Nebraska Road Trip

 At the beginning of May we got some bad news. My wifes Great grandmother passed away at the age of 94. It was sad but she lived to be a very good age. She lived in Nebraska.My wife could have flown to Nebraska but we decided to take the road trip out there since it was a MUCH cheaper option. Plus, there is nothing like a road trip with your wife deep into the heartland! 

Now I thought it might be a little insensitive to bring fishing gear so I opted not to make a move for it even though my wife’s uncle and her cousin live right next to a lake. But this is how I know my wife was created by God specifically for me… before leaving, she asks, “are you sure you don’t want to take your fishing stuff? We’re going to be staying at my cousins place, next to the lake.” I love that woman! 

So I grabbed a fly rod and we began the trip. 18 hours of nothing upon nothing! There were some occasional mountains and a cool thing or two but for the most part it was dead. The good thing was visiting different states I had never seen. We drove through Utah, Wyoming and then Nebraska so I got to add those three to the list of states I had yet to visit. 

When we arrived, we ate some lunch and then went for a walk around the lake and of course I brought my fly rod. I tossed it around the main lake to no avail but went to a side pond and quickly hooked into 3 blue gills. Every one made a big deal about the fact that I got into fish, but what they didn’t know is that I’m a pro; I break the bank! 

 

We drove around Nebraska and saw some cool stuff. I got to see chimney rock and a part of the Oregon trail. I saw tons of pronghorns which were amazing to me but everyone else was used to seeing them.

The funeral was sad but I’m glad my wife got to spend time with her family and heal. 

After the funeral, a bunch of us went to visit “Car henge” which is what mid west folk do for a good time; stack cars!  It was very cool to see and while checking out a fish display, I spotted this fly sticker which looked familiar…  In fact I have a couple of can koozies with this logo on it. Cameron, was this you? 

The next day I woke up early and went for a walk around the lake by myself to check out some spots that I had scouted. A bit later Cousin Alex stopped by and fished with me. For whatever reason, the light cahill wasn’t doing as well as the previous day so I switched to a royal humpy. There were some wild little fish with forked tails swimming and splashing around but they wanted nothing to do with my flies. In fact most fish wanted nothing to do with the fly until one fatty bluegill bit into my RH. 

A bit later I went to the same spot I first fished the day before and got into 2 baby gills. Around then my wifes uncle stopped by and recommended I use something purple. All I had was a purple Wooley Bugger so I went to work and a few casts in; I caught my first Nebraska Bass! I was pretty excited! 

Even though we came for sad reasons I was glad my wife was able to come out and spend time with her family and we had a lot of time to talk and process her feelings. Our second to last stop was in Green River, Wyoming where two huge rock formations behind the hotel really impressed me. The best part was that we spent the night in a room with a perfect view of the rock formations. We were also able to stop by the Bonneville Salt Flats which was also striking!   Aside from that it was another boring horrific drive back to Cali, but I enjoyed it because of the company. 

Total Fish: 6 panfish + 1 Largemouth bass = 7 Fish