Yes, it’s a canal. It’s also been a trophy trout fishery since the early 1970s, which tells you something about how good the cold water coming out of Lake Ogallala really is. The Sutherland Supply Canal — also called the Keystone or NPPD Canal — carries that cold, food-rich water 30 miles east to Sutherland Reservoir, and rainbows grow fat and long in it.
The prime water is the 16-mile stretch from Lake Ogallala to Paxton, and Game and Parks calls it among the best trout fisheries in the state and the most likely place in Nebraska to catch a rainbow weighing five pounds or more. A public access road runs along most of the canal. The one-over-16-inches restriction that applies in the lake doesn’t apply to canal fish, so harvest rules are more generous here.
Check NPPD’s flow data before you go — the canal is drained roughly every five years for federally mandated safety inspections, and fishing the dewatered ditch is nobody’s idea of fun. When it’s running, though, few Nebraska waters can match it.