# Nebraska



## N8ON (Oct 7, 2010)

I am a Utah native, and love everything about Utah. I am heading off to do a PhD, and need to go out of the state to hopefully return to teach. I get sad when I start thinking about where I will fish, hunt, or take the kids camping. The Uintas run into Nebraska right? I have an offer from Nebraska and am making a trip out there to check it out. 
I would love some thoughts on hunting, fishing, and camping opportunities from those of you that have some experience in Nebraska.
Thanks


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

They grow some huge mule deer bucks in the sand hills of Nebraska but I don't know what the access is like. I was pheasant hunting on a friends property and I couldn't believe the size of the bucks that we were jumping on the edge of the corn fields. Oh yea, pheasant hunting is great also once you locate a area that you can hunt.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Where at in Nebraska? It's a big state.


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## N8ON (Oct 7, 2010)

Lincoln, but willing to travel for self-care!!
Pheasant hunting actually was what got me started hunting. When I was a kid I would go with my friend and his dad. We would carry our bb guns and shoot pop cans, or the stray tweety bird (but don't tell anyone_. The pheasant hunt brings back all kinds of nastalgia and is one of my favorites, so hopefully I can round up a place to chase them.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I lived in Nebraska for a couple of years, and have been traveling there on a very regular basis for the past 20, since my wife was from there. There is plenty of fishing and hunting to be had. It is a totally different game than here, as most hunting is on private lands. 

For fishing, there is plenty around Lincoln. Lots of the little lakes/ponds along I-80 are what they call "Interstate Lakes." They are managed as public fisheries by Nebraska Game, Fish and Parks. They will have panfish, bass, and catfish. All great fun. Lots of canals will also have bass as well, mostly smallmouth in the moving waters. There is always somewhere to fish if you keep a spinning rod and a box full of twisty tail jigs. I used to fly fish the interstate lakes with poppers and plugs for the panfish and bass and did quite well. 

For hunting, there is a really good walk-in access program there. Each year, Game, Fish and Parks publishes a map book, that shows all the areas they have arranged for public walk-in hunting for pheasants. Statewide, it is usually around 2 million acres of CRP kind of lands. On these, you don't need permission ahead of time - you just show up, park your car, and can hunt. Just pick up your trash and keep it nice and the landowners are good to keep it in the program. 

There are also plenty of whitetail and turkey along the Platte River drainage. I don't know about getting access around Lincoln, but out west it was pretty easy. Most farmers were glad to have you shoot some deer. 

One thing I'd suggest, is that you subscribe to NebraskaLand magazine. It is put out by Game Fish and Parks and is EXCEPTIONAL. It is like $12/year for 8 issues, and will do more to get you familiar with the amazing outdoor, hunting, and fishing opportunities in Nebraska than anything else. It is the best state outdoors magazine I've ever seen and very worth getting. 

We camped quite a bit as a family, and I also took my scout group out as well. There are some great places for all of that in Nebraska, and many very good places between Lincoln and Omaha. I loved living there and the outdoor stuff was part of the reason. It is certainly different than in Utah and it is difficult to compare the two. But if you are willing to learn new fish, techniques, and realize the prairie has its own kind of beauty, you'll really enjoy it. If you sit around pining away for something off the Mirror Lake Highway, you'll hate it. Take if for what it is though and there is plenty there.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

What *GaryFish* said.

For nearly 30 years I worked for a pipeline company whose lines paralleled Interstate 80 thru Nebraska. Our Area Headquarters was in Beatrice, south west of Lincoln a little ways. I spent quite a bit of time in Nebraska, especially Lincoln. It's pretty nice. I worked one long job there on a new pipeline and built some relationships with the landowners and got to do some bird hunting around the Blue River.....can't remember if it was Little Blue or Big Blue....maybe both.

We had crews in Beatrice, Hastings, North Platte, and Sidney. There's some sandhill country south of North Platte that is just as neat as the famous, and very popular, Sandhill Country of northwestern Nebraska. Lots of deer, pheasants and turkey south of North Platte, wow.

I've been all over North America and I don't think there's a better place for Mallards than along the Platte River by Grand Island Nebraska...maybe the White River of Arkansas.

In about 3 weeks what seems like every Sandhill Crane on the planet will be in Nebraska. Make sure you find time to witness that spectacle. wow The turkey population is just going crazy in central Nebraska.

A lot of my friends and work associates went to college in Lincoln or Columbus.

good luck to ya

.


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

My corporate offices are in Omaha and thus I have lots of contacts there. Seems like I get at least a couple real bruiser pics each year as well as lots of bird pics. Combine that with the opportunity that exists in eastern Wyoming and the Dakotas and I would consider Nebraska a good place for a sportsman. Kansas aint too bad for monster bucks either. Just don't become a Husker fan and you should be alright. There is about a 90% chance that I will spend a few years in Nebraska before my career is over.---------SS


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Amen to what Goob said about the ducks. I am not a duck hunter, but watching the clouds of ducks in that central flyway, I was about ready to convert before I moved. I've never in my life, seen the numbers of ducks and geese that come through there, seemingly all winter long. And to catch a field with 30,000 sandhill cranes taking off - just WOW.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> Amen to what Goob said about the ducks. I am not a duck hunter, but watching the clouds of ducks in that central flyway, I was about ready to convert before I moved. I've never in my life, seen the numbers of ducks and geese that come through there, seemingly all winter long. And to catch a field with 30,000 sandhill cranes taking off - just WOW.


Yep, beats anything I ever seen, Arkansas, Mississippi River Bottoms, Louisiana or Texas with maybe the exception of the snow geese population boom that's been going on, although the same snows around Beaumont came from Nebraska.

There's a place around Kearny where thousands of mallards get up in the feed bunks with the cattle every morning and every evening.

Those interstate borrow ponds will be bank-to-bank with ducks and geese from North Platte to Grand Isle....right now is a good time to see them.


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## N8ON (Oct 7, 2010)

Thanks for all of the advice. This is why I love this site. Made a trip out there last weekend to visit campus and talk to faculty. We drove out, and I have never seen so many geese and cranes in my life. The flocks of cranes around Grand Isle was incredible. I shouldn't have sold my goose decoys last year :shock:. I imagine that the rivers are mostly private, so it will take knocking doors to find places to hunt waterfowl. 
I did see whitetail as we drove, and the people I talked to said it is not too difficult to find access to hunt. They said many of the farmers consider the whitetail a nuisance. 
I could not help but wonder as I drove why there are not more antelope in Nebraska? A lot of the western part of the state reminded me of Wyoming, but I did not see any antelope.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

I just saw on National news something about all the cranes in Nebraska, like what goob was talking about.


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## chukarflusher (Jan 20, 2014)

In looking for a job there hunt there every year I would trade it for utah in a heartbeat


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Along I-80, you won't see many antelope. There are herds out west of Sidney, I've seen plenty in that region. But they are hit and miss. In the Sandhills region from about Ogallala east to maybe Lexington, but about 40 minutes north of I-80, you'll find them. Some of the largest pronghorn bucks I've ever seen in my life, were the Sandhills area of Nebraska. It really is some pretty neat country once you get to know it. 

The spring run of the cranes is just freaky cool.You can get a group of 10,000 - 20,000 spread over a couple of miles. And if they start to fly, it is absolutely breathtaking. And Spring is when that happens. 

Like I suggested - subscribe to NebraskaLand magazine and you'll learn more and more about the many great things in that state. I'd move back to Nebraska in a heartbeat if I had the opportunity. I really loved it there.


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## itchytriggerfinger (Sep 12, 2007)

I've a buddy that went out there for a similar thing that you did. I'll all to him and get back to you with what he found out.


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## Wigeon (Jun 19, 2013)

Come out to the panhandle for your deer and pronghorn hunts. There are some great pronghorn out here. Don't forget to apply for your buck pronghorn this year (Application Period is June 7th-27th). Depending on what unit you apply for, you probably won't draw a buck tag your first year, but starting on July 14th permits go on sale for the late-season doe/fawn pronghorn hunts. Those are sold over-the-counter. That is a great time of year to hunt pronghorn and you get a chance at some meat without affecting your preference points.


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