44 Nebraskaland • January-February 2021
C
attle drives are an important
part of one chapter of Nebraska's
history. For about 20 years in
the late-1800s, cowboys on horseback
would push huge herds of longhorns
from Texas to Nebraska, where the
animals were loaded on trains and
shipped to feed a growing nation.
Cattle drives and roundups remain
a part of everyday life on ranches
throughout the state today. It's a
pretty simple process, where cowboys
on horseback, ATVs or pickups push
the cows from one place to another.
But sometimes a stubborn old cow, or
a few of them, just won't do what you
want them to.
Fish drives, on the other hand,
are new to the state. In December
2019, what may be the fi rst fi sh drive
conducted in Nebraska was held at
Hanson Lake No. 3 near Plattsmouth.
The drive used sound and electricity
to push invasive, non-native Asian
carp into a bay where they could be
seined. And while this roundup was
fairly successful in doing so, capturing
25,000 pounds of mostly silver carp,
just like in a cattle drive, some of the
fi sh didn't do what they were supposed
to do.
ASIAN CARP have found
their way into every tributary of the
Missouri River in Nebraska, including
the Platte, Elkhorn, Loup or Nemaha
rivers, swimming upstream until a dam
keeps them from going farther. Just
as they found their way into Hanson
Lake, they have found their way into
other lakes as well, especially during
historic fl ooding in 2019.
"Anything that got fl ooded at that
time has the potential of having these
Asian carp in it, whether it's a sandpit
or a pond or a quarry pit that was close
to the river," said Jeff Blaser, private
waters specialist with the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission.
Blaser has taken calls from quite a
few lake associations on the subject.
He fi rst worked with the folks at
Hanson Lake in 2011 when white
perch and silver carp appeared after
fl ooding. Then again in 2018.
For those that live in the houses that
line the shore of this 44-acre sandpit
lake, the arrival of the fi sh, especially
the silver carp, was not welcome.
Silver carp are easily startled and are
known to respond to disturbances
ranging from thrown rocks to passing
motorboats by jumping up to 10 feet
out of the water.
"They've just been a real nuisance
jumping into boats and hitting people,"
said Kevin Eastman, a member of the
Carp
Roundup
Story and photos by Eric Fowler
Silver carp netted from an electrofi shing boat in Hansen Lake fi ll a tub.
