Ice has been questionable in Nebraska this year to say the least. But there is some great ice out there and some good fish to be caught too. Some friends and I made a trip to Sherman Reservoir on Sunday and were pleased with what we found. There was over 12 inches of ice in the bays and it was no problem to be mobile with an ATV.
My friend Todd was up on Saturday trying to get things worked out on a good bite. It didn’t take him long to get into a few walleye and some real nice white bass and even a few nice slab crappie.
Sunday we set out to hit an area where Todd had the best action the day before. His best action on Saturday was in the afternoon in 12 to 14 feet of water and things were slow in this same area Sunday morning. Greg (walleye4) was able to get a nice fat 19 inch keeper walleye on a tip up and Pete caught a nice 14 inch crappie. Pete was using some of my real weeds and was catching more fish at this spot than anyone else. After things went dead in this area we moved to a little deeper water. We marked fish right away in 17 feet of water and quickly got set up. We would catch a few fish that were moving through and then after 10 minutes of nothing we’d move. Being mobile and hole hopping was a good pay off for us. We managed to catch a couple of dozen crappie and a dozen white bass. Most of our fish in the afternoon came on Swedish Pimples tipped with wax worms.
We had a great day on the ice and I look forward to eating some of the fish we kept. We would have liked to of stayed into the evening to see if the walleye bite would pick up but as you can see from the pictures the snow was coming down pretty good all day. We didn’t want to risk getting stuck on the way out so we left early. Sure was a good thing we did as the trip home took close to 5 hours compared to the 2 1/2 hour it took to get there.
Ben,
Was nice getting to meet you guys last weekend. Wish things would have been a little better for us but that 19″ eye on a tip-up was worth the trip I guess. You guys did much better than us as we only got 2 other crappie. Have fun this weekend, we are going to try heading south this time around. I am feeling the need for some 15″ crappie. Well, maybe about 50 of them!
nice report!
20 minutes away and no call
I’ve talked to a couple of guys that are saying that they can’t believe the mixed bags that they are getting up at Sherman. The way they are talking, you don’t sit on a school of 1 type of fish but rather have several different breeds of fish feeding together. Not the way that lake usually fishes 
.
Looks like you and Pete had a good day and I am sure that the next time you drive 50 yards from my house on your way to go fishing, you will give me a call
No way! You guys really do have fish in Nebraska?
Do you have to use corn?
Seriously, great report guys!
That’s funny Tuck!! Pete and I tell people that’s what we’re using all the time.
Good stuff, Ben! Sure wish I could have made it. Hopefully this week we’ll get the truck in the shop and get the tranny fixed…that’s really becoming a major pain for me. I want to get out on some ice before it’s gone!
Well the crappie on the left would be leading the on line tournament but I thought that the lead was 15″. That fish went 14 1\4 and it tasted great!! I will go back and get another in a couple weeks. Nice report Ben.
Nice report Ben
Thanks for the report! Brings back some memories. I fished Sherman as a teenager 20 plus years ago. In fact they had a tourney that a friend and I won with crappie. Cool to know there are still guys fishing it. Are there any pike in the lake? Seems like we used to try tip-ups for pike as well.
bcon
Those stupid snakes are all over the place in there
I’m pretty sure we were broke off by a couple snakes.
Thanks for the report Ben! It’s awesome to see Nebraska ice reports on IDA this year!
If the ice sticks around you’ll see lots more.
Sherman is always one of the last lakes to lose its ice in central Nebraska. Our best icefishing bite last year was in February.
The mixed bags are something new for us, too. In years past you might get one white mixed in with the crappie. This year the late afternoon walleyes have been a great bonus.
We put a 32″ snake in the bag last week.
Drop me a line when you go back Ben.
dj
It was a cold one that day,, burrrrrr. good to meet you guys. Always fun on sherman, hopefully a few more fish for me next time. Ohh and by the way, how fast did you pull my clam man, big dent in the front of my sled, next time im going to have to install a govorn on that thing
. thanx for pulling that, it couldnt have been a warm ride back. hope to fish with you again..
It was good meeting you and I’m sure I’ll be back at Sherman in a couple of weeks. I’ll let you know when I’m headed up there. You and Greg need to bring Brian next time!!!
Yeah ill prolly get those runners, because im sure you pulled it slower than i would have
. next time we will have to try to get Brian out. He has been “busy”, whos to busy to catch fish on the best ice we have had in years 
. If your’re around brian that was a shot at you bro. 
I don’t think Brian has been on the ice since I took him down to the 15″ SLAB POND!
He might be able to shed a little light on what to expect for you come this sunday!
By the way, they got 6-8″ down there now! 
I will be in touch with you to let you know the SECRET 
bait so you can go and get some.
I’ll see what I have going on next weekend and maybe we could get together down there!!!
Ice might be gone by then Ben.
Suppose to get warmer down there next weeek and they only got 6-8″ now. I will let you know what we see this weekend. Also have contacts down that to monitor it for me too!