48 Nebraskaland • January-February 2025
F
isheries biologists are hoping
anglers fi shing four reservoirs
in southeastern Nebraska will
go home and have a fi sh fry after a
successful day on the water. And they
are hoping largemouth bass will be on
the menu.
Bass? What? You can't keep bass!
Yes, bass. Few anglers harvest bass,
thanks to decades of promoting catch-
and-release fi shing for the species. Yet
harvesting small bass, which, at times,
have dominated the fi sh populations
at Duck Creek, Prairie Queen, Prairie
View and Wagon Train lakes, is
what biologists think is needed
to produce more big largemouths
in those waters.
To facilitate the harvest, a new,
experimental protected slot limit goes
into eff ect this year on those four
waters requiring anglers to release all
bass 15- to 18-inches in length, with
only one fi sh over 18 inches allowed
in the bag. The lakes previously had
a 21-inch minimum length limit on
largemouth bass, a departure from the
statewide 15-inch minimum.
Aaron Blank, southeast district
fi sheries manager, said new or
renovated waters are loaded with
nutrients and can sustain a lot of fi sh.
"You get really good year-class
strength out of the fi rst stocking, but
the problems really begin as you start
stacking on multiple year classes," he
said. "This creates an environment
with lots of competition for food and
typically slows growth rates."
The result is often lots of bass in
the 11- to 14-inch range, with few
fi sh growing to longer lengths, and
those taking longer to get there than
biologists or anglers would like.
Case Studies
At Prairie Queen, in Papillion, for
example, scales collected from bass
in 2021 to estimate the age of fi sh
found that, on average, fi sh didn't top
15 inches in length until age 6. Blank
hopes the new regulation will help fi sh
reach that length a year or two sooner.
In 2022, Wagon Train, located near
Hickman, was drained and renovated
to remove gizzard shad, white perch
and common carp that had found their
way into the lake since it was last
renovated in 2001. It was restocked
in 2022 and 2024, and while drought
Bigger Bass
By Eric Fowler
Better Waters Ahead
An Experiment at Four Locations
These four
"experimental"
waterbodies are
requiring anglers to
release all bass 15- to
18-inches in length,
with only one fi sh over
18 inches allowed to
keep (previously it
was 21 inches at these
lakes).
For the rest of the
state's waters, it
remains a 15-inch
minimum.
