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A GUIDE TO FISHING NEBRASKA IN 2019 By Daryl Bauer, Nebraska Game WALLEYE Nebraska's largest reservoirs are the state's best walleye habitats and consistently provide the best fishing. Merritt Reservoir tops that list again this year, while other perennial favorites like Winters Creek, McConaughy, Elwood and Minatare also will be good. Oliver, Big Alkali, Johnson, Maloney and Calamus will offer numbers of mostly small walleyes in 2019 with some fish topping 15 inches. Anglers targeting big walleyes should plan trips to Merritt, Elwood, and McConaughy. Smaller reservoirs in eastern Nebraska are less ideal as walleye habitats, but stocking does provide anglers with opportunities to catch walleyes from those waters. Yankee Hill, Lawrence Youngman, and Walnut Creek reservoirs will be the best waters to catch eastern Nebraska walleyes in 2019. WHITE BASS White bass also are open-water predator fish that thrive in Nebraska's largest reservoirs. The best white bass fisheries in 2019 will be found at Davis Creek, Swanson, Sherman, Calamus and Harlan reservoirs, some of the best every year. Medicine Creek reservoir will have high numbers of white bass, but most of those fish will be smaller than 12 inches. Canal reservoirs from Sutherland down to Johnson traditionally have some good white bass fishing and Sutherland will be the best of those this year. Big white bass can be found in waters that have lower densities, so besides the reservoirs already mentioned, look to Minatare for some white bass larger than 15 inches this year. Smaller reservoirs are not ideal habitats for open-water white bass, but East Twin will offer anglers some opportunity to catch white bass in southeast Nebraska. WIPERS Wipers are white bass/striped bass hybrids, and like their parent species, they also are most successful in open-water habitats – Nebraska's largest reservoirs. Johnson, Red Willow, Medicine Creek and Jeffrey reservoirs will offer the most wipers for anglers in 2019. High numbers of wipers were sampled at Harlan, Swanson and Davis Creek reservoirs, but most of those fish are going to be relatively small this year. Anglers looking for trophy wipers in 2019 will find Elwood, McConaughy, Red Willow and Calamus hard to beat. BLUEGILL Anglers can take their kids out to catch some "sunnies" on just about any small body of water in Nebraska. Our state can produce numbers of 8-inch and larger bluegills as well, and there will be a bunch of waters that will do that this year. Small- to medium-sized reservoirs across Nebraska offer some of the best bluegill fishing every year, with Summit, Yankee Hill, Maskenthine and Maple Creek topping that list in 2019. Ponds like Baright at Mahoney State Park, and Yanney in Kearney also will be good spots to catch some nice bluegills. Anglers are reminded that all fish must be released while fishing at Baright. Some other waters that will be good for 8-inch-and-larger bluegills will be Willard Meyer, Lawrence Youngman, Burchard and Box Butte. Nebraska's Sandhill lakes offer lower densities of bluegills, but can produce some trophy bluegills, with the biggest fish in excess of one pound. Anglers should remember that bluegills that big are rare fish and worthy of having a picture taken and then returned to the water. The best Sandhill lakes in 2019 will be Duck, West Long and Watts on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), as well as Frye. CRAPPIES Crappies are another panfish that can be found in abundance throughout Nebraska, with anglers always on the look for waters that will produce fish larger than 10 inches. This year should be particularly good for crappie fishing in Nebraska with Sherman, Czechland, Wehrspann, Midway and Johnson reservoirs heading the list. Other waters that will be good for crappies in 2019 include Davis Creek, Holmes, Wanahoo, Wildwood and Wellfleet. Again Nebraska's