35 fishing listed
Last updated October 2026
Harlan County Reservoir
Nebraska's second-largest lake at 13,250 acres on the Republican River, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir known for walleye, white bass, wipers, and channel catfish — plus strong ice fishing in winter.
Jeffrey Lake
A 900-acre canal-fed reservoir five miles south of Brady, run by Central Nebraska Public Power for hydroelectric generation — under-fished for the quality of its walleye, white bass, wiper, crappie, and catfish populations.
Calamus Reservoir
A 5,123-acre Sandhills reservoir with some of the clearest water in Nebraska, holding walleye, white bass, northern pike, muskies, and crappie over a clean sand bottom.
Medicine Creek Reservoir
An 1,800-acre Republican River valley reservoir near Cambridge, a locals' lake for walleye, crappie, wipers, and channel catfish, with good shore access and a quieter feel than the bigger southwest impoundments.
Lewis and Clark Lake
Nebraska's second-largest reservoir on the Missouri River at Gavins Point Dam, with walleye, sauger, bass, and catfish in the lake — and a famous tailrace below the dam with October paddlefish snagging and year-round fishing at the "Fishing Wall."
Elwood Reservoir
An 1,150-acre CNPPID reservoir three miles north of Elwood, managed as a wildlife management area, with special walleye regulations that have built a strong population of over-18-inch fish — plus wipers, largemouth bass, and muskies.
Enders Reservoir
A 1,707-acre reservoir on Frenchman Creek and one of the four Southwest Reservoirs, prized as a quiet, uncrowded fishery for white bass, crappie, walleye, wipers, and channel catfish — with a fall-winter wildlife refuge on its western end.
Fremont Lakes
Twenty spring-fed sandpit lakes three miles west of Fremont totaling nearly 300 acres of water — largemouth bass, crappie, and catfish everywhere, muskellunge stocked in Lake 20, and 5,000 rainbow trout planted in Lake 2 each fall and spring.
Box Butte Reservoir
A 1,600-acre Niobrara River reservoir nine miles north of Hemingford on the west edge of the Sandhills, with clear water, strong northern pike and walleye fishing, and a reputation as one of Nebraska's best ice-fishing lakes.
Fort Kearny SRA Lakes
Seven spring-fed sandpit lakes totaling 21 acres at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area, minutes off I-80 — easy, family-friendly fishing for largemouth bass, bluegill, channel catfish, and crappie, with rainbow trout stocked in Lake 6 each fall and spring.
Oliver Reservoir
A 270-acre flood-control reservoir on Lodgepole Creek eight miles west of Kimball, managed by the South Platte NRD — a quiet, low-pressure lake with walleye, crappie, northern pike, stocked tiger muskies, and rainbow trout.
Johnson Lake
A 2,068-acre lake twelve miles southwest of Lexington, best known for white bass and walleye — hundreds of Master Angler fish have come from here — plus hard-fighting wipers, crappie, and catfish, with a full-service lake community around it.
Pawnee Lake
A 740-acre Salt Valley reservoir a mile off I-80 west of Lincoln, a favorite of Lincoln-area anglers for walleye, largemouth and white bass, channel and flathead catfish, crappie, and northern pike — with easy bank access all around.
Long Pine Creek
One of Nebraska's best trout streams, with about 20 miles of cold spring-fed water where wild brown and rainbow trout reproduce naturally in gravel beds — the middle stretch from Seven Springs to Camp Witness fishes best.
Louisville SRA Lakes
A string of clear sandpit lakes at Louisville State Recreation Area between Omaha and Lincoln, with bass, crappie, and catfish in the pits and 500 rainbow trout stocked into Lake 1A each fall and spring.
Sherman Reservoir
A 2,845-acre Middle Loup River reservoir near Loup City, managed under a 20-to-28-inch protected walleye slot since 2009 that has built a true trophy population — plus crappie fishing that hit a 20-year high in recent surveys.
Branched Oak Lake
The largest of Lincoln's Salt Valley lakes at 1,800 acres, two and a half miles north of Malcolm — flathead catfishing as good as any in the state (catch-and-release), plus wipers, walleye, largemouth bass, and crappie, with a marina and 600+ campsites.
Hugh Butler Lake
The 1,630-acre lake behind Red Willow Dam, ten miles north of McCook, where state-record white and black crappie have been caught — plus Master Angler-class walleye, northern pike, wipers, and bass in submerged timber.
Lake Minatare
A 2,300-acre North Platte Valley reservoir built in 1915, ten miles northeast of Scottsbluff, with walleye, white bass, northern pike, and smallmouth bass — plus a stone lighthouse picnic shelter you won't find anywhere else.
Dismal River
A winding 72-mile Sandhills river cutting deep cedar-lined canyons through Hooker and Thomas counties, with 22 miles of stocked brown and rainbow trout water on its north and south forks — remote, wild, and almost entirely private.
Lake McConaughy
Nebraska's largest reservoir at 30,000 surface acres, famous for trophy walleye — the state record 16-pound-2-ounce walleye came out of "Big Mac" — plus white bass, wipers, and northern pike.
Lake Ogallala
A 320-acre no-wake lake below Kingsley Dam with Nebraska's best still-water trout fishing — rainbow and tiger trout thrive in the cold dam releases, alongside smallmouth bass and yellow perch.
North Platte River below Lake Ogallala
About a mile of the North Platte River below the diversion dam at the foot of Lake Ogallala, where three rock weirs create deep pools holding rainbow and brown trout that wash out of the lake — excellent, easy-access trout fishing.
Standing Bear Lake
A 135-acre City of Omaha lake at 132nd and Military, renovated and restocked in 2023 — an easy in-town outing for largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, channel catfish, and saugeye, with rainbow trout stocked seasonally (daily trout bag of eight).
Zorinsky Lake
A 255-acre flood-control lake at 156th and F in west Omaha, named for Senator Edward Zorinsky — the metro's best in-town walleye water, with northern pike, channel catfish, and bass, rebuilt after a 2010 zebra mussel outbreak.
Rock Creek Lake
A 50-acre state recreation area lake four miles north of Parks in Dundy County, stocked seasonally with thousands of rainbow trout plus tiger trout — one of the best small-water trout bets in southwest Nebraska, with bass, catfish, and perch too.
Sutherland Supply Canal
A 30-mile power canal running from Lake Ogallala to Sutherland Reservoir, and one of Nebraska's most unlikely trophy trout fisheries — the 16-mile reach to Paxton is the state's best bet for a rainbow over five pounds.
Missouri River at Ponca
Three miles of public access to the unchannelized Missouri National Recreational River at Ponca State Park, where anglers catch channel and flathead catfish, sauger, walleye, and drum in the river as Lewis and Clark saw it.
Grove Lake
A 50-acre lake and 1,985-acre wildlife management area north of Royal, where the East Branch of Verdigre Creek — Nebraska's easternmost Class A cold-water trout stream — offers year-round rainbow and brown trout fishing, plus northern pike in the lake.
Sutherland Reservoir
A 3,000-acre canal reservoir just off I-80 at Sutherland, the first lake downstream from McConaughy and Ogallala, with walleye, white bass, wipers, channel catfish, and smallmouth bass — and warm-water discharge that keeps part of it fishable in winter.
Swanson Reservoir
The largest state recreation area in southwest Nebraska at nearly 5,000 surface acres, with trophy northern pike in the submerged willows, big walleye, huge schools of white bass, and excellent ice fishing.
Snake River
A 126-mile Sandhills tributary of the Niobrara and one of Nebraska's only true trout streams — the cold stretch below Merritt Dam is considered the best trout water in the state, for brown and rainbow trout.
Valentine National Wildlife Refuge Lakes
Nine fishable lakes scattered across 71,516 acres of Sandhills refuge — including 798-acre Pelican Lake — where electric-motors-only water holds northern pike, largemouth bass, big bluegill, yellow perch, and stocked tiger muskies.
Two Rivers SRA Trout Lake
A dedicated put-and-take trout lake (Lake No. 5) at Two Rivers State Recreation Area near Waterloo, stocked with 10,500 rainbow trout each spring — a $6 daily trout tag buys some of the fastest trout action in eastern Nebraska, March through May.
Whitney Lake
A 900-acre private irrigation reservoir west of the village of Whitney in Dawes County, with a public boat ramp on its southeast corner — fair-to-good fishing for walleye, white bass, crappie, and northern pike, and an annual ice-fishing tournament in winter.
Fishing FAQs
Do I need a fishing license in Nebraska?
Yes — anglers 16 and older need a Nebraska fishing permit, available through Nebraska Game & Parks online or at vendors statewide.
What fish can I catch in Nebraska?
Nebraska waters hold 109 species, including walleye, bass, catfish, northern pike, trout (stocked), and paddlefish on the Missouri River.
When is the best fishing in Nebraska?
Spring and fall for walleye and bass; ice fishing on Sandhills lakes in winter when conditions allow.