Nebraska Lakes
Lake McConaughy
Got a thirst for BIG walleyes? Lake McConaughy in western Nebraska is an absolute toad factory! The potential for giant walleyes as well as white bass, wipers and even catfish is present every single day. The incredible number of gizzard shad and alewive in the system grows fish enormous and pound for pound are some of the heaviest fish you will ever catch. An aggressive stocking program by Nebraska Game and Parks helps support this tremendous fishery.
Memphis Lake
Memphis Lake is one of the hidden gems in eastern Nebraska. This was Nick’s favorite lake through high school as it consistently produced some excellent largemouth bass fishing with the chance at a nice black crappie or channel catfish as well. This is one of the many success stories by Nebraska Game and Parks for habitat improvements.
Memphis is a small reservoir that they dug out the shoreline edges making deep water habitat right next to shore for easy access for shore anglers. These improvements, coupled with being about 40-50 minutes outside of both Omaha and Lincoln, makes for a terrific fishery that lacks the pressure of the majority of other eastern Nebraska lakes.
Lawerence Youngman Lake
This is a relatively new reservoir located right in the heart of the Metro on 192nd/Dodge Streets that still offers some spectacular fishing. When it was first constructed it produced some excellent largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish fishing. Black crappie were introduced and added another element to the fishery. Now, with aggressive stockings of advanced (8 inch) walleye starting in 2015 Nebraska Game and Parks has created a very nice walleye fishery, with a healthy population of walleye in the system. There is also a substantial number of fish over 15 inches, making this an excellent fishery within minutes of thousands of anglers.
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Wherspann Lake
This lake has an interesting tale. In November 2016 Nebraska Game and Parks applied an aggressive treatment of rotenone (a chemical used to kill fish) that resulted in over 250,000 gizzard shad being killed as well as a large number of goldfish as well.
Why would they do this? Gizzard shad feed on zooplankton. Zooplankton are a critical food source for every juvenile game fish species. The result of all these gizzard shad was that the bluegill and black crappie populations had been severely stunted with few fish over 7-8 inches for either species in the system.
The shad and small panfish grew goliath channel catfish, blue catfish, walleye and largemouth bass. Now post treatment the panfish populations are really doing well with some very nice bluegill as well as lots of numbers and good size black crappie in the system. There also is still some very nice channel/blue catfish, walleye and largemouth bass present giving this lake something for anglers looking to catch a lot of fish or anglers looking to catch big fish.
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Lake Wanahoo
Lake Wanahoo is also a relatively new reservoir located about 30-40 minutes West of Omaha. Wanahoo has a tremendous amount of structure from flooded shelterbelts, rocky fishing jetties and also submerged main lake structure as well. This makes for some really fun fishing.
Wanahoo has a tremendous crappie fishery but also offers some goliath bluegill, catch-and-release northern pike opportunities as well as largemouth bass, walleye and channel catfish. This is an incredibly fun to lake to fish whether on ice, from a boat or off shore.
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Two Rivers State Recreation Area
Two Rivers is a really fun area to fish for a variety of species. Lakes #1 and #2 offer some terrific channel catfish opportunities as well as largemouth bass, bluegill and black crappie. Carp and bigmouth buffalo also are present for bowfishing or rod and reel opportunities.
Lake #3 also has a terrific population of very large channel catfish as well as having panfish and bass available. Lake #5 offers rainbow trout fishing with the purchase of a trout tag.
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Zorinsky Lake
Zorinsky Lake is one of the top outdoor recreation areas in all of the Omaha metro. Featured around the lake, baseball fields, walking trails, playgrounds and more surround the lake. Of course, fishing is another top recreation option.
Deep and clear, Zorinsky features both shallow and deep weedlines that provide cover for all species of fish. Another strong multispecies fishery, Zorinsky offers excellent bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass and even walleye fishing. Except plenty of catfish too!
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Other Lakes to Check Out
Eastern NE: Walnut Creek Lake, Cunningham Lake, Branched Oak Lake, Summit Lake, Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area
Western NE: Merritt Reservoir, Maloney Reservoir, Calamus Reservoir, Sherman Reservoir
