Burchard Lake, Nebraska – Bass Report

I headed down to Burchard Lake this morning in search of several trophy bass the lake is known for. After a slow start the Carolina Rig saved the day. It ended up being one of my best days on the water this year.

I arrived at the lake around 5:30am. I was the first one there and had the lake to myself for quite some time. I planned to crank the dam. After arriving at the dam I noticed how different it was this year. In the past a person could crank the dam and have some pretty solid action all day. The bass in my avatar was a over 22" and taken from the dam at Burchard. However this is a new year. The lake was low last year and a bunch of vegetation had grown in along the rip rap. That wasn’t the bad part. It was the moss that had grown in around the vegetation that hurt the crankbait bite. This prevented a cast right up to the edge of the rock. Almost every cast the green slime engulfed the bait. I tried to fish out a little deeper, but didn’t get any hits.

The next thing I tried was to throw a Venom Shakee Head Rig out to about 12 feet of water. I had no hits the either. That’s when I pulled out the Carolina Rig. On the south end of the dam is a rocky/gravel flat leading back into a small cove. Today my Carolina Rig consisted of a Venom Hollow Hog with a Venom Tube Rattle on a red Venom Sickle Hook on about a 4 foot leader. I would cast the rig into about 6 feet of water and drag it out to about 14 feet of water. It wasn’t long before I had my first fish. It was a 17" bass. On my second cast I caught another that went about 15". Then it seemed to slow down. Many casts later I caught another bass the measured about 14". I caught one other bass about the same size in the next hour.

Since it was slow and the sun was now up I thought I’d try the rip rap again. I tried a couple different crank baits down the dam, but wasn’t getting the bites. On the way back down the dam I put on a Norman DD22 Lavender Shad. I could cast it to the edge of the vegetation and in a couple cranks the bait would hit the bottom and could keep contact with the bottom all the way back to the boat and I was sitting in 15 to 20 feet of water. Near the over flow structure I hooked up with an 18" bass, but didn’t get another bite.

About 10:30 I made the best move of the day. I hit a cove with cedars scattered about the bottom. The first cast produced a 17" bass as did my second cast. The third cast I hooked up with and lost a pretty strong fish. I then hooked up with what looked like a 14/15" bass. It jumped out of the water and threw the bait. Several casts later I hooked up with a 20" bass. It faught pretty hard. It may have been the one I lost earlier. All of those fish came off of the same brush pile. After sevral other cast I moved onto another pile and hooked up with another 16" bass. It was about 11:30 and I was running short on time since I had other obligations for the afternoon. I hit several brush piles near the ramp and hooked up with a couple more bass in the 15" to 17" range.

What started as a pretty slow day ended pretty in a fury. It was one of my better days on Burchard. Burchard is one of the top rated Bass fishing lakes in Nebraska and if you live in the area and haven’t fished it, I highly recomend you do so.