Zorinsky Lake, Nebraska – Bass Report

Saturday we headed to Zorinsky Lake in the Omaha Metro area for a Lincoln Bass Club tournament. With all the rain we’ve been receiving know one really knew what to expect. In my boat we didn’t have to wait long for the action to pick up.

We started in a small cover near the dam. My partner was throwing a buzzbait. I alternated between a Venom hollow hog hog and a crankbait. I wasn’t having much luck but my partner landed a 15 1/4" keeper within half an hour. He caught his 6" from the riprap of the dam as soon as it hit the water. We worked the rest of the way down the dam without another bite.

The next place we fished was another cove on the north end of the dam. We pitched texas rigged Venom hollow hogs as well as jigs around the timber and vegetation. I missed a fish, but didn’t get another bite.

I noticed a lot of fish beneath the boat. My next decision saved the day. I backed off the bank a ways and pulled out my Carolina Rigging rod rigged with a Venom black/blue flake hollow hog on a 5 foot leader and got to work. I cast out as far as I could. The bait started in about 4 foot of water and I worked it out into about 8 feet or so. Around 6:35 I caught a 17" bass (pictured left). Then at 6:55 I caught a 20 1/2" 5 pound bass (pictured above and below). Both fish we caught in about 7 to 8 feet of water. Things were looking great. It was only 7am and I had the rest of the day to catch a couple keepers more to go with my kicker fish. After that the action quickly died down. We talked to a couple other boats in the tournament who said it was really slow. We kept at it all day. Around 12:30 my partner caught a 16" keeper in shallow water around some vegetation on a brush hog. My last move of the day took us to another cove filled with timber. I caught a short bass on a Lucky Craft SKT shallow running crankbait.

What started out to be a great day kind of ended in really slow. This fishing was pretty tough. I wondered if I should have backed off the bank a little earlier. Everyone said they caught fish early, but it quickly died down. I finished the day in 2nd place with 2 bass weighing 7.83 pounds. I also had the big bass of 5.01 pounds. The winner had 5 fish weighing 9.37 pounds. My partner finished 6th with 2 bass weighing 3.81 pounds. Considering the tough fishing a 2nd place finish with big bass wasn’t that bad of a day. A day like that beats any day in the office.