FINALLY!!! I finally get a free day during a weekend and was able to make a day trip down to Southwest Nebraska to meet up with my fishing buddy Jeremy and get out on some ice on Saturday. We didn’t know were we wanted to go for sure because of mixed reports but ended up deciding to travel down to North-central Kansas for some small State Lake action.
We were the first fisherman to the park at around 7:00am or so and the weather was absolutely perfect. No wind and temps in the lower 30’s, it was almost balmy. Neither Jeremy nor I had ever fished this body of water, but we had received a couple of tips on where to start. We drilled about 15 holes around were we believed there to be a sunken brush pile. Well, we believed wrong, but were able to find a few roaming fish. Using small jigging spoons and Gill Pills we were able to pick up a few nice size crappie and some good Gills.
After a couple of hours we went searching for new structure. We drilled about 20 more holes in an area and found a little bit of brush. The fish out of this pile were on the smaller size and other than 1 LMB that went about 2 pounds, pretty unproductive. So off we went again. We ended up at a fish attractor buoy that had a really nice pile of brush at it and the fishing started to get a little better. The first fish out of the ice at this spot was a beautiful 13.5” crappie that Jeremy landed and soon after that came a nice 9.25” fatty gill. We fished that spot for a few more hours and by 2:00 we left the ice with 11 keeper crappie, 8 keeper gills and a great appreciation for the time we got to spend fishing together.
On Sunday, my wife Kelli and I were got to make a short afternoon trip to a small central Nebraska farm pond. We got out onto the ice around 3:30 in the afternoon and after drilling a few holes we found some a couple of good spots. The crappie and gills that we got into were small but the time that Kelli and I got to spend out on the ice together was refreshing. Remember guys, every once and a while it is nice to treat the wife to a day out on the water or ice. Good Luck!!
Those are some nice fish
how much ice do you have down there?
Great looking crappies
About 8″ of ice on both bodies
Great report Zach!
Glad to see you got on some good fish. We’ll have to meet up at Sherman soon to try to find some eyes. 
Let’s hope some colder temps move back into the area. 
Sounds good Ben
There was alot of free water sitting on the ice when we left Kansas on Saturday and the roads were HORRIBLE 
The ice we were on in KS was pretty good too but we didn’t have any water on top of it. The roads were starting to get pretty sloppy too! Where in KS were you?
Great report Zach!
We were south of Oberlin
Kinda looks like Sheridan State Fishing Lake. Been to Sheridan a few times during the crappie spawn. If I get a good ice report before the weekend, I may head south 1 more time before the lake opens up.
Very nice .
Out of respect for this very small, EXTREMELY vulnerable lake, I don’t feel comfortable giving out it’s name. I truely hope you understand. There are many lakes and ponds in SW Nebraska and northern Kansas which these techniques will work at and I don’t believe it is in the best interest of the fishery to give it’s name.
Great report Zach. My wife gets treated to LOTW GTG. I think we both win on that one! LOL
Looks like you all had fun. Great job Zach!
Good stuff, Zach-man!
Nice report Zach, how is the ice holding up down there?
The ice is doing better than what I thought it would for the nice temps that we have had lately, but I don’t know how long that is going to hold up. It sounds like it is supposed to get back down into the 20’s next week so if we can hold on for a few more days, we should be OK
We didn’t get the wind we usually do with these type of winter warm ups. I was out ealier this week with the wheeler and after I drilled my first hole I wished I’d of left the wheeler on the trailer. The ice was still 9 inches but is was soft and when I drilled half way through there was water seeping through.
The cold weather in the forcast should help heal things up and even add a inch or two now that the snow is gone. 
We could see 20 inches in Nebraska this year if things play out right. That would mean no more snow and a week or two of negative lows. Lets hope. 