The Snake is what Nebraska trout fishing aspires to be: a spring-fed Sandhills river, cold and clear, winding 126 miles through the dunes to the Niobrara. The reach below Merritt Dam gets the cold releases and is widely considered the finest trout water in Nebraska — browns and rainbows both.
Here’s the honest catch: access below the dam is almost entirely across private land, so this is a permission-and-relationships fishery, not a pull-off-and-cast one. The same stretch holds Snake River Falls, the largest waterfall in Nebraska by volume, on private ground managed by a sportsmen’s club with limited public viewing.
If you want to fish it, start by asking around Valentine — guides and ranch contacts are how it’s done. And treat any access you’re granted like gold, because in Nebraska, cold trout water is precious.