Valentine Refuge

[Fishy33]

Has any one been out to check the ice.

[ROGERANGLER]

Haven't been there. but called Wright baits shop. They said 5" on Hackberry ,  4" Dewey. Hope to there soon.

[callovthemackinaw]

It is time.    See you next week.

[Chuck_K]

Is it hard clear ice or snow ice?

[viasandhillgill]

snow ice

[Fishy33]

Has anyone checked ice on pelican or have a fishing report

[Mr Merritt]

My only report on Pelican mentioned a few pike for the flag chasers.  Panfish action has so far been slow.  I expect the bite to improve by the weekend as temperatures become more seasonal.  Currently negative 24* in Valentine.

[JOEFISH ICEMAN]

How's the bite and where's the luck been?

[Sandbilly]

I've heard reports of a few decent fish days but no slobber fest. Panfish are still lethargic with most anglers only finding a few windows of feeding activity per day to catch a handful. Pike action seems to be picking up a little but larger specimens remain elusive for most.

Ice report 5-14 inches.

dc     

[Tworivers]

 My first post of the new year [not good]    Son, grandson, and myself fished 1-1 thru 1-4 multipul lakes dewey.hackberry, pelican, alkali, duck,west long   We caught 5 small pan fish on dewey on first morn   zero fish caught after that        seen a couple of very small northern caught on pelican [this year you have no size limits on pelican going to kill it in summer]  talked to at least 3 dozen fishermen not hardly a fish between them   maybe next week eh?

[post.stacie]

Any new updates on ice? Or pike action?

[Sandbilly]

The ice is 16"+ fishing is slow g&p has drained lakes down to low levels. Trying to winter kill pelican before they rotanone one of best fisheries ever. Whietips I will bet you 1000.00 dollars you will never kill all the carp in pelican.50 years in my life and its never happend. What a waste of public funds to kill a lake that has such a great population of trophy fish. Sad  that they put idots in charge,

I disagree 100%. Let's revisit this topic in a decade. 

dc

[MainTrout]

In a Decade, ok. If I'm not mistaken this idea has been done before on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. Here's an idea......of the thirty five lakes that are on the refuge some of the "nine" are being renovated due to the carp. How about opening up the other twenty six lakes that are on the refuge to ice fishing to give an angler a possibility of what could be on another "trophy" fishery..............?

[crappie_eyes]

The ice is 16"+ fishing is slow g&p has drained lakes down to low levels. Trying to winter kill pelican before they rotanone one of best fisheries ever. Whietips I will bet you 1000.00 dollars you will never kill all the carp in pelican.50 years in my life and its never happend. What a waste of public funds to kill a lake that has such a great population of trophy fish. Sad  that they put idots in charge,

ontop of that they are not even going to restock pike in Hackberry or pelican!! REALLY?? it's the beginning of the end for such another great place

[Sandbilly]

In a Decade, ok. If I'm not mistaken this idea has been done before on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. Here's an idea......of the thirty five lakes that are on the refuge some of the "nine" are being renovated due to the carp. How about opening up the other twenty six lakes that are on the refuge to ice fishing to give an angler a possibility of what could be on another "trophy" fishery..............?

They have never tried a top - down complete water systems renovation, and it's certainly never been implemented with the the new water checks and carp barriers that are now in place. So no, it has not been done before.

I'm with ya on opening up more public fishing access on the VNWR but remember this area was set up, and will continue to be operated primarily for migratory waterfowl. Recent studies indicate common carp are detrimental to waterfowl habitat, thus the renovations. 

dc   

[Sandbilly]

ontop of that they are not even going to restock pike in Hackberry or pelican!! REALLY?? it's the beginning of the end for such another great place

My question is why does every Sandhill Lake larger than 250 acres need to have pike in it?

[callovthemackinaw]

My question is why does every Sandhill Lake larger than 250 acres need to have pike in it?

Because they need a safe place to hide from the pike schutstaffel that hunt them like dogs in NM, CO, wy..   

I love your state and I love the pike.

[crappie_eyes]

why not just put pike in 3 lakes so all you're doing is steering around boats all day

[Sandbilly]

Ok sandbilly I have been fishing the refuge for  40+ yrs. It hs never removed all the carp never will all it does is destroy great fisheries. Game and parks are idiots. Right now pelican is producing world class pike, bass, and panfish but G&p in all there wisdom want to kill it off. Sad and people like you think its for the better your wrong

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Mine is this. Pelican is not even close to the fishery it once was in the late 80's - early 90's. Game fish carrying capacity is a fraction of lake potential due to common carp. I see this renovation as an opportunity for every proposed lake in the system to have a restart. For every lake to have the potential to reach full carrying capacity of game fish species. For every single bucket biologist out there that say it won't work, there are twice as many people that earn a living on such matters believing that it will. Kind of like having a tarot card reader preparing taxes. Pretty good chance they don't know what they are doing so I'll stick with the folks that hold credentials.

Some of the best producing Sandhill Lakes have been renovated in the last 25 years. Both Smiths, Frye, Home Valley, Blue. My expectations for the VNWR lakes remain very high.

dc         

[Sandbilly]

why not just put pike in 3 lakes so all you're doing is steering around boats all day

In the Sandhill Region there are currently 21 public lakes and reservoirs that include over 44,400 surface acres of water that have pike in them. Hackberry and Pelican equal 1478 surface acres together. So in the future just under 43,000 surface acres of pike water in this region of the state is not enough?   

[whitetips]

Renovations have been done on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in the past, and even if common carp eventually re-invade, the fishing produced for dozens of years after a rotenone renovation is phenomenal, well worth it.

Common carp numbers in Pelican continue to increase, and it is time for another renovation.  This time with our current knowledge and work that has already been done, we have the best chance ever of knocking common carp for a loop on the entire Valentine Refuge.

I am old enough to have fished the refuge for panfish, pike and bass for a long, long time.  I have seen renovations come and go.  I cannot wait for the future!  All of you nay-sayers, make me a promise, if the fishing on the refuge is so terrible in the next ten years or so, that you will not be there!

https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2017/12/valentine-national-wildlife-refuge-nwr-update/

https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2017/12/dec-valentine/

Daryl Bauer
Fisheries Outreach Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission
[email protected]
https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/category/barbs-and-backlashes/

[crappie_eyes]

It won't be as good as it is now since there will be no pike. Everything I've been hearing and will be there this weekend to witness it is that the pike 30+ inches are coming out of the holes. There's nothing better then pulling a 40" pike out of sold or open water

[marknpanfish]

Some people like to see it 10 inch plus bluegill come out of the water too. I am very excited about a trophy bluegill Lake.

[marknpanfish]

It seems like every time I fish the Sandhills or the Panhandle I run into old boys that absolutely hate northern pike ,all they want is panfish. So you can't please everyone because everybody has their own agenda. Personally I like the pan fish. Personally I don't dislike Pike except for when they bite off at $2 tungsten.

[whitetips]

bauer your a clown the only Reason g&p is killing Pelican off is Money. I know what the big picture is. I have talked with your bosses its to turn it in to wet meadows so the state and feds dont have to spend money to take care of it any more!

I am a clown, won't argue with you on that one.

Yes, we have installed new water control structures and fish barriers just so they can turn the lakes into wet meadows.  You bet.

Daryl B.

[ryno]

I have a little more faith currently with the G&P then I did 15-20 years ago.  This will improve the fish quality and quantity...I believe.  I would like to see a couple pure trophy lakes for gills and perch.  There seem to be a few recently renovated lakes that seem to be impossible to remove or even slow down the carpet infiltration. My example would be Home Valley.  Perch can thrive on a carp/rough fish diet, so give em carp.  The key to this approach is to reno the lake and rid it of the majority of the large carp. Secondly, stock it heavily with 4inchers and as many larger as possible. Thirdly, continued annual stockings to keep up with the harvesting.  A limited stocking of walleye would be beneficial also.  Home Valley in the late 90s was loaded with huge perch and lots of carp...with no intervention of G&P until 98'.  After that it saw 15 years of very minimal fishing success, basically irrelevant.  After the second reno it has produced very well.  However, now the fishing pressure has limited it's productivity.  My suggestion here would be to KEEP stocking aggressively every year after the reno.

There are several sandhill lakes that fall into a similar pattern as the previous one I used as an example.  The numbers of fish South Dakota stocks in individual lakes and the frequency in that same lake is astonishing in comparison to Nebraska.  Granted many are larger but their ratio of #s of stocking fish to surface acres/volume is still far higher than ours in Nebraska.  I could go on for days on this subject.  From start to finish we as angler's are our own worst enemy.

Ryan

[callovthemackinaw]

Interesting arguments on here.   Seems every state has its caveats with fisheries management.

Colorado hates pike and lake trout with a passion.   Our west slope has no limits on warm water species and we have 5 lakes which would give your Sandhills spots a run for their money if the CPW would quit shocking/poisoning/poaching fish in favor of endangered species and trout.

Sucks hearing about what they are doing for the refuge, I love the place and seen it’s potential....  it’ll probably keep me away for a while.   I just hope it improves the place in the long run.   

[son_of_liberty]

So back to original topic how is the ice in the region

[amhodson]

I was on Pelican on the 13th & 14th , 10-12 inches of ice and the fish were biting.