Nebraska's fishing crown is McConaughy: the sandhill sea with trophy walleye and blitzing wipers. Around it, the state surprises: trout streams in the Pine Ridge, bluegill sloughs along the Platte, and Sandhill lakes where pike and perch live in cattle-country solitude.
Reports current for Friday, October 23
Every one of the 13 Nebraska waters we cover has a live read this morning. 8 are scoring 4 out of 5 or better, and none is slow. Water runs 47 F to 62 F. Pressure is falling on most of them, the trend our model scores highest. Wind touches 26 mph on the roughest of them.
Best right now: Branched Oak Lake 4/5, Elkhorn River 4/5, Harlan County Lake 4/5
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Lake McConaughy: Nebraska's largest reservoir, 22 miles of North Platte water behind Kingsley Dam, with walleye, wipers and smallmouth.
Lake Wanahoo: a no-wake Saunders County lake that the Lower Platte North NRD opened in 2012, with fish habitat built into its design.
Harlan County Lake: a 13,250-acre Corps reservoir on the Republican River that Nebraska's 2026 forecast names for white bass, wipers and crappie.
Lake Ogallala: a 320-acre no-wake lake on the east side of Kingsley Dam, known for fast-growing rainbow trout.
A 2,900-acre Sandhills reservoir southwest of Valentine that holds Nebraska's hook-and-line records for muskellunge and channel catfish.
Calamus Reservoir: a Bureau of Reclamation irrigation lake in the Nebraska Sandhills near Burwell, managed as a state recreation area, with walleye in spring and white bass, wipers and catfish as summer goes on.
A 2,845-acre reservoir near Loup City with a protected walleye slot, a 10-inch crappie minimum and summer drawdowns.
Nebraska’s scenic river: the Niobrara runs clear over sand through canyon country, holding catfish and smallmouth.
An 1,800-acre lake northwest of Lincoln where crappie carry a 10-inch minimum and wipers, striped bass, white bass and flatheads go back.
Elkhorn River at Waterloo, Nebraska: a river reach with a live USGS flow gauge, where only the water, not the riverbed, belongs to the state.
A Sandhills river: the Loup runs clear over sand through central Nebraska, holding catfish and bass.
The lower Platte at Louisville: a USGS-gauged reach with canoe access from Louisville State Recreation Area.
Enders Reservoir: a Bureau of Reclamation lake in Chase County where Nebraska Game and Parks lists walleye, wipers, white bass and pike.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: May.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake McConaughy fishing report | Reservoir | Keith | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Wanahoo fishing report | Reservoir | Saunders | modeled | Apr |
| Harlan County Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Harlan | modeled | Mar |
| Lake Ogallala fishing report | Lake | Keith | modeled | Apr |
| Merritt Reservoir fishing report | Reservoir | Cherry | modeled | Apr |
| Calamus Reservoir fishing report | Reservoir | Loup | modeled | Apr |
| Sherman Reservoir fishing report | Reservoir | Sherman | modeled | Apr |
| Niobrara River fishing report | River | Cherry | USGS | May |
| Branched Oak Lake fishing report | Reservoir | Lancaster | modeled | Apr |
| Elkhorn River fishing report | River | Douglas | USGS | May |
| Loup River fishing report | River | Nance | USGS | Apr |
| Platte River fishing report | River | Cass | USGS | May |
| Enders Reservoir fishing report | Lake | Chase | modeled | Apr |
McConaughy dominates: white-sand beaches, deep canyon water, walleye genetics that built the record book, and summer wiper blitzes that outfight anything inland. Below Kingsley Dam, Lake Ogallala offers stocked trout in the cold outflow: an odd, excellent little tailwater. The Platte system's canals and interstate lakes add everyday bass, cats and crappie across the state's waist.
May-June: walleye on Mac's points, white bass everywhere. Summer: dawn wipers under birds, catfish nights on the rivers. Fall: the sandhill lakes' pike feed up in clear shallows. Winter: ice perch and bluegill on the smaller reservoirs, midwinter trout in the canals.
The white bass x striper hybrid thrives on Mac's gizzard shad: fish over 15 pounds patrol the dam face and blitz the flats on summer mornings: Nebraska's hardest-pulling freshwater fish.