Lacs. There are pros and cons to such tight regs, but maybe something can be worked out in the future. When I have a little more time I’m going to research which lakes don’t have such strict regs.

Jason, I supposed they keep the regs more strict in your area due to the greater number of anglers???

I don’t know why they do it. If you look at the lakes with these regs they have be renovated in the last 5 years or so. A couple of them have had them for a while. Don’t get me wrong. These lakes are fun to fish because of the bigger bass. I would rather see some sort of slot limit protecting the bigger bass. IF I were to eat a bass it wouldn’t be a 21″+ bass. It would be a smaller one. On my families farm pond we try to leave the big ones in there and take 10″-13″ bass out. My parents can eat all of them they want, just leave me some crappie to eat. Personally bass aren’t very tasty.

Jason

Jason, I agree with you 100 percent, but the problem isn’t you and me, it’s the guys who think they have to bring home every fish they catch and don’t consider the overall welfare of a fishery. There’s nothing wrong with harvesting a few fish here and there, but the idea of selective harvest/catch-n-release hasn’t caught on as well as it needs to yet. I still see way too many fish being harvested that should have been turned back (in my opinion), even bass. Don’t get me wrong. I love to keep a meal once in a while but we (anglers) have got to be more careful and be sure to release the mid-to-larger females. We know that good fisheries management also requires us to take X number of fish out of the population every year to allow for optimal growth. I guess the problem is that the state is afraid that if they give ’em an inch they’ll take a mile. I can’t say that I blame them. There are a lot of irresponsible folks out there and it doesn’t take long to destroy a fishery these days. I’ve seen it done. I’m not sure what the solution is. Like you said, probably some sort of reasonable slot limit would be a good idea.

I really think the state could install special tourney regulations for X amount of tourneys on these lakes each year, but politically that would never fly. What I mean is that anyone wanting to hold a live release tourney on Lake X would have to apply for a special application that would allow them to catch, weigh, and release X number fish in a specific slot range for that tourney. You would get some level of delayed mortality but at least it would be highly regulated.

Back to the original question, I don’t think there are many bass tournament waters or tournaments in Nebraska(other than a few small clubs). The Missouri River, but you mentioned that, and most guys who fish tournaments around here have SD &/or Iowa permits. It’s to the point I hardly even need Nebraska anymore and I live here.

Just to show how poor tournaments are here. A few years back Game and Parks asked the NE Bass Federation and its clubs to report fish #’s and size from thier tournaments. They could have hundreds of guys in the field reporting on lakes all over the state with data it took them forever to get. The program failed in a few years, I submitted the info from our club but that was maybe one lake a year, and many other clubs didn’t even have that. Game and Parks kind’a chewed on us for not helping but like I told them. They ran us all out of the state and it’s hard to report on what we don’t do.

I don’t know how many guys are in the NE Bass Fereration but each year every club is eligible to send an 8man team to our state tournament. We never get a full field but still have close to 200 guys there and I don’t remember one they held in Nebraska. The surounding states are more than welcome to put us up for that week and every other weekend of the season. Between BASS, the new TBF, ABA and all the other tournament circuits that Nebraska anglers fish I wonder how many dollars leave the state each year?

It’s an old agrument I’ve had with Game & Parks for years. That,,, and why they spend all the dollars stocking fish that can’t reproduce here and little to none on bass that can. So far it seems like the easy way out is to keep adding fish who survive long enough to catch to a barren bowl and regulate how fast poeple take them out. Kind’a like a state full of pay puddles. Surounding states use fish that are their own renewable resource, supplement those, and give them the habitat to flourish in. At least that’s the way it looks from here.

If you find any place for tournaments in Nebraska (where the numbers, no-culling & limits aren’t a problem) please post them. We’d like to find something a little closer to home too.

Good post Dan. I didn’t realize you guys had so much trouble fishing bass tourneys in Nebraska. That’s a shame.

I’ve got to admit, I’m a little in the dark with what’s happening on most Nebraska waters. I stick to my little Northeast corner and have probably spent more time fishing MN and IA (except maybe the Missouri River).

So, it sounds like anglers have tried to get the regs changed and haven’t made any progress. Holding tourneys in other states may be the only real option then. As you pointed out Dan, that’s money lost for Nebraska. It’s funny. Nebraska has gotten really good at letting the money flow to surrounding states. Take the casinos in Council Bluffs for example.

Good post, I couldn’t have said it better myself Dan.

Wade also is right on the money!

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Nebraska has gotten really good at letting the money flow to surrounding states. Take the casinos in Council Bluffs for example.

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We had several of our weeknight tournaments at Czechland Lake near Prauge. One night when we stopped at the gas station on the way home the attendent there asked if there was a tournament or something. He mentioned we were the 8th boat that stopped in there that night. Just think of how many club tournaments we have out of state each weekend. I’m sure our small towns would love some of that action.

I was real surprised the deal with Cabelas worked out. I was sure it would end up in Iowa.

Jason

I just related my experience and the way it looks to me. Still have to go out of state for most tournaments I enter and/or try and work around the rules.

With our little club we’re just fishing for points and as long as everybody’s paired we can weigh each others fish right in the boat and release them. Still causes problems with everybody having a different scale and if there’s an odd man we’re back to the cull thing before he can find another member to weigh his fish.

With the paper tournaments you’ve seen does everybody just measure their own fish, use length instead of weight, and trust that no one has a shorter ruler than anyone else? I’d like to figure out a way to fish five 12″ fish wherever we go but don’t know how to do it and keep everybody happy. I’d be interested to find out way’s other clubs work around the problems and see if there’s something new we could try.