Fisheries • 2020 Annual Report 47
T A K E ' E M F I S H I N G I S B I G S U C C E S S I N
S E C O N D Y E A R
Game and Parks marked the success of its second year of Take 'em Fishing, a
program in which we challenged anglers to share their passions and introduce
someone to fishing. When mentors take someone fishing and share a photo they can
win great prizes. Many great memories were created and thousands of people were
introduced to fishing. In 2020, we had more than 6,000 entries surpassing 2019's
numbers by more than 1,500 entries. Entries came from around 3,614 individuals, most of whom were new to
the program. The grand prize boat donated by the Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation and Bass Pro Shops/
Cabela's was awarded to the Liebhart family from Columbus. The program will continue in 2021 as we help
create our next generation of anglers.
F R E S H W A T E R M U S S E L P R O J E C T
Since 2014, when our efforts to augment and/or restore native freshwater mussels back into streams
where they historically were found began, we have released 26,542 plain pocketbook and 16,137 fatmucket
mussels. They have been marked with glue dots to identify them as hatchery-reared and released into 17
streams across the state over the past five years. More than 7,500 of these mussels have a Passive Integrated
Transponder tag glued to the outside of the shell. This allows biologists to use specialized readers and
antenna to relocate the mussels in the streams. The tag identifies the individual mussels and allows the
biologists to determine growth, mortality and movement from the original release location.
