Volume 86, Issue 3, 2008
April 2008
- Identifier:
- nela.2008_086_03
- Title:
- Volume 86, Issue 3, 2008
- Issue Name:
- April 2008
- Date Issued:
- 2008-04-01
- year:
- 2008
- month:
- April
- Season:
- Spring
- PDF filename:
- NL_86.03_2008_Apr_Spreads_Entire.pdf
- Publisher:
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Format:
- Periodical
- volume:
- 086
- issue:
- 03
- number:
- 086.03
- Decade:
- 2000s
- Type:
- Rights Holder:
- Copyright Nebraskaland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, all rights reserved.
- Extracted Text:
-
A Woodhouse's toad (Bufo woodhousii) soaks up some sunshine after digging itself into
the ground to escape a chilly April wind on a Nature Conservancy site that had recently
undergone a prescribed burn near Wood River. Photo by Chris Helzer.
NEBRASKAland Magazine
Published by the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
NebraskalandMagazine.com
$4.95
Volume 86, Number 3, April 2008
10 Fishing With Tom
Whether it’s fly-fishing for salmon in Alaska or taking some
boys to a Lincoln area farm pond, former Nebraska football
coach Tom Osborne loves fishing. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
14 Ready ... Set ...Turkey!
With Nebraska’s turkey numbers at an all-time high and the
opportunity to purchase three spring hunting permits, there
has never been a better time for a new turkey hunter to be in
the field. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
22 The Camouflaged Looper
This “inchworm” takes extreme measures to hide itself from
predators. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS HELZER
24 A Rod and Reel Legacy
What started as a desire to help anglers became a fascination
with the working parts of reels and led to a rod-and-reel
collection that probably rivals any other in Nebraska.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ROCKY HOFFMANN
30 Nebraska Made
Prompted by the banning of live decoys for hunting, many
Nebraskans began making their own decoys, some for profit.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JON FARRAR
22
●
42 Making the Good Life Better
Created in 1983, last month the Nebraska Game and Parks
Foundation celebrated 25 years of truly making the good life
better for outdoor enthusiasts across the state. BY DOUG CARROLL
14
●
8 Outdoor Business
Turkey regulations have changed many times over the years.
46 Wilderness Workshop
Choose the proper wood to enhance your campfire experience.
47 In the Field
24
●
Grouse display viewing opportunities and etiquette.
49 Parks & Places
New mini-lodges at Ponca State Park will be open year-round.
Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Outdoor News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Portraits from the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Cover: Tom Osborne fly-fishes at a farm pond during an outing with two young partners last
August. See story on page 10. Photo by Eric Fowler. Opposite: A long-tailed weasel wears its
summer coat of light brown and yellow in Sheridan County. Its diminutive size belies its fierce
hunting abilities. Photo by Bob Grier.
30
●
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 3
Published by the
Yes, leucism is probably about as
rare in Canada geese as it is in
sandhill cranes.
-Editor
Steve Zechmann
of Lincoln sent
in these
photographs of
a raccoon
determined to get
into a neighbor’s
bird feeder. It was
unsuccessful.
Wild Game Cookbook
I am trying to order the wild game
cookbook from the web site but
cannot find it. Is it out of print?
Dawn Ruben
Baltimore, Maryland
Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission
Many of our past special issues,
including our cookbooks, are still
available through our gift catalog.
Go online to NebraskalandGifts.com
and click on Bargain Cabin to find
our most recent cookbook. Other
cookbooks can also be found by
clicking Publications.
- Editor
Director: Rex Amack
Assistant Directors:
Roger Kuhn, Kirk Nelson, Sam Sidner
Information & Education Administrator:
Doug Bauch
Commissioners
Chairman:
James Ziebarth, Wilcox
Vice Chairman:
George E. Hall, Bridgeport
2nd Vice Chairman:
Jerrod Burke, Curtis
Dr. Mark Pinkerton, Wilber
Ron Stave, Waterloo
Dr. Kent Forney, Lincoln
Lynn Berggren, Broken Bow
Mick Jensen, Blair
Magazine Staff
Editor: Doug Carroll
Associate Editor: Jeff Kurrus
Art Director: Tim Reigert
Senior Editor: Jon Farrar
Regional Editors:
Eric Fowler, Bob Grier, Rocky Hoffmann
Contributing Editor: Michael Forsberg
Circulation: Donna Robinson
Photo Librarian: Sarah Johnson
NEBRASKAland
ISSN: 0028-1964
VOL. 86 / NO. 3
APRIL 2008
Published monthly, except for Jan./Feb. and Aug./Sept.
issues, by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, 2200
N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE. Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.
Please address comments or questions to this address.
Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, Nebraska, and other
locations. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to
NEBRASKAland, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
NEBRASKAland is available on audio cassette from the
Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille
Service, Suite 120, 1200 N St., Lincoln, NE 68508. (800)
742-7691.
Rates: $18 for one year; $33 for two years; $44 for
three years. Nebraska residents must add
appropriate sales tax.
To subscribe call 1-800-NEBLAND (632-5263),
or go online to: NebraskalandMagazine.com.
For address changes and questions about your
subscription, e-mail donna.robinson@ngpc.ne.gov.
4 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Determined Raccoon
I took some pictures in my
backyard that I thought you might
be interested in. One evening when
I got home I looked out my back
window and noticed a raccoon
trying to get up on my neighbor’s
birdfeeder. Sometimes he would look
around to see if anyone was watching.
He kept stretching, hoping to be able
to reach some sunflower seeds. As
he was trying to get the seeds out, a
deer walked up. The deer looked at
the raccoon as if to say, “Are you
crazy or what?” Finally the deer
walked away. The raccoon continued
his efforts until he got both feet on
the base of the feeder, at which
point he was holding himself up
with only his front feet. Finally he
got all four feet on the feeder and
kept trying to extract some seed. He
hung there for around 10 minutes
before he finally let go and dropped
to the ground. I haven’t seen him
back since and can only assume that
he realized it wasn’t worth the effort.
Steve Zechmann
Lincoln, Nebraska
Leucistic Canada
I enjoyed the leucistic crane story
by Eric Fowler in the March issue. I
harvested this leucistic Canada
goose northwest of Bridgeport in
December 2006. It was with five or
six normal geese and it was “hard to
miss” as well. I was not aware of
the word “leucism” and like most,
referred to it as partial albino. Do
you know if leucism in Canada
geese is as rare as in sandhill
cranes? I don’t know if you can see
it, but its nails look like white
opaque plastic. I’m originally from
Sidney, but have lived in Austin,
Texas since 1974, when I was in the
USAF and assigned to the (then) air
base located here. I’m a longtime
subscriber of NEBRASKAland and
look forward to every issue. I come
back “home” almost every fall to hunt
around Kearney with my brother-inlaw, Dick Harr, and around Sidney/
Bridgeport/Lisco with my brotherin-law, Keith Stone, who is the fire
chief in Sidney.
Michael Wright
Austin, Texas
Michael Wright’s leucistic Canada goose.
Headquarters
2200 N. 33rd Street
Lincoln, NE 68503
Phone (402) 471-0641
District Office I
East Hwy. 2, Box 725
Alliance, NE 69301
Phone (308) 763-2940
District Office II
524 Panzer St., Box 508
Bassett, NE 68714
Phone (402) 684-2921
Send your comments to:
Doug Carroll, Editor
NEBRASKAland Magazine
P.O. Box 30370
Lincoln, NE 68503
or e-mail doug.carroll@ngpc.ne.gov
Please include your postal address
and telephone number.
Letters may be condensed and edited
for clarity. Photographs are
welcome and will be returned.
Under federal and/or state law, discrimination is prohibited on the
basis of race, color, religion, age, gender, marital status, national
origin, disability or political affiliation. If you think you have been
discriminated against in any program, activity or facility by the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission or want more information,
contact the Commission in Lincoln, NE, at (402) 471-0641 or the
Equal Opportunity Commission, Lincoln, NE, (402) 471-2024,
TTY/TDD (402) 471-4693).
District Office VI
1617 First Ave.
Kearney, NE 68847
Phone (308) 865-5310
Omaha Office
1212 Bob Gibson Blvd.
Omaha, NE 68108
Phone (402) 595-2144
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
21502 W. Highway 31
Gretna, NE 68028
Phone (402) 332-3901
World Wide Web site: www.OutdoorNebraska.org
E-mail: info@ngpc.ne.gov
Administration
Ted Blume (Adm.)
Craig Stover (Asst.)
Wes Loos (Asst.)
Rod Loos (Asst.)
Murray Johnson
Corrections
The story about leucistic cranes
in our March issue should have
described whooping cranes as North
America’s tallest bird species.
Also, Mayberry Lake Wildlife
Management Area was incorrectly
identified as a State Recreation Area.
- Editor
District Office III
2201 N. 13th St.
Norfolk, NE 68701
Phone (402) 370-3374
District Office IV
301 E. State Farm Rd.
North Platte, NE 69101
Phone (308) 535-8025
Lincoln
471-5531
Lincoln
471-5532
Lincoln
471-5591
Ogallala (308) 284-8056
Lincoln
471-5003
Panhandle
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Jim Zimmerman (Sup.) Gering
436-7561
Walt Meyer
Chadron
432-4398
Scott Brandt
Gering
436-3418
Heath Packett
Gordon
282-2553
Dennis Thompson
Ogallala
284-6450
Dan Zuehlke
Ogallala
284-4815
Doug Pollard
Oshkosh
772-9950
Frank Miller
Valentine (402) 376-1183
Dan Kling
Whitney
432-8367
Southwest
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Roger Thompson (Sup.) N. Platte
532-9175
Ray Dierking
Brkn. Bow
872-3078
George Sund
Cambridge
697-4629
Michael Thome
Cozad
784-4362
Matt Andrews
Elwood
785-3025
Dirk Greene
Imperial
882-5328
Virgil Gosch
McCook
345-2185
Dudley Sorensen
N. Platte
532-0747
Rich Routh
Rep. City
799-2085
South-central
Officer
Jerry Pecha (Sup.)
Jeff Jones
Randy Pomplun
City
Phone (308)
Kearney
865-5327
Clay Center(402)762-3124
Fullerton
536-2987
Terry Brentzel
Darin Gress
Dale Johnson
Mark Reeves
Robert Finke
Richard Seward
Grand Is.
384-8296
Hebron (402) 768-2287
Kearney
237-1079
Loup City
745-0662
Milford (402) 761-3537
Ord
728-3115
Northeast
Officer
Tom Zimmer (Sup.)
Robert Kelly
Dale Davis
Ross Oestmann
Steve Oberg
Daniel Roberts
Jon Reeves
Marion Shafer
Pat George
Eric Wiebe
Tim Williams
Cory Krause
City
Phone (402)
Norfolk
371-6625
Albion
395-2538
Bassett
273-1700
Bloomfield
373-4412
Columbus
564-5937
Fremont
721-7852
Kennard
427-7378
Norfolk
371-2031
O’Neill
336-1588
Ponca
755-2566
Neligh
887-1335
West Point
372-6979
Southeast
Officer
Duane Arp (Sup.)
Sean McKeehan
William Krause
Jeremy TenKley
Mike Luben
Douglas Kramer
Dina Barta
Stacey Lewton
Levi Krause
Russell Mort
Dan Evasco
Jeff Clauson
City
Gretna
Ashland
Auburn
Beatrice
Colon
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Louisville
Nebr. City
Papillion
Waterloo
Phone (402)
332-2965
944-4174
274-3789
228-1437
443-4278
466-9001
483-2358
476-0436
234-2212
873-5684
592-6733
359-5301
Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers 1-800-742-7627
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 5
PHOTO BY SAM WILSON
area in the last 12 years. Scottsbluff
is located just north of ideal mountain
lion habitat in the Wildcat Hills.
According to the Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission’s Mountain
Lion Response Plan, any mountain
lion found within city limits of a
municipality will be lethally
removed when it can be done safely.
The cat was first observed about
two hours before it was shot.
Conservation officers, biologists and
local law enforcement officials were
unsuccessful in an attempt to sedate
the cat with a dart gun so it could be
removed and euthanized, so it was
put down when it moved to an area
where it could be safely shot.
Mountain lions are native to
Nebraska but were extirpated by the
end of the 19th century. Despite
annual reports since the 1950s, no
confirmed sighting was made in the
state until the 1990s. In 1991, a deer
was found killed by a mountain lion,
and shortly after that, a hunter shot
an adult mountain lion near the town
of Harrison in Sioux County.
For more information on mountain
lions in Nebraska, go to the
Commission’s web site at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org, click on
Wildlife, then Wildlife Species.
Feral Hogs Removed
reat your special hunter
or angler with the gift
that lasts a lifetime . . . a
Nebraska lifetime permit.
Lifetime permits remain
valid even if the holder
leaves the state.
A great gift for graduation,
Father’s Day and
birthdays.
T
For VISA and MasterCard
orders call toll-free
1-800-742-0056
Lifetime permits are
now available for
nonresidents as well
as residents.
For prices, go to
www.Outdoor
Nebraska.org
www.OutdoorNebraska.org
NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS COMMISSION
6 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
A record number of feral hogs
were killed on February 23 during
a wildlife management operation
that one biologist called “a great
success.”
A total of 69 pigs, including more
than 25 adult hogs, were killed near
Harlan County Reservoir to keep
them from becoming a threat to
domestic and wild animals, crops
and wildlife habitat, according to
Sam Wilson, the Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission’s furbearer
specialist.
Commission biologists and
conservation officers conducted the
operation with the help of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers and
USDA APHIS Wildlife Services,
which provided manpower from its
Kansas and Nebraska offices, as
well as a professional gunner, who
shot the pigs from a helicopter. Prior
to this hunt, more that 57 other feral
hogs had been removed from the
area since 2000, including 17 that
were killed this past January.
“We believe we were successful in
removing more than 90 percent of
the pigs in the area,” Wilson said.
“We are hopeful that this population
can be completely eradicated and
we will continue to cover the area
looking for sign.”
The slain hogs tested negative for
pseudorabies, swine brucellosis and
porcine reproductive and respiratory
syndrome (PRRS), but one hog had
had swine influenza in the past.
In addition to the threat of disease,
feral hogs cause damage to crops
and the ecosystem across the country
to the tune of $800 million annually.
Wilson said a feral hog killed near
Genoa in January of 2007 tested
positive for pseudorabies and is an
example of the threat feral hogs pose
to the economy in Nebraska.
“We are extremely interested in
help from the public pertaining to
future observations of feral pigs in
this or any other area of the state,”
said Wilson. “It is illegal for members
of the general public to shoot feral
hogs, so if anyone sees wild or
feral pigs, we would like them to
immediately call the Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission at (402) 4715174.”
Mountain Lion Shot in
Scottsbluff
A mountain lion was shot and
killed by a Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission conservation officer
near a Scottsbluff residence on
February 7.
The 100-pound male, estimated to
be 1 to 2 years old, was shot on the
north side of town and was the sixth
confirmed sighting in the Scottsbluff
COURTESY OF PHEASANTS FOREVER
Wildlife biologists prepare to load some of the 69 wild feral hogs that were killed
near Harlan County Reservoir on February 23.
Pheasants Forever has two prescribed
burn units available for use.
Prescribed Burn Help
Available From PF
Pheasants Forever (PF) now has
two Mobile Prescribed Burn Units
(MPBU) available for use by people
wishing to do a prescribed burn, and
hopes to add a few more units in the
coming years.
“As we help develop local
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 7
ERIC FOWLER
prescribed burn associations around
the state, we hope to be able to
provide one of these units for each
of them,” said Peter Berthelsen, the
organization’s Senior Field
Coordinator for Nebraska.
There is no cost associated with
the use of the units, which can be
checked out through PF’s state
office in Elba, but the person
checking out a MPBU is responsible
for bringing it back in good shape,
said Berthelsen.
Each unit is designed to contain
all the equipment necessary to
conduct a prescribed burn and is
housed in an enclosed trailer that
can be hooked to a vehicle and driven
to a burn location anywhere in the
state. For more information, contact
PF at (308) 754-5339 or go to
www.NebraskaPF.com.
Last year 50 active bald eagle nests
were found in Nebraska - a new record.
Nesting Bald Eagle Number
Sets New Record
8 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Turkey Business
Turkey regulations have undergone numerous changes over the years.
By Jeff Kurrus
spring seasons were set at
t is estimated that there
one-half hour before sunrise
are more than 100,000
to sunset.
turkeys in Nebraska and
1984 - Second permits
the state had its highest
were available for shotgun
spring turkey harvest,
and archery seasons in
18,001 (including shotgun,
unfilled units. Unlimited
archery and youth), in
spring archery permits were
2007. “We likely have room
open in certain units in
for 50,000 hunters, maybe
eastern and southeastern
even more,” said Nebraska
Nebraska.
Game and Parks
1987 - Spring turkey
Commission big game
hunting was open statewide.
program manager Kit
Mandatory check-in was no
Hams. “We just don’t have
longer required.
the hunters.”
1996 - Hunters 12 or
In 2007, 26,973 hunters
older could apply for a
purchased a spring turkey
turkey permit.
permit. In an attempt to
Since Nebraska’s first spring turkey hunting season in 1964,
2000 - Spring permits
recruit additional hunters,
regulations have frequently changed through the years.
were available online for
2008 will be the first
authorized to hunters 16 years of age archery and Northwest turkey units.
Nebraska spring turkey season
2001 - All turkey hunting permits
without a minimum age requirement or older and the total harvest was
were available online.
130 gobblers. Legal shooting hours
for turkey hunters. It is just another
2003 - Unlimited spring archery
were from one hour before sunrise to
step to make turkey hunting more
noon. Shotguns, 10 to 20 gauge, and permits were available statewide.
available in a state where turkeys
2004 - Unlimited spring shotgun
long bows were legal.
continue to increase.
permits were issued in all units for
1966 - The spring gobbler season
Turkey numbers were not always
the first time.
was expanded to 16 days, April 23so abundant, however, nor the
2005 - Youth turkey permits were
seasons so liberal. Through the years May 8. Shooting hours were one-half
offered for the first time, with a
units were opened, then closed, then hour before sunrise to one-half hour
longer shotgun season available for
re-opened. Seasons were lengthened, after sunset, and hunters were
then shortened. Shooting times were allowed two permits for the first time. hunters age 12-15.
2006 - All shotgun permits were
1969 - Only one gobbler in the
altered. Rules were changed.
valid statewide. Hunters could fill
spring was allowed.
The following is a timeline of
two shotgun permits in eastern
1975 - The first spring archery
Nebraska’s major spring turkey permit
Nebraska.
changes through the years, supporting season was held in limited units,
2007 - Three permits were allowed
the notion that there has never been a lasting 23 days, April 1-23. The 289
for the first time for the 37-day
archery permit holders bagged
better, or easier, time to hunt spring
spring shotgun and 57-day archery
21 birds. Longbows were no longer
toms in Nebraska.
seasons.
legal during the regular shotgun
1964- Despite Nebraska holding
“Our data shows that turkey
season, and no hunter could obtain
its first official turkey season in the
populations have tripled or
more than one shotgun permit and
fall of 1962, its first spring season
quadrupled in the last five years,”
one archery permit for the spring
was held April 18-26, 1964, with
said Hams, which has directly
hunting only permitted in the Round turkey season.
affected the liberalization of recent
1977 - The spring shotgun season
Top (Pine Ridge area) and the
turkey regulations. “Turkey hunting’s
Niobrara (Brown, Cherry, Keya Paha was expanded to 23 days.
current status is as good as it gets.
1978 - Hunters 14 years of age or
and Rock counties) units. One
It’s never been easier to get a permit
older could apply for a spring
gobbler was allowed, and turkeys
or harvest a turkey in Nebraska. It’s
permit.
had to be checked in after the kill.
outstanding.” ■
1979 - Shooting hours for all
Seven hundred fifty permits were
I
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 9
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
The number of active bald eagle
nests in Nebraska increased to a
record 50 in 2007, up from 45 in
2006, according to Joel Jorgensen,
the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission’s nongame bird
program manager.
Jorgensen said the number of
breeding pairs has been increasing
steadily since the first successful
modern nesting near Valley in
Douglas County in 1991. Bald
eagles bred historically in Nebraska,
but were extirpated by the turn of
the 20th century.
“A couple nests went unmonitored
and there are probably a few nests
that have not been discovered,”
Jorgensen said, “so there are probably
more than 50 active nests.”
The bald eagle recovery is one of
the great success stories of wildlife
conservation. Bald eagle numbers
in North America dropped to
dangerously low levels in the 1950s
and 1960s due to DDT and other
similar pesticides, leading to their
listing as an endangered species.
After receiving state and federal
protection, and with the banning of
DDT and other similar chemicals in
1972, bald eagle numbers slowly
began increasing.
There were an estimated 417
breeding pairs in the lower 48 states
in 1963, and now there are
approximately 10,000. The Nebraska
increases mirror trends throughout
much of the species’s North American
breeding range.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service removed the bald eagle from
the list of threatened and endangered
species in June 2007. The bald eagle
currently remains state-listed as
“threatened,” but increasing breeding
numbers serve as an impetus for the
Commission to evaluate its status
within Nebraska’s borders.
“Perhaps the only downside to the
species recovery is the challenge
that comes with monitoring more
and more nests,” Jorgensen said.
“The increase continues at such a
rate it is difficult to keep track and
to find persons with the time to
make observations.” Bald eagle nest
monitoring is carried out by the
Commission, other cooperating
agencies, and volunteers.
Monitoring efforts, as well as
other Commission programs focused
on bald eagles and other nongame
wildlife are supported by Nebraska’s
Wildlife Conservation “checkoff”
Fund. Taxpayers are encouraged to
look for the peregrine falcon symbol
near the bottom of their state tax
form and to make a contribution
when completing their state income
tax forms. ■
Fishing With Tom
Text and photos by Eric Fowler
Whether it’s fly-fishing for salmon in Alaska or taking some boys to a
Lincoln-area farm pond, former University of Nebraska football coach
Tom Osborne loves fishing.
C
onsidering he has been a
teacher of sorts for most of his
life, it made sense that Tom
Osborne began a late-summer
fishing trip last year giving
two boys some instruction.
“Look behind you and you’ll see
there are some plugs on those rods, the
kind of long things?” the former
University of Nebraska football coach
told the boys on the drive from Lincoln
to a nearby farm pond in his SUV, which
had a hand-held GPS unit, fishing
pliers and a bottle of Jack’s Juice garlic
oil bait spray on the console. “We’ll
throw those out there on top of the
water and if we can get those bass to
come up
and hit ‘em,
it should be
kind of fun
to see
because
they’ll
take it
right up
on the
surface.
“If we
can’t
catch
them
that
way,
then
I’ve
got a
Josiah Brown casts as Tom Osborne
watches and Christian Wilke fishes from
the front of the boat during a fishing trip
last summer.
10 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
couple of other rods rigged up and
we’ll try some plastic worms and see if
they’ll bite those. They’ll usually do
one or the other, we hope.”
“We’re here already?” said Christian
Wilke, Osborne’s 8-year-old grandson,
when they arrived at the pond.
Christian and 9-year-old Josiah
Brown, – Jo Jo for short – each grabbed
a pole and followed Osborne, who
carried the rest of the tackle, to the
weathered johnboat he leaves on the
bank. Moving a bit slower than he did
when he roamed the sidelines, Osborne,
71, went back to his SUV to pull on a
pair of hip boots and grab his fly rod as
the boys explored the shoreline. When
he returned and the boys were on
board, he gave them another lesson
before shoving off. “What you do is cast
it out and kind of jerk it in like that,
okay?” he said, tossing one of the plugs
along a weedline. “It looks like a frog
jumping or swimming in the water.”
Grabbing the oars, Osborne rowed to
the middle of the half-acre pond. He
spent most of the next two hours tying
on new lures, taming a backlash and
taking weeds and fish off hooks. When
needed, he sprinkled in other fishing
lessons between small talk throughout
the morning, all with the patience one
might expect from someone with
master’s and doctoral degrees in
education psychology, and all in his
trademark, monotone voice.
“Reel faster with it, make it look like
a minnow,” he told one of the boys.
“You don’t always have to throw it in
the same place,” he told the other later.
“You can throw it in different places.
But don’t throw over in the moss.”
“You don’t want to put a big bend in
your rod or it breaks,” he said as one of
the boys reeled in a pile of moss.”
“Throw it out like that, and let it sink
to the bottom,” he said after tying a
rubber worm on one of their lines.
“Keep your rod tip up, just like that.”
“When it goes under the water it
looks like a crawdad,” he said after
tying a new crankbait on a different
pole. “You don’t have to twitch that
one, just reel it in.”
Wincing slightly and without saying
a word, at one point he even pulled a
hook out of his hand, the result of a
young angler not paying attention to
his line, as they sometimes do.
And, of course, he handed out praise
for good casts and when fish were
caught. “That’s a nice one,” he told
Jo Jo after he reeled in the first and
biggest fish of the day, a largemouth
that would have tipped the scales at
about five pounds.
“Thank you,” Jo Jo said.
“How’d that feel on the end of the
line?” Osborne said after the fish was
released.
“It was pretty hard to yank in.”
“That was big,” said Christian.
Osborne grew up in Hastings. When
his dad went off to serve in World
War II, he moved to St. Paul with his
mother and brother to live with his
grandparents. An uncle who liked to
hunt and fish lived across the street.
“He would take me occasionally and
I really looked forward to that,”
Osborne said. “Probably most of the
fishing we did was for catfish in the
Loup River. And there were some
ponds around we would do some
Brown holds up a largemouth bass, the first and biggest fish caught on a trip to a farm pond
last August with Osborne and Wilke.
bluegill and bass fishing in.
“I remember that Johnson Lake had
just been formed about that time and it
had really good fishing when it was
new.”
Osborne caught the fishing bug during
that time and has been infected with it
ever since. “Maybe early on you’re
interested in catching lots of fish,” he
said. “But I think the thing that
fascinates me more is getting a fish to
strike a lure. It isn’t so much landing
the fish or even playing the fish. I’m
just kind of fascinated by the process
of getting something that does not
think like a human to strike a lure. And
sometimes it’s pretty tricky.”
He’s fished across Nebraska and the
United States. From a cabin he once
owned at Lake McConaughy, he would
fish for white bass, walleye and
rainbow trout, which he also pursued in
Lake Ogallala and the irrigation canal
and North Platte River below it. The fly
rod is his tool of choice, and he’s cast
to trout in rivers and streams across
Nebraska, and to bass and bluegill in
waters closer to home, including a
sandpit near Central City where he has
a new vacation cabin.
Trout and salmon are his favorite
quarry. When he has the chance, he
trolls for the latter in Lake Oahe in
South Dakota. “Most of the fishing I do
is fly-fishing, but I do kind of get a
kick out of trolling for salmon up
there,” he said. “It’s a little tricky to
find them and they’re powerful and big
fish.” Annual trips to Alaska with family
include fly-fishing for king and sockeye
salmon, arctic char, grayling and trout.
He’s also chased trout in such exotic
locations as a pond on his acreage near
Lincoln and at Holmes Lake in Lincoln
with Christian and Jo Jo.
Wherever he’s fishing is a good place
to be. “There usually aren’t a lot of
Osborne gets a fishing rod ready.
really ugly places to fish, particularly if
you’re talking about trout, salmon or
other coldwater species, and even the
farm ponds,” Osborne said.
But the Hastings native has never
been able to fish as much as he would’ve
liked. He played football at Hastings
College and then professionally for
three years. He coached college football
for 36 years at Nebraska, the last 25 as
head coach, before stepping down
following the 1997 season. He then
served three terms in the U.S. House
of Representatives. Now he’s back at
the university as athletic director. None
of those careers has left much time for
fishing.
When he was coaching, “Football
brought fishing to a dead standstill for
about six or seven months. I mean, you
didn’t do anything,” Osborne said.
“I could remember always wanting to
go fishing in the fall. You know, I had
always heard that the trout fishing, flyfishing, was really good in lateSeptember and October, and for almost
40 years I was never able to do that.”
Before returning to the university last
October, Osborne was finding more time
to fish. “I’ve probably done more
fishing this summer than I have in
40 years in any summer,” he said.
“It’s been kind of nice to have more
flexibility.”
Sixty-hour work weeks will make it
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 11
“I think the thing that fascinates me is getting a fish to strike a lure. It
isn’t so much landing the fish or even playing the fish. I’m just kind of
fascinated by the process of getting something that doesn’t think like a
human to strike a lure. And sometimes it’s pretty tricky.” - Tom Osborne
tougher to get away. “Hopefully it will
slow down a bit in the summer, but you
really don’t have an off-season,” he said.
Osborne doesn’t think he’s the only
one who doesn’t fish enough. Kids
don’t either, he said. He’s concerned
about the sedentary lifestyle of
Americans, especially children, and the
problems that leads to, including obesity.
He’s concerned about the amount of
time kids spend watching television,
surfing the Internet and playing video
games, not to mention the violent and
even sexual nature of the latter.
people well.”
Even in sports, of which he’s always
been a big supporter, things have
changed radically. “There’s an awful
lot of pressure on kids to specialize
early and parents are now tuned in to
college scholarships before a child’s
even played anything in high school,”
Osborne said. “I think there’s some
benefit to playing a wide variety of
sports early on because you really don’t
know, when you’re 7, 8 or 9 years old,
what you’re going to be best at, what
you’re going to be most interested in.
“The more competitive situations
you’re in, the better suited you are later
fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and
uncles to interact than sitting in front of
the television.”
There are other obstacles that keep
youths from picking up a fishing pole.
One might be location: Kids who live
where there isn’t a nearby place to fish
don’t gravitate to fishing like those
who live where there’s a pond or lake a
bike ride away. And some kids don’t
have anyone available to take them
fishing.
Osborne works with Jo Jo in the
TeamMates Mentoring Program, which
matches youths with a volunteer who
can provide them with guidance and
inspiration. Osborne and his wife,
Nancy, started the program in Lincoln
in 1991. It now serves the entire state,
reaching more than 3,000 students in
grades four through 12.
He’d be happy if it were easier for
mentors to take kids fishing, but
because of liability issues, TeamMates
is primarily a school-based program.
Only with permission from parents and
with another adult present can mentors
meet kids at places like a movie theater
or fishing pond. It’s an unfortunate fact
of life in today’s twisted world, where
dangers lurk in places they shouldn’t.
Osborne takes a photo of Wilke and a nice crappie.
When Osborne was growing up, he
couldn’t wait to get out of school, even
though it typically meant going straight
to football, basketball, track or baseball
practice instead of a fishing hole. “So
you just didn’t go home and sit in front
of the Game Boy or a Playstation or in
front of the computer or television set,”
he said. “As a result, we do have a lot
more inactivity now, and it certainly
hasn’t, I don’t think, served our young
12 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
on to handle stress or competition,
whether it’s high school athletics,
college athletics or just an adult in the
business world.”
More time spent indoors or online
means there’s less time for outdoor
activities such as fishing.
“Hunting and fishing activities are
really wholesome as far as a family
experience and family bonding,” he
said. “It’s a much better way for
Adults have their own distractions
that prevent many from fishing – hectic
work schedules, the Internet, cell phones,
PDAs … even golf.
Osborne has played the game,
especially when he was coaching. But
those golf outings were part of the job
and cut into off-season free time he
would have rather spent with family or
fishing. “It’s not that I’m opposed to
it,” he said. “I just find that it’s very
difficult to both fish and golf.”
While Osborne truly enjoys fishing
with friends and family, including a
daughter who is an avid fly-angler,
fishing is also his escape. Often, the
places he fishes offer solitude. “In my
Wilke and Brown jump from the boat to dry ground after Osborne pulled them ashore at the end of the day.
previous life, both as a football coach
and then in Congress, I was constantly
surrounded by people. I found that
fishing afforded me an opportunity to
get away, do something I enjoyed,
something that was totally fascinating
and engrossing to me. I think it’s
important to have a change of pace, not
to be doing the same thing over and
over again, all the time, every day.
“I’m sure some people, if they went
fishing this morning, would be thinking
continually about the next business deal
or the next appointment. But when I’m
fishing I’m totally focused on what I’m
doing and it’s a diversion.”
Finding a balance between his desire
to both spend time with family and
escape can be difficult, Osborne
admitted. “Given the opportunity, I
would fish 14 or 15 hours a day and I
might do it 6 or 7 days a week, and
that’s not healthy either,” he said. “You
have to find a balance.”
Osborne has lent his time to many
worthy causes, both personally and
professionally. He helped create a
Conservation Reserve Enhancement
Program initiative for the Platte and
Republican river valleys that can both
save water, improving stream flows and
reservoir levels, and increase habitat for
wildlife, especially pheasants. He’s
lobbied on behalf of Lake Ogallala’s
trout population in hopes that adequate
oxygen levels can be maintained. He
even taught a fly-fishing course to
youths attending the first Nebraska
Outdoors Expo in Kearney last May.
He hopes the latter and similar
efforts can help stem a decline in the
number of people who hunt and fish.
“Obviously, if you don’t have the
clientele coming on, it does not bode
well for the future,” he said. “Most of
our wildlife habitat and lake renovation
projects are paid for by Game and
Parks, and much of that money comes
from hunting and fishing licenses. So
even those who count themselves as
being environmentalists, who are not
particularly keen on hunting and fishing,
may find that a lot of the habitat
enhancement that benefits wildlife
begins to go away if you don’t have
adequate numbers of hunters and
fishermen.”
Fishing isn’t all about fishing. The
nature of the sport leaves plenty of time
to talk about life, too.
“Did you play baseball this summer,
Jo Jo?” Osborne asked on that cool
August morning last summer.
“No,” Jo Jo said.
“Are you still playing football?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you play, with some kids
in the neighborhood?”
“I play on a team.”
“Do you play tackle football or flag
football?” asked Christian.
“Tackle,” Jo Jo replied.
“Do you wear helmets and shoulder
pads and everything?” Osborne asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’ll be quite a deal. I’ll have to
come and watch you play.”
Thanks to cell phones, fishing isn’t
necessarily the escape it once was. It
depends on priorities. Osborne took
one call on his while he sat in the boat,
but chose to let it ring when others
came. “We’re too busy,” he said.
He found time to make a few casts
with a spinning rod when he wasn’t
helping the boys, but didn’t pick up his
own fly rod until more than an hour
into their outing. He didn’t catch a fish,
either. “I was terrible,” he told the boys.
It didn’t matter. He was spending
quality time with his grandson and Jo Jo.
And he was fishing. ■
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 13
Text and photos by Jeff Kurrus
With Nebraska’s turkey numbers at an all-time high and the
opportunity to purchase three spring hunting permits, there has never
been a better time for a new turkey hunter to be in the field.
he following is a crash course
for the beginning turkey hunter.
With the turkey population at an
all-time high, resident permits at
$24, and a plethora of hunting
locations available, you should kick
yourself if you don’t turkey hunt this
year.
But are you too late if this is your
first time? Not at all. Although the
spring archery season opened March 25,
the spring shotgun season doesn’t open
until April 12, which gives you all the
time you need to prepare for your first
spring gobbler season. Here’s how.
T
Scouting
Scouting is the most important aspect
of this entire process. To begin, take a
nice drive a week or two before opening
day, cup of coffee in hand, and glass
from the roads for turkeys during the
midmorning hours near wildlife
management areas (WMAs) that have
timber or near private land where
attaining permission might be possible.
If this doesn’t work, travel within a
Finding areas where turkeys are traveling
before opening day is a big step toward
finding a good place to hunt.
quarter mile of a potential roosting site –
generally an area with large trees, such
as cottonwoods – during the last half
hour of daylight and use an owl, coyote
or turkey yelp call to try and provoke a
response from a turkey, a method
known as shock gobbling. “Once you
hear birds,” said Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission big game program
manager Kit Hams, “be there one
morning one half hour before sunrise to
pinpoint roosting location. Once you
see or hear turkeys, you’re halfway
there.”
Other scouting methods include
walking through woodlands and open
fields looking for turkey sign such as
turkey feathers, which can often be
found near roost sites. Looking for
scat, tracks, water and food sources is
also another strategy for hunters. Adult
turkeys eat acorns, berries, insects,
grain and small reptiles through the
year. They will scratch the ground in
search of food, and these areas are
often easily visible to hunters.
Preseason scouting also involves
determining the best spot to set up. A
good hunting site offers concealment
from a turkey, but not so much that the
hunter must make a lot of noise getting
ready to shoot. While a turkey’s
In Nebraska, turkey hunting opportunities have never been better. Turkeys can be found in every county of the state.
excellent hearing is usually ignored, its
vision is not (see sidebar, page 18). So
camouflage becomes a big factor for
many hunters, who often spend way
too much money trying to blend
themselves into their surroundings. It’s
not necessary. What is necessary is
remaining as still as possible when
turkey hunting, which is why hunting a
spot that doesn’t require you to bury
yourself in concealing branches or
grass is just as important as the
camouflage itself.
Many hunters use ground blinds as a
means of camouflage. Ranging in price
from $20 to $400, a blind allows a
hunter to make movements with their
hands when using a slate or box call
that might otherwise be seen by an
advancing turkey. Another, more
inexpensive option, is a makeshift
blind, much like the one described
in the August/September 2007
NEBRASKAland article entitled “Tools
of the Trade.” This article gives simple
steps that nature photographers use for
camouflage that can also be used by
hunters.
In addition, pay attention to hearing
obstructions (i.e. running creek water),
Turkeys Through the Spring
While cold weather and snow might delay the start of the
breeding season, turkeys will begin to break away from their
winter flocks when the period of daylight begins to lengthen
in the spring. During this time, gobblers will put on weight,
mainly so they do not need to feed as heavily during the
breeding season.
A tom will also separate in an attempt to establish dominance,
doing his best to eliminate competition. “If you continue to get
beat, and beat and beat, are you going to keep coming back
for more punishment?” asked Jeff Rawlinson, Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission outdoor education specialist.
Flocks also break up as different food sources become
available, and some researchers believe an instinctive need
14 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
for genetic diversity may be another reason why toms break
away from their family groups.
Toms will begin to gobble and strut early in the spring, said
wildlife ecologist Lovett Williams, and get geared up because
of temperature. But the hens are keying off of the lengthening
of daylight. During the early part of the breeding cycle, most
toms will already be with hens.
This is the time of the year when jakes are known to quietly
come to a call, since doing so gives turkeys lower in the
pecking order a better chance to breed and avoid punishment
by a more dominant bird.
“Gobblers will concentrate on strutting when they have a
hen in sight, for there’s no need to gobble when you can see
what you’re looking for. They’ll probably only do five percent
of their gobbling when a hen is in view versus when a hen is
not in view,” said Williams. Gobbling will pick up again later in
the season when the hens start tending their nests. Toms
might even travel together, with one dominant bird and lower
pecking-order birds accompanying him.
A second breeding peak occurs near the end of the season.
“By this time, most hens have been bred and toms will try to
mate with as many hens as he can before the breeding ends,”
said Rawlinson. A hunter still in the field at this time might
see odd situations, such as a lone tom with eight hens.
“It’s just nature’s way of making sure all of the breeding
takes,” said Williams. At the same time, toms will be lighter
than they are the rest of the year
and their testosterone levels begin
to decrease.
The most important aspect of
this is trying to read what stage of
the breeding season is occurring.
That way, adjustments can be
made to maximize the chance of
harvesting a tom. “Turkey hunting
works much better if you develop
a bag of tricks coinciding with that
particular part of the season,”
said Rawlinson.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 15
blind spots and travel lanes that can be
seen from your location but don’t offer
a clear shooting lane.
At least you won’t have to worry
about the wind for your first turkey
hunt. You should hope for little or no
wind since high wind can
prevent turkeys from hearing
your call or vice versa. Unlike
deer hunting, it doesn’t matter
if the turkeys are downwind of
your blind location. Like the
old adage says: If a turkey
could smell as good as it can
see, no one would ever kill one.
advantages and disadvantages. Mouth,
or diaphragm, calls are self-explanatory.
Their most obvious advantage is that
they keep the hunter’s hands free,
allowing the opportunity to call a bird
within shooting range with a finger
close to the trigger. However,
some hunters find it difficult to
master diaphragm calls.
Box and slate calls are both
easier alternatives for the rookie
hunter, taking much less time
to master than mouth calls.
Competent yelping sounds can
be made in less than 10 minutes
out of the box. Furthermore,
box calls can make both hen
and gobbler calls.
Both box and slate calls do
Despite what many
have their disadvantages,
manufacturers may lead you to
however. Most box calls won’t
believe, you should spend a lot Slate calls are an effective option for new turkey hunters.
work in the rain, and the same
more time finding a good place
is true of slates. Plus, some larger box
bring along padding for your shoulder
to hunt and then choose the correct
calls can be a bit cumbersome to carry.
and earplugs.
shotgun, loads, calls or decoys. While
“I look for a minimum of four hits on Yet box calls do have one very strong
opinions will obviously vary, many
advantage: When turkey hunting afoot,
bone and 12 total hits on the head and
hunters use their regular 12-gauge
stopping every 100 to 200 yards to call,
shotgun with either No. 5 or No. 6 lead neck when I’m patterning my gun,”
a box call will produce a very loud
shot and a modified, improved modified said Hams. “Too often turkey hunters
sound that can trigger a response at a
shoot loads that are too heavy and
or full choke when they go turkey
distance. But for versatility, said
flinch when they pull the trigger,
hunting. If hunting in an area that
Schlender, “I like slate calls. Instead of
altering their shot.” For example, a
requires nontoxic shot, No. 4 steel and
carrying 10 calls around with you, try
12-gauge, 3½-inch turkey load has the
No. 6 tungsten are also acceptable
bringing one slate call and three or
recoil of a .458 Winchester magnum, a
loads. These will deliver a fatal shot to
four strikers.”
the head or neck which, given the bird’s famed elephant gun caliber. Even a
“New hunters need to get away from
2¾-inch load (with 1¼ ounces of shot)
thick body plumage, is where you
the concept that they have to be a
is like shooting a .338 Winchester
should aim. Any shot lower might
champion caller,” said Rawlinson. “The
magnum. “If your gun kicks too hard
simply wound a turkey, and because it
best turkey hunters I know are the best
when hunting,” Hams said, “use a slipcan run faster than 25 miles per hour,
woodsmen I know. To be successful,
on recoil pad.”
winging it will do nothing more than
put time into scouting. That’s the
Opinions also vary on calls and
start a very long race that will likely
calling. Turkey calls are usually broken biggest investment to be made. If a tom
have disappointing results.
wants to go in one direction, you’re
down into three categories – mouth,
“If you’re shooting out to 40 yards,”
box, and slate – and each comes with
probably not going to call him in. If the
said Turkey & Turkey Hunting
Magazine editor Jim Schlender, “and
have patterned your gun with a good
choke tube, any turkey load should do
the job.” When finding out where your
gun shoots, use a piece of typing paper
and some type of stable rest. Also,
Loads, Calls and Decoys
Tom turkeys challenge each other for dominance of a flock, a fact that hunters with decoys can use to their advantage.
tom already has hens, why would he
respond to you?”
Calling in turkeys is actually one of
hunting’s most unnatural acts. A hunter
tries to entice a tom turkey to come in
by emulating the sounds of a female. If
the tom had his way, he would never
move toward a hen. That’s why he’s
doing all of that gobbling and strutting
in the first place. With something this
loud and this pretty, he thinks, the hen
should come to him.
“You can get toms fired up with
yelps, cuts and cackles. These are the
sounds that sell calls on commercials
and television shows. But one of the
best things a hunter can do is learn the
soft calls. Purrs, clucks. I’ve seen more
toms come to these calls than to
anything else,” said Aaron Hershberger,
Commission outdoor education
specialist. “Turkeys make little noises
all day long, noises that will make a
caller seem realistic if you can learn
them. In an area with heavy hunting
pressure, I’ve called in turkeys with a
simple purr, even to the point that the
person I’m with can’t hear me doing it.
But the turkeys can. They’ll just slowly
walk in.
“Most hunters won’t do it, though,”
continued Hershberger. “Videos say to
call loud and often. Not that you
shouldn’t learn the yelps and cackles.
You should. But I bet there are some
birds out there that can get off the
roost, and then point in every direction.
‘That’s a box call over there; mouth
call over there,’ and can list both make
and model. Try what other people
aren’t doing. I’ve seen a four-year-old
call in toms with a push-button box
The Have-to-Have List
It is an outdoor retailer’s responsibility to tell you what they
think you need to have for any hunting or fishing passion.
However, that is not NEBRASKAland’s responsibility. We can
only tell you what you have to have to turkey hunt.
“If I only had $200 to spend on turkey hunting supplies and
was starting from scratch,” said Hams, “I’d buy a $100 pair of
binoculars and a $100 single-shot shotgun. Then I’d try and
find another 20 bucks for a turkey call with a good CD with it.”
Add a Nebraska public land guide and a CRP-MAP atlas,
both free of charge from the Commission and select retailers,
and you’re good to go.
The binoculars are especially important for a new turkey
hunter driving roads and walking WMAs before the season
16 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
scouting for turkeys. Locating turkeys is a hunter’s first step,
and there is no better way to do so than by using an
adequate pair of binoculars.
Camouflage is the other big purchase for new hunters, but
it doesn’t have to be. A brown and green pair of pants and
shirt, along with a $10 floppy hat that covers some of your
face, will suffice. Camouflage is a good idea, but you don’t
have to get carried away with buying a ghillie suit for
tomorrow’s hunt. If a turkey is coming your way and that
ghillie suit moves, that turkey is just as likely to spook as if
you were sitting next to a tree in a flannel shirt. Main point: It
doesn’t take a high credit limit to be a successful turkey hunter.
That said, hunters should stay away from white, red and
blue clothing. Avoiding these “turkey colors” will help prevent
hunter accidents in the field. Hunters should also stay away
from fleece as an outer layer because of aggravating plants
such as beggar’s ticks. Hunters should tuck their shirts into
their pants, their pants into their boots and spray all clothes,
especially creases, with insect repellent for ticks. A final pack
list would contain a point-and-shoot camera, dry socks, a seat
cushion, water, some sort of high-energy food and orange
flagging for transporting your kill.
That’s about it. The list should be small, and most items can
be purchased at an army surplus store. For the new turkey
hunter, there is only one thing you absolutely have to have – a
permit. And there are plenty of those to go around.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 17
against a tree, then the tree needs to be
wider than your shoulders.”
Day of the Hunt
On a spring morning, tom turkeys strut in an effort to attract hens for breeding.
call, one of the easiest calls to learn.
And this is after other box, slate and
mouth calls weren’t doing the trick.”
If you plan to use a call, great. But
don’t think that louder is always better,
or that lots of calling will provide more
birds. Talk to experienced callers, listen
to a turkey calling CD, or, best of all,
pay attention to birds when you hear
them in the field.
Also, if you decide to turkey hunt at
the last minute and just now bought
your permit online, don’t feel as if you
have to have a call to be an effective
turkey hunter. For your own enjoyment,
however, learn how to use one at some
point. If not for anything more than
trying to do what we’ve wanted to
since we were kids – talk to animals
and have them talk back.
As far as turkey decoys are concerned,
thoughts vary considerably on their
necessity when hunting. Few hunters
would say that decoys never attract
gobblers, or that decoy strategies at
certain times don’t work well. When
speaking with most seasoned hunters, it
all comes down to one aspect:
preference. If you’ve never turkey
hunted before, here are some starting
points for making your decision.
“Using or not using decoys all
depends on location,” said Hershberger.
“If I’m in an open area, say a cut crop
field or pasture, then I’ll often use
them. In woodlands, I’m usually not
concerned.”
If turkeys have come to decoys before
and watched a comrade go down at a
similar-looking spread, then there is a
good chance that they might not want
to be part of a repeat occurrence. They
may use their ground speed to run in
the opposite direction. Others fall in
love with decoys, Hershberger said,
and will sprint toward the spread. “Just
know the area you are hunting and, if
possible, try to find out how much it
has been hunted.”
Hershberger has heard of earlyseason hunters using large numbers of
decoys, up to a dozen, to lure birds in
to a location by implying safety in
numbers. Others will use a single hen
and jake decoy early in the year to
simulate the early breeding season, since
toms are still trying to establish
dominance and viewing this jake might
force a confrontation.
As the season moves on, and a
pecking order has been established, a
jake decoy may not entice birds.
Instead, it might intimidate them. As
far as decoy placement is concerned,
not much thought is needed for shotgun
hunting, except leaving an open area
where a safe and killing shot can be
made.
“Turkey hunting usually requires
hunter movement from one spot to
another,” said Hershberger. “Find
something light and portable, and
always remember when setting up a
decoy to keep safety in mind. Make
sure you can see people approaching
from all angles and if you are sitting
A roost site will be used repeatedly if
undisturbed, so how close to approach a
roost site falls under two schools of
thought. One, arrive at the woods
extremely early, well before legal
shooting time, and sneak as close as
you can to a roost site in hopes of
getting a shot at a turkey leaving the
roost. Or two, arrive close to shooting
time without coming within visual
sight of a turkey roost.
Both hens and toms will leave the
roost early and loudly, usually before
sunrise, although they might linger
later in wet or cold weather. Even on
the roost, both toms and hens will often
be vocal, giving hunters a fair chance at
locating them.
How much the tom gobbles
determines how close he is to hens. If
he was somehow separated from the
hens the night before and you can place
yourself between him and the hens,
you’re in a pretty good position. If he
has roosted close to hens, you might
not hear him gobble at all.
If a tom sees hunter movement, he
will probably stop gobbling and walk
in the opposite direction once on the
ground. The one thing you don’t want
is for those birds to change roost sites
in the evening if spooked in the
morning. If undisturbed, it is likely
those birds will go back to the same
place that evening.
Once on the ground, hens will begin
feeding in fields as the toms strut, trying
to attract as many mates as possible,
Turkey Vision
Why So Many Turkeys?
One of the turkey hunter’s biggest challenges is stalking a quarry that
sees so well – a turkey can see 50 times the amount of movement that
a human can detect. If humans can see one inch of movement at 50
yards, a turkey can see 1/50 of one inch of movement at 50 yards.
Turkeys also have a 300-degree range of vision, and can see out of
both sides of their head simultaneously. And while limited in the number
of hues it can see compared to humans and monkeys, a turkey can see
multiple colors, including red, green and yellow.
What does all this mean for hunters? “They are used to looking for
ground predators,” said Hams. “They are used to looking for shapes that
don’t fit in and shapes that are moving when they shouldn’t.” Try to
move only when the tom is not looking or is screened by foliage, and set
up for your shot before the bird gets to your shooting lane.
Conditions have to be right for any species to increase in
abundance, and they have been right for turkeys in Nebraska
the past couple of decades. First, in 1985, the Conservation
Reserve Program (CRP) came into being, establishing an
abundance of nesting cover. Second, coyote numbers have
taken a big hit from mange in recent years. Despite hurting
spring fishing, Nebraska’s long drought has also helped
turkey numbers. “The easiest way to wipe out a turkey
population is three years of wet, cold springs,” said Hams.
Plus, Nebraska has good roosting habitat, especially in the
eastern part of the state. Turkeys are also big, and when young
poults go up a tree, it’s hard for raptors to knock them off.
Finally, turkeys like corn, and Nebraska has plenty of that.
18 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
and breeding with as many hens as he
can.
At this point in the morning, hunters
will often try to sneak closer to turkeys
they can hear but not see. This is not a
good idea. One, stalking within gun
range of an animal with a turkey’s
vision and hearing will leave nearly all
hunters frustrated with that “almost”
feeling. Two, sneaking toward a turkey
in full camouflage might actually make
you the hunted if you’re not the only
turkey hunter in the woods. It is usually
unproductive and always unsafe,
especially on public land.
By mid-morning, the dominant hen
will often decide which direction the
flock will go. A hunter might continue
to call during this time because this
dominant hen could become curious
and want to investigate a potential
adversary. A tom might also follow if
he isn’t getting enough attention in the
first place.
When they are ready to lay eggs,
hens will begin to separate from other
turkeys during the late morning or
middle of the day. They don’t want to
be harassed by toms, and even when
not disturbed, might run away from
other turkeys to find their own private
nesting ground.
With many hens now absent, toms
will find themselves alone and restless,
giving hunters one of their best
chances to call in a turkey. By walking
and calling, hunters can indicate to
toms that hens are on the move. “A
hunter should know that there are
more techniques for turkey hunting
than just setting up on the edge of a
field,” said Rawlinson.
By late afternoon, hens and gobblers
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 19
10-inch beard. With an
older bird, that beard
may be worn down
from a variety of
factors, including the
beard freezing and
breaking off, dragging
it on the ground when
feeding or simply living
day-to-day.
“It won’t ever be
much longer than
10 inches,” added
Schlender. “But when a
person says they didn’t
shoot a turkey because
its beard wasn’t big
enough, that’s absolute
foolishness.”
While determining
the age of a turkey by
its beard length is
impossible, looking at
spur length can provide
better answers. In the
north and Great Plains,
a two-year-old tom
Attaching orange flagging is the safest way to transport a
(most
hens do not grow
harvested turkey.
spurs) will have blunt,
triangle-shaped but not sharp, 3/4-inch
slowly start moving in the general
spurs. By the time he’s three, that spur
direction of their roost site, with toms
might be an inch or a little bit more
gobbling to let hens know where they
with a better defined point. After that,
will be for the evening. Position
yourself on the path between a traveling it’s going to be pointy with a little bit
of a hook to it, and can go grow to two
tom and the roost site, and hope the
inches. Yet after a turkey is about three
turkey walks within 30 yards of your
years old, it’s difficult to determine age
location, well within shooting range.
at all. Plus, there is always the
But is this turkey, with its eight-inch
opportunity for the spurs, like the beard,
beard, the one you are after?
to be broken.
“People put way too much emphasis
on beard length,” said Schlender. “It’s
You probably won’t be able to look
almost irrelevant.” By the time a turkey at all of this before pulling the trigger,
is two years old, it can easily have a
however, so leave the investigating for
after the hunt, knowing that any turkey
on the ground is a trophy. The best you
can hope for is a shot at close range,
with the tom’s head and neck fully
extended.
Once you celebrate your trophy, take
a few photographs of your first bird
using the tips found in “Capture the
Moment” at OutdoorNebraska.org
under Hunting. Bottom line: A picture
taken afield when the bird is fresh will
always be much better than one taken
in the back of the truck.
When transporting the turkey, wear
an orange hat or place orange flagging
on the bird. While most turkeys don’t
walk upside down, three feet off of the
ground, hunters have been shot
transporting their bird over their
shoulder from the field to the vehicle.
Be safe.
After the Hunt
With your first wild turkey sitting in
the freezer or the fryer, now is just as
good a time as any to think about
purchasing your second turkey permit.
Quite often a day or two after a big,
loudmouth tom is killed, other turkeys
in a given flock will begin to fight for
pecking order.
Have you seen the videos when
multiple toms are jumping on the dead
body of a just-killed tom, or beating the
decoy senseless with their spurs? They
have seen a vulnerable situation and
taken advantage of it. This is the time
when a hunter should be back in the
woods, when the new big tom on the
block wants to show the entire woods
who’s king.
That’s also your best bet to learn
Tyler Huffaker, left, Trevor Huffaker, Jeremy Jepson and turkey hunting newcomer Jake Dizmang
compare notes after an afternoon turkey hunt near Bassett.
about turkey hunting. Reading articles
and watching television shows is helpful,
but never believe everything you see. “I
often hear hunters say ‘I won’t kill birds
if I don’t call them in,’” said Rawlinson.
“Reality says you probably aren’t killing
many birds then. A lot of hunters think
that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but I
have seen turkeys coming to a call much
less frequently than the hen going to
the tom.”
Spend time in the field. And while
this article is a start, it definitely isn’t a
tell-all. Wingbone, suction yelpers or
tube calls weren’t discussed; nor were
the strategies covered when hunting
with a partner. There is still a lot
more to learn. Killing a bird can be
accomplished, but it should not be a
necessity. As a good friend once told me,
“I hunted for an entire turkey season and
never got a single shot. But I have never
in my life had so much fun in the
woods.”
“Fun” is the right word when referring
to turkey hunting, especially right now
in Nebraska where their numbers are so
plentiful. “I can’t imagine we’re going
to have turkey numbers like this forever,”
said Hams. “People should take
advantage of it now.” And isn’t this
year just as good a time as any? ■
The author would like to note the
following resources concerning wild
turkeys: Kit Hams, Aaron Hershberger,
and Jeff Rawlinson of the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission;
Jim Schlender, editor of Turkey &
Turkey Hunting Magazine; Dr. Lovett
Williams, wildlife ecologist and author
of Wild Turkey Hunting &
Management; the National Wild Turkey
Federation; Jim Casada, freelance
writer and avid turkey hunter; and
Trevor and Tyler Huffaker, Nebraska
turkey hunters.
Where and When to Turkey Hunt
While there were relatively few birds in the eastern part of
the state 20 years ago, the largest number of turkeys and
turkey hunters now reside there. There are few public lands in
eastern Nebraska that don’t have turkeys, but turkey
numbers increase even more the farther one gets from the
major metropolitan areas. That said, Douglas, Sarpy and
Washington counties still have a lot of turkeys harvested
each year due to good nesting habitat and plenty of trees
along the Missouri and Platte rivers for roosting.
Other counties that boast some of the state’s highest
turkey numbers include Pawnee and Johnson in the
southeast, Knox and Holt in the northeast, Furnas and
Harlan in the southwest, Webster and Nance in the central
20 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
part of the state, and Dawes and Sheridan in the Panhandle.
Turkeys can be found in every county in Nebraska. “Many of
our counties have public land and it is fairly easy to find a
private landowner who would like to have the local turkey
population reduced,” said Hams.
Overall, Nebraska’s 2007 spring turkey harvest was in the
top 25 percent of the entire country, a huge rise from when
birds were reintroduced to Nebraska in 1959. And with spring
archery, shotgun and youth seasons, people have lots of time
to hunt birds, which makes finding suitable ground even easier
for hunters.
“Hunting on opening weekend isn’t necessary for success.
If the area you want to hunt is busy on the weekend, consider
hunting during the week,” said Hams. “Toward the end of the
season, half of the people have harvested their turkey and
the rest are done for the year. Late-season hunters almost
always have the turkey woods to themselves.”
Turkey hunting, at least in Nebraska, just isn’t a crowded
affair. It’s less crowded than duck, pheasant and especially
deer hunting. “It’s the least crowded public event you’ll find,”
said Hams. “You’re more inclined to see mushroom hunters
than turkey hunters. Actually, while I shot two turkeys myself
last year and my son called in more birds than I have in my
entire life, I don’t know if we saw, other than two hunters on
opening weekend, another person in the woods all season.
And we hunt public land.”
Turkeys can be found in every Nebraska county, but their prime
range includes most major river drainages and the Pine Ridge.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 21
The Camouflaged
Looper
This “inchworm” takes extreme
measures to hide itself from predators
Text and photos by Chris Helzer
A
s an ecologist, I think a lot about the complexity
of the natural world. Even so, I am often amazed
by the adaptations that animals and plants have
developed. I found one particularly surprising
example on a summer day near Wood River last
year. I was trying to photograph some native bees when I
noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eye. A
small inchworm was making its way up a purple prairie clover
plant. At first, I was impressed by how much the purple
spikes on its back looked like prairie clover flowers. As I
looked closer, something struck me as odd. I reached out and
tugged very gently on one of the spikes. Sure enough, it
popped right off. The inchworm’s spikes didn’t just look like
prairie clover flowers, they WERE prairie clover flowers!
I photographed the inchworm and e-mailed some friends
to see if anyone had ever seen anything like it. Though most
were as baffled as I was, I eventually learned that I’d found
the larva of Synchlora aerata, otherwise known as the
“Camouflaged Looper”
or the “Wavy-lined
Emerald.” The
inchworm and green
moth it eventually
turns into is one of
more than 35,000
species of Geometrid
moths found around
the world. While most
inchworms are well
camouflaged, this
one takes extreme
measures to hide itself
from predators.
As I had noticed, the
camouflaged looper
is named for its
incredible ability to
disguise itself by
Purple prairie clover is a native legume attaching pieces of
plant to its back.
and common wildfower found across
More specifically, the
much of Nebraska.
22 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
inchworm bites off pieces of the particular flower it’s feeding
on and uses gelatinous “spit” from its mouth to glue the
flower pieces to spines on its back. The “spit” also helps
stiffen the flower parts and keep them looking fresh. When
parts fall off or start to look dried out, they are replaced.
When the inchworm begins feeding on a different kind of
flower, it discards the previous disguise and replaces it with
pieces of the new flower.
I found a great article written by Dr. Miklos Treiber of the
University of North Carolina and published in 1979 by The
Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society. In his paper, Dr.
Treiber described the process by which the inchworm puts
on and maintains its costume, but also the methods he used
to test the inchworm’s abilities (and patience). He would
periodically remove some or all of the flower parts from a
captive inchworm’s back to see how quickly they would be
replaced. He also moved the inchworms from one type of
flower to another to watch them change their disguise. Dr.
Treiber reported that while the inchworms were rebuilding
their costume, they kept eating. They would alternate
between bites of food and bites of costume. On some flowers,
the inchworms used different parts of the flower for its
disguise than they used for food.
The defense mechanism of the camouflaged looper and
other caterpillars is an adaptation probably most useful for
hiding from hungry birds. Most caterpillars have some level
of camouflage, including some that look like bark, twigs,
thorns, and even bird droppings, but very few can alter their
appearance over time. Scientists figure the camouflaged
looper’s ability to change disguises allows it to have a much
more varied diet than other caterpillars because it isn’t
restricted to eating only those flowers or plant parts that it
resembles in appearance.
The day after I found my first camouflaged looper, I went
back to the same spot to see if I could find more. I did find
one, but not in the way I expected. This time the one I found
was impaled on the beak of a predatory bug! Apparently,
their disguise isn’t foolproof.
Invertebrates make up more than 80 percent of all living
species on earth. Scientists have discovered and described
more than 1.7 million species of insects, but estimate that
A camouflaged looper inches its way up a stem toward the bloom on a purple prairie clover plant. Its
back is adorned with prairie clover flower parts it has clipped and attached to its body.
there are still 8 million species waiting to be discovered. It
seems incredible that there are that many species we have not
yet found. On the other hand, if they are like the camouflaged
looper, they could be hiding right under our noses! ■
Also known as spanworms, measuring worms, or loopers,
inchworms get their name because of their “looping” gait. This
occurs because, unlike many other caterpillars, they are missing
“legs” from the middle portion of their body. Instead of rippling
evenly along like caterpillars that have a full set of legs,
inchworms “inch” along by alternately stretching out and
grabbing a stem with their front legs, then bending their bodies
and bringing their back legs forward.
Chris Helzer lives in Aurora and is an ecologist with The
Nature Conservancy. He has been a contributor to
NEBRASKAland since October 1994.
This predatory bug was apparently not fooled by the looper's
clever disguise. It appears the looper may have been in the
process of replacing its disguise when it was killed.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 23
Text and Photos by Rocky Hoffmann
What started as a desire to help anglers
became a fascination with the working parts
of reels and led to a rod-and-reel collection
that probably rivals any other in Nebraska.
near Scottsbluff. “It started with a
ven at a very young age while
growing up in Scottsbluff, Bill cottonwood limb, grocery string and a
Horst knew he wanted to work safety pin. I guess you could say I was
one of the first of the barbless fishermen,
with kids in some meaningful
but that old safety pin, bent just right,
capacity. “I guess I did just that, and it
was every bit as rewarding as I hoped it hooked plenty of suckers and chubs for
me.”
would be,” Horst recently said while
Following college, he chased a
reflecting on his 42 years of teaching,
coaching, counseling and administering teaching and coaching career across
Nebraska and Wyoming. In doing so, he
in school systems across two states.
chased fish in every mountain stream,
“Coaching and counseling were my
most passionate commitments to young Sandhills lake and interstate sandpit
people. It gave me a real opportunity to along the way. Fishing was always
important to Horst, and
shape their lives, and mine as well, in a
during his travels he
very positive way,” Horst said as he sat
realized how important
at his workbench in Arnold last winter,
it was to many people,
slowly turning the handle of
especially kids.
an old Zebco fishing reel.
“In the early 1970s, I had
Horst is likely
too much time on my hands
remembered by
during summer break,
hundreds of adults
and I sought spiritual
for touching their
guidance on how
lives as youngsters
best I could use
in one way or
that time. I asked
another. Some of
Him to provide me a
them remember
hobby that would help
him as coach,
me benefit others, and
others as a principal.
I promised in return
Others will think of
that I would never
him simply as the guy who fixed
charge for what I did. Not long
their broken fishing reel or
after that, someone handed
rewrapped a rod that
me a broken reel and asked
was falling apart. Bill
if I thought I could fix
Horst passed away
Milled from a solid block of
it. Something told me I
recently with warm
memories of those past aluminum, this Ashaway reel is probably could, and
a classic open-faced reel from
since that time, I’ve
experiences and a shop
the 1930s.
repaired every type of
full of memorabilia,
rod and reel imaginable. That’s where
including a collection of more than
all this began,” said Horst, referring
500 rod-and-reel combinations.
His love of fishing was created during to the rod-and-reel combinations lining
his early days on the North Platte River the walls and ceiling of his shop.
24 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Posing in his shop not long before he passed away recently, Bill Horst of Arnold is surround by the
more than 500 rods and reels that he collected and rebuilt during the past 35 years.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 25
Horst pulled a few rods and reels
down from the wall and laid two on his
workbench.
“These little reels are among the very
first fly-fishing reels that were made
either by Vomhof or are copies of
Vomhof by Pflueger. They were made
in the early 1900s. The older example
has raised pillars and was made about
1901. Both have wood handles and one
has a weight that serves as a multiplier.”
Horst turned his attention to two other
reels, each with a familiar appearance.
Manufactured under the name of the
Zero Hour Bomb Company, these were
the first Zebco reels.
“These are the first reels manufactured
in the name of the Zero Hour Bomb
Company in 1937. That’s where Zebco
got its name, and it was named in honor
of a $5,000 loan that the Zero Hour
Bomb Company made to the fellow
who started Zebco. Actually there are
three variations of these originals. I have
two of them, and the only difference is
the color of the spinner head inside the
casing. I have the tan and red ones, but
I’m looking for the black one.”
Another rare find in Horst’s collection
is a Bronson reel that features a pushbutton release on the back of the rod
grip that runs through the handle, into
the reel and releases a pin that allows
the reel to let out line during a cast. It
is the only example of this particular
reel that Horst has seen in his 35 years
Pflueger’s unique “gingerbread” engraving pattern and red jewel marked their higher-quality reels.
Horst never accepted a dime for the
reels he made work again. All he ever
asked of his “customers” was that they
bring in their “junker” reels for parts.
“Some of those old reels they brought
in were pretty interesting relics, and
instead of robbing their parts, I put them
back together. Other rods and reels they
gave me needed little or no repair at
all, so when I got this shop, I began
hanging them up. I’m certain each and
every one has a great story to tell.”
Horst was always fascinated about the
workings of reel parts, and he would
spend hours, even days, studying the
moving parts until he figured out what
every little piece was designed to do.
Once he had that understanding of a reel,
he knew immediately what he needed
to do to solve its problem, even if
A thumb opening cut into the housing of a
promotional Great Lakes reel allowed the
angler control of the cast and catch.
Two early Vomhof fly-fishing reels. Raised pillars on the left reel marks it as the oldest
of the two, manufactured in about 1900.
26 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
meant building parts.
Horst said it was extremely
interesting to see how rods and reels
progressed over the years, from fly
reels that only held line on a spool to
level-wind casting reels such as the old
Pfluegers, to closed-face spinning reels,
then open-faced ones and many
innovations in between. Reels have
been manufactured to keep up with
fishing line advancements and vice
versa, he said, with probably the
biggest impact to recreational fishing
occurring as a result of the development
of monofilament fishing lines.
Classic level-wind casting reels mounted on steel and glass rods are
just part of the Horst collection.
Simulated bone-handled, pistol-grip rods
were fancy accessories for level-wind reels.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 27
that he picked up at a garage sale in
Ogallala. It’s unique because it is
integrated with a telescoping rod. The
rod and reel is one piece and can be
shortened to fit neatly behind the seat
of a truck or added to a backpack.
Horst used it just to see how it worked,
and said its name was an apt description.
Horst said Zebco’s first open-faced reel
was a small stand-alone reel called the
Zebco Ultralite, which he also had.
About the time Zebco came out with
the Ultralite model, all major reel
manufacturers were getting into the
open-faced reel business.
Level-wind casting reels were old-time
favorites, and it’s likely that the most
recognized of all these types were those
in the Pflueger line. Pflueger produced
several level-wind models over the years,
and their gingerbread-pattern engraving
distinguished upper level Pflueger
reels, as well as the red glass jewel stud
set on the outside of the reel body.
In addition to reels, Horst was equally
interested in fishing rods. His collection
included poles made of cane, split
Bronson’s push-button release on the handle reflected a truly integrated rod and reel.
bamboo, steel, glass and modern
composites. He learned to repair split
of collecting. Bronson no longer makes
Horst was now handling another reel
bamboo rods when the glue holding
reels, and Horst believes this integrated in his collection. “This is very unusual.
them together separated, and he
reel was manufactured in the mid-1950s. It’s the Ocean City reel from Austin,
recalled that the tips of these poles
“Now this is the Ashaway, one of the Texas. It has a little wing on the front
were very fragile.
very first open-faced spinning reels. It
that you flip down with your finger to
“They would outright break or they
is all aluminum. Even the body was
cast. Then when you reel, that little
would be broken because they stuck
milled from solid aluminum. It is a fine wing comes up kind of like a bail on a
out too far and got slammed in cabin
reel, and the only other one of these
traditional open-faced reel and wraps
doors or hit tree limbs. That’s why
I’ve seen is in the reel collection at the
the line on the spool. This was Ocean
most all bamboo poles came with an
Pioneer Village Museum near Minden.
City’s answer to open-faced reels.”
It is an absolute classic reel probably
extra end section for replacement.”
Horst also had a closed-faced Zebco
Horst said that steel rods, on the
made sometime in the late-1930s.”
called the Ultimate Fishing Machine
other hand, could
take a lot of
punishment. They
were also short,
many not more than
five feet long, he
said. As tough as
they were, they were
also fairly light
action – heavy but
whippy, he said,
adding that you
could cast a lure a
long distance with
one if you didn’t
backlash your old
level-wind reel in
the process.
“Even the rod
Pictured above is Ocean City’s answer to the open-faced spinning reel. Made with a simple and light
design, the metal wing on the front of the reel served as the line pickup bail when engaged.
handles were unique.
28 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
These pistol grip
handles resemble
bone, and are real
attractive. I have
three of them and
have various reels
on them. One is
an old fly reel
original and is a
nice combination
although they didn’t
really go together
in the first place.
Those old fly reels
resemble the
Pflueger line of
casting reels, but
you notice that a
level wind is not part
of the reel. The reel
serves as a line
holder, and the
fisherman had to
guide the line onto
the reel himself.”
Horst said the
transition in fishing
equipment has
been fast paced,
and fishing
has had a
tremendous
influence on
most people’s
lives.
“The sport
has been very
good for
Nebraska,
and especially
good for
kids. I know,
because I was
one. And
because I was
a kid who grew
up in the
Panhandle, I
need to throw
this in: Our
western
Nebraska
Although blocky in appearance, Zebco named this the “Ultimate Fishing Machine,”
incorporating a reel and telescoping rod.
streams are being destroyed, along with
rivers and lakes in other parts of the
state, because of excessive groundwater
pumping and it just breaks my heart.
There isn’t a better pastime for young
or old alike, and it’s simply a shame to
destroy any part of that heritage. We
simply have to find a way to manage
our water where it can be used for
farming and other needs while making
sure that there is plenty left over for
fish and wildlife.” ■
Zero Hour Bomb Company was engraved
on Zebco’s first line of reels.
This fluted wood
shipping and
carrying case
protected all
sections of the split
bamboo fly rod it
held.
Diane and Bill Horst pose at the bench where he repaired hundreds of reels over the years.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 29
By Jon Farrar, Larry Peterson and Gary Zaruba
affected by frost or water. Will stand any amount
of wind.” In addition to mail orders, Fox decoys
were hawked by agents in Chicago and St. Paul,
Minnesota. The Shell Decoy Company of
Omaha advertised plans for hunters to make
their own “super-light” decoy shells in the April
1901 issue of Field and Stream. Other enterprising Nebraskans also applied for decoy patents,
such as Joseph R. Geisinger of Grand Island. In
1927, Geisinger patented his spread-winged
duck and goose decoys, made of canvas over a
wire framework and stuffed with straw, that
moved along parallel wires to create the appearance of landing birds.
Little is known of these early-day Nebraska
decoy makers. Some may have received a patent
but never marketed a decoy. Some Nebraska
decoy makers had short-lived success, such as
Albert T. Candy of Kearney. Sears, Roebuck and
Company briefly marketed Candy’s decoys in
1953, but when the contract was canceled after
one season, Candy’s company closed its doors.
While relatively few Nebraska decoy makers
prospered commercially, the number of waterfowl hunters who fashioned waterfowl lures for
their own use were legion. Some hunters simply
counterfeited the designs and materials of commercial decoys. Others improvised, cutting fence
posts into foot-long lengths, splitting them,
attaching a head cut from scrap lumber and
crudely painting them to simulate their intended
quarry. Perhaps the most popular homemade
decoys in the early 1900s were silhouettes.
Whether made from sheet metal and painted
black, or from the ends of fruit crates and painted with three or four colors to suggest a mallard,
they were used everywhere from Loup River
sandbars to North Platte River meadows.
The decoys appearing on the following pages
are most of the pre-1970, Nebraska-made commercial decoys known to the authors; and a sampling of a few makers who produced relatively
few decoys for their own use. Others, no doubt,
are waiting to be found in attics and haylofts.
30 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Lundgren’s straw-stuffed canvas decoys were still being used in western Nebraska in the 1980s, testimony to their durability.
Lundgren
PHOTO COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON
T
he federal banning of live call birds for
hunting in 1935 sent most wildfowlers
scrambling for other ways to lure
ducks and geese within shotgun range.
The only alternative was artificial
decoys. Although aesthetically unappealing
compared to those of the early 1900s, commercial decoys were available in the 1930s and
1940s, but few hunters could afford to buy them
during the Great Depression and war years.
Inexpensive papier-mâché decoys would not
come into widespread use until after World War
II. All those circumstances produced an expected outcome—small companies sprouting up to
make their fortunes in decoys, and hunters making their own from materials at hand and free.
The commercial production of decoys was not
new in Nebraska. “The Korker Duck Decoy is
out, and it is a magnificent work and will receive
the hearty endorsement of all
appreciative hunters,” Omaha
Daily Bee sportswriter Sandy
Griswold wrote in the February
18, 1894 edition. The Korker was made of
“closely woven drilling, water proof and moulded in the form of a duck, with a filling of fine
cork … and the painting is artistic and life like.”
That same year, William W. Roberts of North
Bend patented a novel cloth decoy with a “collapsible skeleton frame” of wire that opened,
closed and locked similar to an umbrella.
And there were other Nebraska decoy
makers, such as Fox Decoys who made a
reversible goose decoy that could be
converted from a Canada goose to a
snow goose and back again, manufactured by Steve B. Reynard
of Grand Island. His decoys
were touted in an April 1901
Field and Stream advertisement as “…portable—may
be taken apart and packed
in small space. Is made of
indestructible material, not
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
Prompted by the banning of live decoys for hunting, many
Nebraskans began making their own decoys, some for profit.
John Lundgren, above, was an avid wildfowler,
hunting ducks and geese each fall on the
Platte River. His canvas decoys were widely
copied by other Nebraska hunters.
John Albert Lundgren (1880-1964) was the son of a Swedish artist. His
family immigrated to America and settled near the Platte River in Kearney
County, where he lived the rest of his life. He was probably the most prolific of Nebraska’s commercial decoy makers in the mid-decades of the 20th
century. Lundgren began making canvas-covered Canada goose decoys for
his own use in the 1920s or 1930s. His floater decoys had a wooden baseboard to which a wire body framework and the wooden head and neck were
attached. The roughly shaped head and neck were made of separate pieces
of wood, so the grain ran lengthwise on both, and were joined by a dowel.
The base of the neck was attached to the baseboard by two nails. Heavy canvas was cut in a pattern and sewn to fit over the wire armature and attached
with staples. Relatively few floaters were made and finding one today in
good condition is rare.
Most decoys manufactured by Lundgren were canvas-covered, Canada
goose field decoys, or “stick-ups.” Patented in 1941, these decoys were
stuffed with dry, long-stemmed wheat straw. Lundgren developed a machine
to tightly pack the straw in the canvas shell before sewing it shut at the tail.
Completed stuffed shells were dipped in a vat of animal glue and allowed to
dry. Once dry they were painted white, then black, and the feather pattern
was painted “in accordance with the plumage of the bird to be simulated.”
Finishing paint was lampblack, burnt umber, turpentine and linseed oil. The
feather pattern was applied with a rubber washing machine roller on which
Lundgren etched a feather pattern. Canada stick-ups were made in feeding
and high-head postures, with heads turned in different positions.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 31
32 NEBRASKALAND
APRIL 2008
K&W decoys were manufactured in Tekamah from 1957 into 1962, and at Bridgeport from 1968 until 1972. While at Tekamah, three
models of Canada geese, white-fronted geese, “snow” and “blue” geese, and two mallard decoy models were produced.
found it impossible to carry on with his commercial hunting
operation, the machine and welding shop, and decoy manufacturing at the same time. In 1968, Art Johnson and other
partners purchased the company and equipment, moved it to
Bridgeport and manufactured K&W decoys until 1972. As the
same dies were used, it is probably impossible to distinguish
between decoys manufactured in the two factories.
PHOTO COURTESY OF RALPH KOHLER
DECOY COURTESY OF JON FARRAR
DECOYS COURTESY OF MIKE AND KATHY GARDNER
DECOYS COURTESY OF GARY EBERT, MIKE LIVINGSTON, LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
decoys in the 1980s, attesting to their
durability when cared for properly. The
decoys were offered for sale by national
sporting goods outlets, such as the
renowned Abercrombie & Fitch, and
could be ordered by mail from hardware
catalog dealers in the 1940s, at which
time they sold for $36 to $40 per dozen.
They were popular not only in Nebraska
but also along the East Coast. In addition
to goose decoys, Lundgren made mallard field decoys, probably in limited
numbers, which are rare today. He continued to make decoys through 1958.
Many Platte and North Platte river
hunters imitated the construction and
materials of Lundgren’s field goose
decoys. Some produced hundreds of
decoys but did not enter commercial production, probably in part because of
Lundgren made relatively few Canada goose floating decoys. Canvas was stretched
Lundgren’s patent. Typically the shaping
over the wood, wire and sheet metal body and painted with a feather pattern.
of these counterfeit goose decoys was
Lundgren’s patent application states: “It is one object of the less refined than Lundgren’s birds, more lumpy and usually
invention to provide a decoy which will closely resemble the with inferior painting detail.
birds to be attracted and serves very effectively to entice them
K&W Decoy Company
close enough to be shot from a blind,” and that they would be
“…light weight, natural in appearance, and of sturdy conCommercial waterfowl hunter Ralph Kohler of Tekamah,
struction.” Each decoy came with a square tube stake that fit and his longtime hunting partner and waterfowl call maker,
in an opening on the bottom of the decoy, allowing them to be Monte West, started the K&W Decoy Company in 1957.
set in fields or on sandbars and not turn in the wind. A wire Kohler and West were dissatisfied with the quality and duraloop extended beyond the canvas body on the tail so they bility of commercial decoys available in the 1950s, especially
could be hung to dry and away from rodents when not in use. those made of papier-mâché. Their solution was to manufacLundgren goose decoys in good condition have the patent ture their own. Ralph was a tool and die maker, owned a
number stenciled on the bottom. Canada goose field decoys machine shop, and fashioned the aluminum stamping dies for
the decoys.
weighed about 41/2 pounds.
The material used for the decoys, a resin-impregnated formWestern Nebraska hunters were still using Lundgren’s field
ing board (as used for suitcases and luggage of that time), was
shaped after softening in a steam cabinet to make the material
pliable, then formed between the male and female dies under
200 tons of pressure. The bodies were formed in halves, as
were the head-neck sections. After cooling and hardening, the
halves were stapled together and the seams covered with
gauze and water resistant adhesive. A rugged leg framework
was attached to the bodies on sturdy steel plates. K&W
decoys could be purchased in two styles, with the standard Hframe support, or with more expensive life-like legs and feet.
The decoys were painted with an airbrush using templates.
Any hand painting on a K&W decoy suggests they are not in
original condition. Early decoys manufactured in Tekamah
were not labeled, but Kohler said later decoys had “K&W
Decoy Company” rendered as an impression on the bottom.
Silhouettes (also
called profiles or
There are no records of how many K&W decoys were manshadows), such as these
ufactured at the Tekamah plant. The shop was capable of promade by Louie and Walt
ducing as many as 500 decoys per day but probably never
Engberg of Monroe,
achieved that volume. K&W decoys were not sold through
were popular homemade
retail outlets. All sales were factory direct. Canada goose
decoys. Some were
fashioned from wood
decoys were far and away the most popular of K&W’s decoys.
salvaged from fruit
In addition to standard-sized Canadas, a small Canada decoy
crates. Others were
(called “the Hutch” and made on a snow goose body) and a
made of sheet metal
large Canada model with an oversized breast, nicknamed the
and painted black.
FolDuck Decoys
Ralph Kohler, one of the co-founders of K&W decoys, was a tool
and die maker and owned a machine shop in Tekamah. He made
the aluminum stamping dies for all the decoy models. A resinimpregnated forming board was shaped between the male and
female dies under 200 tons of pressure.
Mae West, were sold. Kohler said the largest market for K&W
Canada geese was the Chesapeake Bay area. White-fronted
goose decoys, and both white- and blue-phase snow geese,
were made, as were full-body field mallards. About 200 mallard floaters were produced and sold but not formally marketed because Kohler and West never found a way to seal the
body seam and prevent the decoys from leaking. The most
rare K&W decoys today are the Mae West and floating mallards. In the late-1950s, a dozen goose decoys of any species
with the H-frame legs sold for $64, and those with realistic
feet and legs were $78 per dozen. Mallard stakeout decoys
sold for $34 per dozen.
Kohler and West closed the decoy factory in 1962. Kohler
A folding decoy was manufactured in Broken Bow during
the late-1930s by Parke F. Keays, the managing editor of the
Custer County Chief. Plumage patterns were printed on canvas on the newspaper’s presses, and the rest of the assembly
work was done in Keays’ garage. The canvas cover was
stretched over a galvanized wire framework that collapsed flat
onto a board. When erected, the decoy resembled a pup tent in
shape. A cork panel was attached to the wood base to add
buoyancy. Mallards were the principal species manufactured,
but other species may have been made in small numbers. The
decoys were designed for use on dry land or water.
FolDuck decoys were similar in concept to the popular folding decoys manufactured by the Acme Folding Decoy
Company (1895-1907) and Wm. R. Johnson Decoy Company
(1910-1960s). A dozen FolDuck decoys sold for $10.50 in
1941. FolDuck decoys were advertised in national sporting
magazines of the time. Keays’ 1941 patent stated: “My invention relates to improvements in ducks for hunting purposes
and the principal object in view is to provide an inexpensive,
lightweight device of this character which will not sink and is
collapsible into compact form for porting or shipping.” A
dozen decoys folded to a 6-by-15-by-18-inch cube.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 33
DECOY COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
DECOYS COURTESY OF MARLENN AND CLARA JOBMAN
Douglas collapsible decoys were manufactured in Crete during World War II. A set of eight drakes and four hens sold for $10.
In a letter, Keat Keays, Parke’s
son, recalled helping fashion the
decoys: “I was in junior high
school and we had an assembly
line in our garage. Dad and some
of the printers at the Custer
County Chief printed the decoy
profiles on canvas. Mother cut
the canvas profiles out of the
square blocks of cloth and then
stitched a left and right profile
together but with the imprint on the inside. All of us turned the
result so that the imprint was outside. The beaks were particularly hard to do. Someone bent a wire profile and also two
wires that fit on a wooden platform. The result was that the
wire profile would slide on the two pieces on the wooden platform so that the decoys could be folded or erected as desired.
The decoy was too heavy to float on the wooden platform so
about a 3/8-inch sheet of cork had to be attached to the bottom
and a paraffin layer was added before the canvas could be
installed.”
“Pat. pending” with a number and his name, it does not appear
he ever received a patent, perhaps because patents for similar
decoys had previously been awarded. Schlemmer apparently
only made mallard decoys. His decoys were fashioned of
heavy canvas, stuffed with kapok and tacked to a wooden bottom board. The canvas was hand-painted with a basic mallard
plumage pattern using oil paint. The significant variation in
both shape and painting adds to their folksy appeal. Interest in
Schlemmer’s decoys is primarily regional.
Douglas Decoys
During the World War II years, the Douglas Manufacturing
Corporation in Crete, whose principal product was voting
booths and metal ballot storage containers, entered the decoy
business. Douglas folding field decoys were similar to the
Johnson folding decoy first marketed in 1910, with two halves
34 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
attached at the top and spread at the bottom into a tent-shape
when in use. Mallards were the only species produced.
Douglas advertising touted their “New Improved All Metal
Folding Decoy” as “Finished in natural duck colors . . . Folds
Flat. No Bulk. Saves Space. Moves with wind or water . . .
Practically indestructible.”
The collapsible decoys were 161/2 inches long, 71/2 inches
high, 31/2 inches wide at the bottom when spread, and weighed
about one pound. A round “rod with stem insert inside decoy,
holds duck in position and controls side movement of decoy.”
There was some variation in the plumage painting during the
five years the decoys were manufactured. Douglas decoys
were sold in sets of eight drakes and four hens at a retail price
of $10 per dozen. Production ceased when the building housing the decoy works burned.
Schlemmer
Frederick Schlemmer (1887-1976) was born in Rogers,
Nebraska and moved to North Platte in 1918. He owned an
automobile repair shop in North Platte and was a dedicated
waterfowler. Like many hunters along the Platte River, he
found commercial decoys too expensive, not effective or not
durable and decided to make his own. Apparently Schlemmer
made decoys in the 1920s.
The number of decoys Schlemmer made is not known, but
because of the number found by collectors it appears he may
have also made them for other hunters. Even though the lead
weights attached to the bottoms of his decoys were marked
COURTESY ROCKY HOFFMANN, MARLENN AND CLARA JOBMAN
The canvas covers for FolDuck decoys were printed on the Custer County Chief newspaper presses in Broken Bow.
Scott
Samuel Sigsbee “Sig” Scott (1898-1976) was born in North
Platte. For most of his life he worked as an engineer at the
Pacific Fruit Express plant in North Platte, a firm making ice
for the Union Pacific Railroad. Scott probably began making
his own decoys when the use of live call birds was outlawed
in 1935. Prior to that time Scott kept flocks of both mallards
and Canada geese as live decoys. Other than a few used as part
of a display in a Gambles store and sold for $5 apiece, he is
not known to have marketed his decoys. It is estimated he
made about 500 decoys.
Like most other regional decoy makers of his time, Scott
designed his own decoys and improvised his construction
materials. His first pattern was made from a commercial
Canada goose decoy cut in half. From those halves Scott cast
plaster molds, then modified the molds to make the decoys
more bird-like to his eye—widening the body and adding
details such as depressions in the head for the eyes. Scott
Frederick Schlemmer of North Platte made kapok-stuffed canvas
mallard decoys with wooden bottom boards during the 1920s.
made decoys in at least 12 postures, including feeding, preening, alert and with heads turned various ways.
Scott’s decoys were made from red rosin building paper, a
material used as a moisture barrier between sheeting and siding on houses. The construction paper was torn into one-inch
strips, dipped in a paste made of flour and water, and pressed
into the molds. Nine layers were applied and allowed to air
dry before the half-shells were removed from the molds.
Head, neck and body halves were molded as a unit. A quarterinch-thick, wooden centerboard cut from a fruit crate was fitAPRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 35
Forney
Apparently Vic Forney of North
Platte only made decoys for his
own use. They were of a high quality and surely would be sought by
collectors had he been more prolific and better known. Forney began
work for the Nebraska Game and
Samuel Sigsbee Scott of North Platte made decoys from the 1930s into the 1950s. The bodies
Parks Commission seining crew in
were formed from strips of red rosin building paper, dipped in paste and formed in molds.
1950, and ended his career in 1970
working at the North Platte fish hatchery. Most of Forney’s
decoy work was probably done during the 1950s, and perhaps
into the early 1960s.
With the exception of solid-wood mourning dove decoys
made in the 1970s, all known Forney decoys are diving ducks.
His duck decoys had either wooden bodies (apparently not
hollowed), or cork bodies with ¾-inch baseboards. The type
of wood he used is unknown but the wooden decoys are lightweight. Forney attached the heads to the bodies with a dowel
and glue. The decoys were not rigged with keels, but had lead
ballast weights on the bottoms that he poured in a mold he
fashioned. The anchor line was attached to a screw eye near
the front of the decoy bottom. Known Forney decoys were not
marked with his name.
Although Scott made mostly Canada goose decoys, he also
made a limited number of mallard floaters.
36 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Black’s barn and purchased both duck and goose decoys.
Black was a hunting guide, skilled taxidermist and an artist
who sketched and painted wildlife.
Black’s decoy production began with plaster casts of
mounted waterfowl from which he had iron molds cast at a
Colorado foundry. Metal lath, a mesh used in plaster and stucco walls, was pressed and pounded into the molds. The two
halves were removed from the molds and wired together on
early production birds but later were welded. The head and
neck was formed separately and attached to the body. Joints
were smoothed with a mixture of sawdust and dissolved celluloid. The entire decoy was draped with burlap from gunnysacks and impregnated with linoleum paste. Black salvaged 8by-10-inch negatives from a photography studio, cut them
into small pieces and soaked them in lye water to remove the
emulsion. The remaining celluloid was then dissolved in ace-
Black
tone and brushed over the decoys. Black’s field decoys had
detachable legs with a U-shaped piece of No. 9 wire that
slipped into the underside of the decoy, and rubber feet cut
from inner tubes. Black used a limited palette of raw umber,
ivory black and white oil paints.
Black made decoys from the 1920s though the 1950s. Most
were Canada geese but he also made a limited number of
snow geese and mallards, and at least one pintail. Even though
Black formed his decoys in molds, no two are ever identical.
In the 1950s, “lesser Canadas” sold for $22 a dozen and larger Canadas for $26 a dozen. Most decoys were sold by word
of mouth, but Black also sold decoys out of a truck and wagon
in towns along the Platte and North Platte rivers; and had a
commercial sales outlet in Bonesteel, South Dakota. In addition to decoys, Black made duck and goose calls of the same
celluloid material used in his decoys.
Cyrus “Cy” Black (1871-1962) moved with his family from
Illinois to Kearney in 1875, where they founded the Island
Dairy and Celery Farm. As a young man, Black was an amateur baseball manager, later a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals
and credited with discovering Baseball Hall of Fame center
fielder Richie Ashburn. Baseball great Stan Musial visited
Cole
DECOYS COURTESY OF GEORGE NASON
ted vertically in the decoy cavity where the two halves joined.
Lead balance weights were attached on the inside of the centerboard on floating decoys to keep them upright in water.
Field decoys had a metal plate on the belly into which a metal
stake could be inserted. The two decoy halves were nailed to
the centerboard and the seam covered with more strips of red
rosin paper, then covered with unbleached muslin saturated in
flour paste. After drying, the decoys received several coats of
white shellac and were ready to paint. Scott’s wife, Ruth,
painted the decoys, blending a few basic pigments to create
light and dark variations on the body, over which a simplified
feather pattern was painted. The quality of painting is considered excellent for homemade decoys.
Most of Scott’s decoys simulated large Canada geese, but
he also made small Canadas. Perhaps Scott’s most innovative
design was a “flying” Canada goose decoy made with outstretched neck and tin wings. The flying decoys were mounted on metal stakes of different heights to suggest geese landing. He made a limited number of mallard floater decoys.
Scott’s only attempt to mark his decoys was to stamp the let-
During the 1950s, and perhaps into the 1960s, Vic Forney made decoys (apparently only diving ducks) for his own use. Shown
above are a pair of his wood-bodied scaup and goldeneyes, and a canvasback pair with cork bodies and wood baseboards.
Vic Forney of North Platte fashioned solid wood mourning dove
decoys in 1975 when Nebraska again had a hunting season.
DECOYS COURTESY OF FRANK SAFFORD
DECOYS COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
DECOYS COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
DECOYS COURTESY OF NICK LYMAN AND GEORGE NASON
ters “SSS” on the lead balance
weight inside floating decoys.
Scott continued to make decoys
through the 1940s and perhaps
into the 1950s. Because Scott
made relatively few decoys compared to more prolific decoy makers such as Lundgren, they are rare
finds. The interest in Scott decoys
is mostly regional, and outside of
Nebraska they generally do not
fetch high prices.
Most decoys made by Cy Black of Kearney were Canada geese, but he also
made mallard decoys and at least one pintail, perhaps a prototype.
Joe Cole lived in Kearney, managed the local
theater and one in Loup City, and made furniture
and cabinets. He moved to Iowa in 1949. While in
Nebraska he hunted waterfowl on the Platte River.
Each of his decoys was stamped with the month,
year and a unique decoy number. A July 1946
decoy, for example, was stamped “7-46-149”
meaning it was the 149th decoy he had made.
Because of the number of decoys known to exist,
it is likely he made more than just for his own use,
but unlikely he made hundreds of decoys. Only
duck decoys are known to exist, and as expected,
most are mallards.
Cole’s decoy bodies were fashioned by gluing
together seven layers of ¾-inch pine boards, the
wood probably salvaged from fruit crates. The
centers of all but the top and bottom boards were
cut out to create a hollow, lightweight bird. The
head, cut from ¾-inch dimension lumber with an
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 37
DECOY COURTESY OF FRANK SAFFORD
DECOYS COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
at short distances.”
Rex decoys apparently were manufactured in Canada geese
and mallards only, although a brochure notes the company
“will provide other species on request.” They were made for
use as stand-up field decoys or floaters. “Amazing life-like
rubber feet reinforced with heavy wire,” metal stakes and
keels were sold separately for $1 in 1958. Canada geese were
offered in “5 different models” with 14 different head positions. A Canada decoy weighed about two pounds with feet.
In 1958, a dozen goose decoys sold for $95 per dozen, mallards for $55 per dozen. Unfortunately, the latex rubber deteriorated over time and with exposure to the elements.
Henderson
Joe Cole lived in Kearney in the 1940s. His hollow-bodied mallard
decoys were made by shaping and gluing seven boards.
Joe “Bud” Henderson grew up on a farm in Custer County,
moved to California during World War II to work, and
Rex Decoys
returned to Nebraska after the war, settling in North Platte and
working for the Union Pacific Railroad, retiring as an engineer. He began waterfowl hunting along the Platte and North
Platte rivers during the late-1940s and making decoys for his
own use. Henderson and his hunting friends probably made
stick-up Canada goose decoys but none are known to exist
today. It is not known how many he made.
Henderson made at least two flying Canada goose decoys.
One had spread wings and two eyelets on the back to which
snaps could be attached. A length of cable or heavy wire
passed through the snaps and was stretched between two
posts. The flying decoy could be released to glide downward,
or pulled to simulate a landing goose. Henderson’s second flying goose was made to mount on a post or stout stake. Pulling
on a rope would flap its spread wings.
the expanded metal sheeting commonly used in plastering
during those decades. To prevent the body shell from being
crushed or losing its shape, a circular ¾-inch board was positioned mid-body and anchored to the metal lath with a strip of
1½-inch galvanized metal sewn to the metal lath with wire.
Another strip of metal was sewn with wire along the spine of
the decoy. The head and neck sections were fashioned entirely with metal lath. A tail section made of metal lath and a thin
galvanized metal plate was attached. Once the goose was
shaped, it was covered with a light canvas and painted. There
was a galvanized plate on the belly with a slot into which a Ushaped part of welded No. 9 wire “legs” could be inserted.
Because of the light canvas used, and the propensity for metal
lath to rust, few decoys in good condition have survived.
Jesse Long homesteaded in the
Sandhills northeast of North Platte,
and moved closer to the river in about
1900. In addition to hunting big game
in Wyoming, he was an inveterate
waterfowl hunter. His grandson, Larry
Long, believes Jesse and his hunting
cronies began making Canada goose
decoys in the 1910s and deployed
them on sandbars on the North Platte
and Platte rivers. He made two types
of stick-up Canada goose decoys—
canvas stuffed with straw, similar to
the type John Lundgren commercially
marketed in the 1940s; and canvas
over a wire mesh.
Long’s wire mesh decoys were
unique in construction. The body
form was fashioned from metal lath,
DECOYS COURTESY OF NICK LYMAN AND ROCKY HOFFMANN
38 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Joe Henderson of North Platte produced this “flying” goose decoy in the 1940s or 1950s. The decoy was restored by Gary Zaruba.
Henderson also made a flying decoy that could be mounted on a post, and its wings made to move by pulling a rope.
Long
NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS COMMISSION PHOTO
Manufactured in the late-1950s and early-1960s by Avery
Scott and Paul Covington in a rented store in Morrill, Rex
Decoys were extensively advertised nationally. The decoys
were made of 1/16-inch thick latex, and were inflated by blowing into a valve. A December 1963 Outdoor Nebraska article
compared the latex to the type used in “rubber dolls, balloons,
and girdles,” and described the manufacturing process as fol- Rex Decoys produced miniature decoys to use as salesmen’s
lows: “Liquid latex is poured into a plaster of Paris mold and samples and for advertising displays in sporting goods stores.
allowed to harden for about five minutes.
Since latex only hardens when in contact
with a substance that absorbs moisture,
the thickness of the decoy can be regulated. The remainder of the latex is
poured off to be used later, and the part
adhering to the mold has the consistency
of butter. The mold is then set aside to
cure or harden for 24 hours.” Each mold
was made from a balsa-wood model
hand-carved by Covington. The company’s advertising claimed the decoys
were: “Custom Made – Hand Painted –
Hand Finished” All decoys were made
about 10 percent larger than life-sized.
Rex Decoy advertising copy was blatantly boastful and typical of the 1960s:
“Lures ‘em in . . . Pulls ‘em Down like
the real ones used to do.” “Made by
hunters for hunters who want the very
best. REX BRAND is an absolutely new
idea in decoys. An outstanding achievement in the field of hunting that has
taken 12 years to develop. They are
unusually life-like in appearance. So
completely deceptive that it is difficult to Rex Decoys in Morrill manufactured inflatable latex goose decoys during the late-1950s
distinguish them from Live game, even and early 1960s. The decoys could be rigged for use on both land or water.
DECOYS COURTESY OF MARLENN AND CLARA JOBMAN
additional piece of wood glued to the sides for cheeks, was
attached to the body with two wooden dowels. Cole decoys
were slightly oversized and beautifully painted. Had he produced more, and lived on the East Coast or Great Lakes
region, they would probably be highly sought by collectors.
Jesse Long and his hunting partners made goose decoys in the 1910s by stretching
canvas over bodies formed from metal lath, an expanded metal used in plastering.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 39
DECOY COURTESY OF FRANK SAFFORD
By blowing through a 30-foot-long rubber hose, a hunter could make a Call-D-Coy mallard
or Canada goose head move and issue a call to lure passing birds within range.
Call-D-Coy
heads up and down to create lifelike motion. A template was
included from which a one-inch-thick board could be cut to be
attached to the bottom of the shells allowing them to be used
as floaters. Call-D-Coy also manufactured a varmint lure
using a jackrabbit decoy that produced a wounded, squealing
call. An October 1960 Sports Afield advertisement listed
prices as ranging from $16.50 for a small duck decoy up to
$19.95 for a large goose decoy.
Sporting Specialties
It is not known when Wayne Barber, owner of Norfolk’s
Sporting Specialties Sporting Goods Store, first produced and
marketed his Canada goose decoys. An advertisement for
them appeared in the October 1961 issue of Field and Stream.
Apparently most were sold locally and at regional sports
shows and goose calling contests. Although designed for field
use, the wicker decoys are usually considered novelty decoys
today and sought by designers.
Barber’s decoys were fashioned in Hong
Kong of woven rattan (the stems of any of several climbing palms of tropical Asia used extensively in wickerwork furniture), making them
extremely lightweight. There were at least four
different designs––a shell with detachable head,
full-bodies in two sizes, and a full-body with a
circular hole in the belly. A basic Canada goose
plumage pattern was spray painted on the
decoys in Barber’s garage. Steel-shaft legs, with
sliding webbed feet, were sold to support the
decoy in the field. Because of the material from
which they were constructed, and the relatively
small production, mint examples are uncommon and fetch reasonably good prices.
Wood
Perhaps the most unusual Nebraska-made decoy to survive
through the years was made by Walter C. Wood of Sumner in
about 1920 or earlier. Wood’s son, Walter Wood, of Broken
Bow, thought his father made “perhaps” a dozen decoys for
his own use. Only one is known to exist today. The handcarved wooden head has an exaggerated spatulate bill, suggesting the decoys were shovelers. The body is fashioned
from cattail or bulrush, bound with wire, and reminiscent of
the earliest known North American decoys—11 canvasback
duck decoys made of bundled tule stems and found in
Nevada’s Lovelock Cave in 1924. Those decoys were made by
the Paiute tribe and are approximately 2,000 years old. ■
From the late-1930s into the 1950s, Gail Hoffmann of Omaha
produced about 200 mallard decoys using discarded cork from
insulated railway cars. Originally the decoys were painted black.
Some information for this article came from two books with
author’s permission: Canvas Decoys of North America by
Archie Johnson, published by Decoy Magazine, 1994, available from Decoy Magazine, POB 787, Lewes, DE 19958 for
$29.95 plus $3.95 shipping, www.decoymag.com; and North
American Factory Decoys – A Pictorial Identification and
Reference Guide by Kenneth L. Trayer, Reyart Publishing,
2003, available from author, 314 Little Creek Road, Lancaster
PA 17601, $69.95 plus $5 shipping, www.factorydecoys.com.
Collectors loaning decoys are credited with the photographs.
For more information see past NEBRASKAland issues:
“John Lundgren, Decoy Maker,” November 1993; “Cy
Black’s Counterfeit Canadas,” November 1995; and “Sig
Scott’s Homegrown Decoys,” December 1997.
DECOY COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
DECOY COURTESY OF LARRY PETERSON AND GARY ZARUBA
Usually considered a novelty decoy by today’s collectors,
the Call-D-Coy, designed and sold by Neal J. Lynch from St.
Paul, Nebraska, was marketed nationally as a game animal
lure in the 1960s. At some point the distribution center, and
probably the company, was moved to Kansas City, Missouri.
The principal behind Call-D-Coy decoys was to produce a
duck or goose call right from the decoy’s mouth. The idea was
not new, as a cork decoy that quacked was marketed during
the 1930s and 1940s by Boutin Products of Minneapolis. To
accomplish this, Lynch modified G&H goose shell decoys
and plastic Quackers full-bodied mallard decoys by inserting
a calling device connected to a 30-foot rubber hose in the neck
of the decoys. The “patented lung” built into the decoys
expanded and produced a call when the hunter blew into the
white plastic mouthpiece on the other end of the tubing. The
passage of air down the tube also moved the modified decoy
Call-D-Coy advertised extensively. This
appeared in the October 1960 Sports Afield.
DECOY COURTESY OF ROCKY HOFFMANN
spread essential to hunt the Missouri River, Hoffmann
obtained discarded cork insulation for bodies from Railway
Fruit Express. Heads and necks were essentially silhouettes
cut from dimension lumber. Both bodies and heads were cut
with a coping saw. A long bolt passed through the body and
attached the head to the body, along with glue. A small piece
of tin was inserted between the head and body, and under the
bolt nut on the bottom of the decoy. A hole in the bottom tin
was used to attach the anchor line. The bottom of the body
was tarred. Neither keels nor bottom weights were used.
Typically the entire decoy was painted a flat black. Crosslinks from tire chains were used for anchor weights on his
later decoys. Hoffmann began making decoys in 1937 and
continued until World War II, when he was in the armed services. He resumed making them after the war, until about
1956. Pre-war decoys were smaller with rounded bodies, postwar larger and more square in shape. His total production was
probably about 200 mallard decoys.
Hoffmann
Sporting Specialties’ wicker Canada goose decoys were made in Hong Kong,
but designed and painted by Wayne Barber of Norfolk
40 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Gail Hoffmann of Omaha was representative
of the many Nebraska waterfowlers who produced decoys in considerable quantity for their
own use. With money tight, and a substantial
Walter Wood of Sumner is only known to have fashioned about a dozen decoys but they are perhaps the most unique from
Nebraska, with bodies made of bundled and wired cattail or bulrush. The spatulate bill identifies the decoys as shovelers.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 41
Making the
Good Life Better
By Doug Carroll
Created in 1983, last month the Nebraska Game and Parks
Foundation celebrated 25 years of truly making the good life
better for outdoor enthusiasts across the state.
JON FARRAR
Former Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission director Eugene T. Mahoney.
42 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Thus spoke Eugene T. Mahoney,
former director of the Commission,
upon the March 15, 1983 creation of
the Foundation. More prescient words
have perhaps never been written.
Created to help the Commission
enhance outdoor recreation opportunities
in Nebraska, the Foundation is still
going strong 25 years later and its
many successes have provided untold
enjoyment for thousands of people
across the state. The story of the
Foundation’s creation and contributions
to the quality of Nebraska’s outdoor
resources is too much to cover in just a
few pages and was well-chronicled in
Jon Farrar’s “Building Tomorrow’s
Outdoor Recreation” in the November
2006 issue of NEBRASKAland, but
here’s a brief look at what it has been
able to accomplish, what it plans to do
in the future, and how you can help
make the good life better.
Established as a way to help the
Commission fund projects it otherwise
wouldn’t be able to afford (state funds
cover well below 20 percent of the
agency’s overall budget), the Foundation
accepts tax-deductible contributions of
cash, corporate gifts, personal property,
life estates and real estate and uses these
gifts for projects that all Nebraskans
can enjoy. Some of these projects have
been as simple as lighted tennis courts
at Fort Robinson State Park or road
resurfacing at Ponca State Park, while
others have been a lot larger, such as
funding modern cabins at Platte River
State Park. Probably the largest, and
best-known, project that the Foundation
is to be thanked for is E.T. Mahoney
State Park, the crown jewel of
Nebraska’s park system.
Through the Foundation, the initial
purchase of 425 acres of land was made
at a cost of $539,000, and additional
land was later purchased for $132,000.
In all, some 80 percent of the money
required for the $14 million showcase
was raised by the Foundation through
private donations, and the Foundation’s
efforts with E.T. Mahoney State Park
continue to give – money earned by the
park now helps support other state
parks across Nebraska.
One of the Foundation’s newest
success stories is the Youth Lifetime
Permit program, which began in 2005.
This program allows some Nebraska
residents under the age of 16 to buy
lifetime hunting and fishing permits at
half the regular price, with the
Foundation paying the other half.
The first year the program started, a
small number of permits were offered
on a first-come, first-served basis at
sports shows in Lincoln and Omaha, as
well as at the Sidney and Kearney
Cabela’s stores. Foundation members
were pleased that demand was high –
OPPOSITE: The majority of the money
used to build Eugene T. Mahoney State
Park was raised by the Foundation.
ERIC FOWLER
“T
he Nebraska Game and Parks
Foundation represents a joining
of hands between the public
and private sectors. It is a
foundation committed to
improving the quality of life for
Nebraskans. The Foundation is open to
every citizen of the state. The pennies,
nickels and dimes of school children
are as important as help from our most
successful corporate enterprises. It’s
going to be the good helping hand the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
needs now and for the years to come.”
The Foundation is needed more than ever if the
Commission is to continue to provide the
services and outdoor recreation opportunities
that its constituents demand and deserve.
all of the specially priced permits sold
out in just a few hours – but felt that
this format didn’t do a very good job of
spreading opportunity around the state.
The Foundation’s funding of half-price
lifetime permits has raised a lot of money
for the Commission.
As a result, in 2006 the program
changed to its current format, a series
of drawings at Commission events,
sports shows, and local conservation
banquets across Nebraska. In 2006 and
2007, children in 80 of Nebraska’s 93
counties won permits.
The Youth Lifetime Permit program
accomplishes two very important goals
for the Foundation: It’s a powerful tool
for recruiting youth into a lifetime of
hunting and fishing, and perhaps more
importantly, it allows a relatively small
initial investment to generate funding
for the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission for years to come. Here’s
how: By paying half the cost of the
permits, the Foundation makes a direct
contribution to the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission that is matched
100 percent by the winner’s half of the
permit cost. In addition, because the
number of hunting and fishing permits
sold by a state is used to compute how
much federal excise tax money is
received, every Foundation dollar spent
DOUG CARROLL
Money raised by the Foundation was instrumental to building modern cabins and other conveniences at Platte River State Park.
ERIC FOWLER
Many of the improvements made to popular Ponca State Park in northeastern
Nebraska have been made with money donated by the Foundation.
44 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
on permits ensures Nebraska will qualify
for a larger portion of excise tax money
collected on the sale of certain outdoor
equipment.
In 2006 and 2007, the Foundation
funded 846 half-price permits, directly
contributing $145,969 to the Youth
Lifetime Permit Program. Through the
means described above, a conservative
estimate is that this initial investment
will secure at least $783,285 for the
state, in addition to the interest on the
principal over the next 20 years and
beyond. For 2008, the Foundation is
purchasing $70,000 worth of half-price
permits for distribution across the state.
Throughout its history, the Nebraska
Game and Parks Foundation has
generally been a very low-profile
group, despite its long and impressive
history of raising money and supporting
Commission projects for the greater
good of all Nebraskans. In these days
of ever-increasing costs and evertightening governmental budgets, the
Foundation is needed more than ever if
the Commission is to continue to provide
the services and outdoor recreation
opportunities that its constituents
demand and deserve. To that end, the
Foundation is trying to raise its profile
by promoting the work it’s been doing
and looking for greater participation
and contributions by all Nebraskans in
helping fulfill its worthy cause. Which
brings us back to Mahoney’s quote at
the beginning of this article: “The
Foundation is open to every citizen of
the state. The pennies, nickels and dimes
of school children are as important as
help from our most successful corporate
enterprises. It’s going to be the good
helping hand the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission needs now and for
the years to come.”
To find out more about the Foundation
or to make a donation, visit its web site
at www.nebraskagameandparksfoundationorg, call (402) 593-4617, or write
to them at P.O. Box 27347, Omaha, NE
68127-0347.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 45
What’s So Special About a Campfire?
Rites of Spring
Choosing the proper wood can enhance your campfire experience.
A whole lot of dancin’ and boomin’ goin’ on.
By Tom Keith
By Jon Farrar
O
T
•
•
Sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows or just visiting ranks near the
top of many people’s favorite summertime activities.
Every camper should take it upon
themselves to insist that each of their
children and grandchildren spend at
least a few evenings each year sitting
around the campfire hearing and
telling ghost stories and roasting
marshmallows.
One of the secrets of building a
great campfire is choosing good
wood to feed it.
The best firewood gives off good
heat, is easy to burn, easy to split,
gives off little smoke and few sparks.
Here are some of my favorite
woods to use.
Apple burns slowly and steadily
when dry, with little flame but
good heat. Smells good.
Ash is a very good-burning wood,
producing good flame and heat.
Birch produces good heat and
smells good, but burns rather
quickly.
Cedar is good when dry. It
pops and snaps, burns easily and
produces a medium heat while
giving off a pleasant aroma.
•
•
•
•
• Cherry burns slowly with
medium heat and smells good.
• Hard Maple burns well and
produces high heat.
• Soft maple burns well and
produces medium heat.
• Walnut burns well, produces
medium heat and smells good.
• Hickory produces high heat and is
easy to burn.
• Red and white oak produce high
heat and little smoke.
Seasoned wood with a moisture
content of 15 to 20 percent burns best.
Unseasoned wood provides less heat
because some of the energy stored in
it is needed to vaporize the water and
drive if off. If you must use green
wood, the smaller you split it, the
better it will burn.
Camping with the family can be
one of the least expensive and most
enjoyable activities available to you.
Look for more information about
camping in Nebraska at the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission's web
site at www.OutdoorNebraska.org. ■
•
•
•
PHOTO BY DOUG CARROLL
46 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
grouse viewing
he marshalling
outfitters in the state.
of a half-million
Google “grouse viewing
sandhill cranes
Nebraska” to find them.
on the central
Platte River in
Burchard Lake
March seems to have
Wildlife Management
captured the state’s
Area, Pawnee County.
wildlife-viewing
Five miles north and
spotlight, but there are
five miles east of
other rites of spring
Burchard. Greater
well worth watching.
prairie chickens. Two
Among the best are
blinds, each holding
courtship displays of
four to five people on a
sharp-tailed grouse and
first-come, first-served
greater prairie chickens,
basis. Personal blinds
collectively called
not allowed. For
prairie grouse.
additional information
Beginning in March,
call (402) 335-2534.
male prairie grouse
Valentine National
begin gathering on
Wildlife Refuge,
display grounds called
A male sharp-tailed grouse struts his stuff on the Valentine National Cherry County. Two
Wildlife Refuge south of Valentine in Cherry County.
leks – sharptails on
blinds, one on a prairie
dancing grounds and
chicken lek, one on a
prairie chickens on booming grounds – as they walk to the grounds in the
sharptail lek. Each blind holds three
dark. If you arrive later, observe the
to attract and mate with hens. Each
people. Personal blinds not allowed
grouse from a distance with binoculars here or at Crescent NWR. For
male stakes out a small territory on
or a spotting scope. If there are
the lek and defends it with dancing,
additional information call (402)
calls, displays, threatened aggression already people in the blind when you 376-1889 or (402) 376-3789.
arrive, assume it is full and do not
and, occasionally, full-blown battle.
Crescent Lake National Wildlife
disturb them. Proper grouse viewing Refuge, Garden County. One blind
Display is most intense in mid- to
protocol calls for staying in the blind on a sharptail lek, available only
late-April when hens visit, but the
until displaying grouse have left,
males may continue to gather and
during April. Blind holds two to three
often two to three hours after sunrise. adults. For reservations or additional
half-heartedly display through June.
Dress warmly. You can always
Male prairie grouse come to
information call (308) 762-4893.
display grounds in both the morning shed layers of clothing, and in April
Nebraska National Forest,
the nights are often chilly, especially Bessey Ranger District, Thomas
and evening, but the most vigorous
in north-central and western Nebraska. and Blaine counties. Three blinds,
displays are in the morning. Both
Displaying male prairie grouse are two on sharptail leks, one on a
species arrive on their leks before the
first hint of light, so plan on being in amazingly tolerant of observers in
prairie chicken lek. Each holds four
nearby blinds, but for the best
the blind at least an hour before
people. First-come, first served.
display keep noise and observable
sunrise. It is wise to locate blinds in
Personal portable blinds allowed. For
movement to a minimum. If you are
daylight before attempting to find
location of blinds and additional
taking photographs, put your camera information call (308) 533-2257.
them in the dark. While grouse will
on a tripod so your lens is not
probably return to the grounds if
Samuel R. McKelvie National
constantly poking in and out of the
flushed early, it disrupts courtship
Forest southwest of Valentine in
viewing port, and drape a scarf or
and should be avoided. And there is
Cherry County. Although no blinds
no greater magic on the Great Plains other garment over the lens to seal
are provided, visitors are allowed
off the opening around the lens.
than huddling in the dark and
to view displaying grouse from a
A list of public lands with viewing distance or with personal blinds. For
listening to prairie chickens boom or
sharptails cackle and stamp their feet blinds follows. There are also private more details, call (402) 823-4154. ■
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 47
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
ne of the things I've always
enjoyed most about camping
is the campfire. It doesn't
matter what season, what
time of day, or what the
weather is, the first thing I do when I
set up camp is build a fire.
The campfire has a certain magic
of its own that is important when
you are camping. It is the gathering
place where all of the people you are
camping with come to eat, drink
coffee and make plans for the day.
Later that evening, they meet there
again to rehash everything that
happened during the day and plan for
the next.
It's the place where the kids feel
safe, especially at night when the
rest of the unfamiliar outdoor world
with all of its strange noises is
cloaked in darkness.
It's a place where you can warm
your hands and feet, where wet
clothing and boots can be dried, and
where smoke from the fire will help
protect the campers from biting and
stinging bugs.
Campfire smoke smells wonderful
and, like Hoppe's No. 9 gun solvent,
has a distinctive odor that makes you
think of being outdoors wherever or
whenever you get a whiff of it. In my
opinion, if someone made a woman's
perfume that smelled like a campfire,
it would take over the market.
To really make the camping trip
enjoyable and worth remembering,
add the delicate aromas of coffee
boiling, bacon, potatoes, onions and
fish frying, or steaks grilling above
glowing coals. Perhaps it’s just me,
but it seems like anything cooked
over a campfire tastes better than it
would cooked on a kitchen stove.
My dogs think so too – they always
get to sample the roasted hot dogs,
barbecued chicken and grilled burgers
we enjoy in the evenings when we're
camping.
ANTIQUES/COLLECTIBLES
FOOD/GIFTS/HOME
VACATIONS/RESORTS
WANT NEBRASKA LICENSES: resident and nonresident hunt, fish, trap, tribal, Pre-1930 hunt. $500
finder’s fee for 1901 Hunt that I get bought. Phil
Pfeiffer (402) 429-3181, sodacrowns@aol.com.
HOMEBREWING/BEER AND WINEMAKING.
Fermenter’s Supply, 8410 K Plaza, Suite #10, Omaha,
NE 68127. Phone orders only, (888) 655-2739.
Advice line (402) 593-9171. www.fermenters
supply.com.
FOR FISHING AND HUNTING accommodations.
Guided pheasant hunts. Jefco Inn, South Cornell St.,
Gordon, NE 69343 (308) 282-2935.
ATTRACTIONS/EVENTS
NEBRASKA MUSHROOM FESTIVAL: April 26th
& 27th, 2008. Mushroom hunts - contests - food music. Contact Canfields Sporting Goods (800) 3332263 Visit www.NebraskaTheGoodLife.com.
DOGS
PLUM CREEK KENNEL. German shorthairs, stud
service, puppies and started dogs. Training for all
pointing breeds. Specialize in training the handler as
well as the dog. Wayne Clark, Percival, Iowa (near
Omaha) (712) 529-4238, clarks1@iowatelecom.net.
WILDERNESS KENNELS. Gun dog training – over
60 years combined experience. Training all sporting
breeds – retrievers, flushing and pointing dogs. All
dogs worked on pen-raised birds and wild game.
Training program also includes obedience training –
heel, sit, stay, down and come when called. Pups,
started dogs and fully trained dogs for sale. Hunting
dogs trained by hunters. Henry Sader, Wilderness
Kennels, Roca, NE (402) 423-4212. Since 1968.
DUCKDAWG RETRIEVERS – Raising exceptional
hunting/field-bred yellow and black Labradors.
Hunting, family and competition companions.
Puppies raised in our home. Written health guarantee.
Stud services available.
Home of GRHRCH
DuckDawg’s Eba Roll The Dice – (Y1w) and
GRHRCH McMac Magic Eyes A’Smilin MH-(Blk).
The only two Grand Hunting Retriever Champions in
Nebraska. www.duckdawg.com. Ron Green DVM
and Libby Milroy, North Platte NE (308) 534-3659.
FROSTY BROOKE ACRES LLC, Labradors and
Golden Retrievers - Hunt test and Field Trial bloodlines up close. Super temperament, desire and looks.
Great all-purpose Labs and Goldens, www.frostybrooke.com. (308) 783-LABS (5227), Scottsbluff
Valley, Nebraska.
BRITISH LABRADOR PUPPIES, AKC/UKC,
O.F.A./CERF. Guarantees. “Wildrose” Dam and Sire.
Exceptional British field trial lines. Free training.
Wildwind British Labradors. (402) 429-1836
steve.macdonald@davisdesign.com.
WILDWIND BRITISH LABRADOR PUPPIES AKC/UKC, O.F.A./CERF. Guarantees. Parents from
imported British FTCh's. Properly socialized. Calm.
Intelligent. Exceptional hunters / companions. Black,
Yellow, Fox, and Red. www.wildwindbritlabs.com.
(402) 429-1836.
QUAIL CANYON KENNELS. Foot Trailing/Gun
Dog Training. Training for All Pointing Breeds.
English Pointers, stud service, started dogs & puppies.
www.quailcanyonkennels.com, Josh Nieman, Elwood
NE (308) 325-9068
FISH/FISHING
FISH FOR SALE. Catfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, perch, crappies, bluegills, walleyes, rainbow trout, grass carp, minnows, bullheads. Consulting
available. Pleasant Valley Fish Farm, 27851 U.S.
Highway 83, McCook, NE 69001. (308) 345-6599.
NEBRASKA LAKE MANAGEMENT – Biological
lake surveys, fish stocking, rough fish control, lake
aeration, algae control, shorewall construction.
Rob Hofpar, Aquatic Biologist, licensed, insured and
qualified. Phone (402) 784-6005 (Lincoln), or
toll-free (888) 850-2460.
BUZZ’S MARINE, YOUR FISHING and recreational
boat super store, www.buzzsmarine.com and family
watersports dealer, www.buzzswatersports.com.
48 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
GUIDES/OUTFITTERS
CANOE THE NIOBRARA with an affordable canoe
trip by Dryland Aquatics. One- and two-day trips ... full
service, or just canoe, tube or kayak. Transportation
furnished. Your Niobrara River specialists ... We do it
your way! Dryland Aquatics, Dept. N, Box 33C,
Sparks, NE 69220 or phone (800) 337-3119. www.drylandaquatics.com, info@drylandaquatics.com.
KRIPPLE DUCK ADVENTURES – Southwestern
Nebraska. Guided hunts along the Frenchman Creek
for white-tailed and mule deer, waterfowl, upland
birds and turkey. We also have a controlled-shooting
area for pheasants, quail and chukar. New lodging
accommodations are available on site. For information, please call (308) 394-5345 or (308) 280-5345.
E-mail cdorn@bwtelcom.net, www.krippleduck.com.
GUNS/SHOOTING/ARCHERY
GUNS – Browning, Benelli, Winchester, Ruger, etc.
1700 guns, buy-sell-trade (402) 729-6112, Bedlan’s,
Fairbury, NE 68352. www.bedlans.com.
OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT
IS PERFORMANCE IMPORTANT? For the finest
canoes and accessories look to Great Plains Canoe Co.,
205 Main, Springfield, NE 68059. Phone (402) 253-2000.
OMAHA CANOE AND KAYAK RENTALS! Visit
website www.canfields.com, click on Rentals page for
rates, or call (800) 333-2263 for reservations.
Canfield’s Sporting Goods.
PHOTOGRAPHY
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS. Matted,
framed and signed. Go to inplainssight.homestead.com,
hathfotofreak@hotmail.com, (402) 848-2358. “The
more you buy, the quicker my wife can retire!”
REAL ESTATE
187 ACRES FRONTAGE on Platte River. Excellent
deer and turkey hunting; waterfowl and fishing on
many gravel pit lakes. 40x72 steel shop with
telephone, subs well, electricity. Loren (308) 539-4452,
www.agriaffiliates.com. Agri Affiliates (308) 534-9240.
CANYON RANCH in elk management area. 3,300 sq
ft 1998 owners home: 4 bedroom, 2½ bath, full basement; beautiful landscaped yard, golf driving range;
trapshooting facility; panoramic views. Excellent
access yet private. Deer and turkey hunting, elk on the
property – southeast of North Platte. 1,281 acres
rugged canyons. Excellent wildlife/recreation habitat.
Bruce (308) 539-4455, www.agriaffiliates.com. Agri
Affiliates (308) 534-9240.
SAND DRAW RETREAT on 200 acres, rough
canyon in transition habitat for trees and birds. Good
access but private, nice older, refurbished home, yearround creek, beautiful. Duane (308) 530-0221,
www.agriaffiliates.com. Agri Affiliates (308) 534-9240.
FOR SALE in north-central Nebraska *Hunting &
Fishing Properties with and without Improvements.
*PINE TIMBERED 60 acres in Niobrara River
Canyons. Keya Paha County. Live stream and Hwy 7
frontage. $120,000.00. * 474 ACRE Hunting &
Fishing Ranch. One mile of trout stream running
through. Spring-fed fish ponds. Deer, turkeys,
pheasant, grouse, ducks and geese. Buildings. To
see: www.ruralnebraskarealestate.com.
For like
properties and other listings, phone Swett Realty, Fred
L Swett- Broker: (800)585-1626 - (402) 387-1626
anytime.
LORD RANCH RESORT. Hunters, fishermen, family
vacations, family reunions. Deluxe cabins, complete
cooking facilities & TV. Quiet and peaceful in the
middle of the Sandhills. Three miles north of
Valentine Wildlife Refuge, open all year. Aubrey and
Dorothy Lord, HC 37, Box 41, Valentine, NE 69201.
Call (800) 270-0181. www.lordranchresort.com.
DIAMOND B TROUT RESORT & RESTAURANT,
Orchard, Nebraska. Restaurant, lodge, cabins, springfed lakes, playground equipment, paddleboats. Great
for families, groups, hunters. Book your cabin now!
Call for brochure (800) 974-3002. www.diamondbtroutresort.com.
MILL IRON V LODGING has modern cabins for
your vacation pleasure. We are located near Verdigre,
NE in turkey country. Each cabin offers privacy, view
and a birdwatcher’s paradise. Stay with us for a COUNTRY
EXPERIENCE. (402) 668-7488. www.milliron-vlodging.com, jpeinrem@gpcom.net.
DELUXE NIOBRARA RIVER CABIN: Private,
fully furnished. Kids’ adventure or adult
getaway.
Ideal
for
out-of-town
hunters.
www.nolasupertubes.com, (800) 799-9929.
BIG BLUE RANCH & LODGE - Enjoy fishing,
hunting, hiking, birdwatching and ranch adventures
on 2000+ acre cattle ranch in southeastern Nebraska.
Beautiful log cabin, with fireplaces, kitchens & big
covered porches, overlooks 20-acre lake.
www.bigblueranch.com (402) 730-3643.
ASPINWALL LODGING: Rural farmhouse located
near Nemaha among the rolling hills of southeastern
Nebraska. Three bedrooms, full kitchen, washer &
dryer, TV. Situated close to Indian Cave State Park,
historic Brownville, Game and Parks wildlife management areas, Missouri and Nemaha rivers and much
more. Open all year, accepting reservations, brochure
available. (402) 883-2788.
LODGING AVAILABLE: Bunkhouse located near
Bristow, Nebraska, close to Missouri and Niobrara
rivers. Sleeps five, kitchenette, washer/dryer,
shower, Dish TV. www.dringmansbunkhouse.com or
ccdring@nntc.net or (402) 583-0083.
WANTED
WANTED: DEER LEASE capable of supporting up
to 5 Texas hunters. Interested in the south-central /
southeastern part of Nebraska or northern Kansas.
Contact Bob Harris @ (817) 266-1722,
rjhfamily@sbcglobal.net
WANTED: MOREL MUSHROOMS. We buy fresh
morel mushrooms. Wildwood Morels Grand Island
Nebraska
(308)
391-2725
e-mail:
Wildwoodmorels@live.com
Make RESERVATIONS for your favorite
NEBRASKA STATE PARKS
Online at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org
Classified Rates: 85¢ per word, minimum $15.
Closing: First business day six weeks before
issue date. Classified ads are accepted on a
first-come, first-served, space-available basis.
Classified Ads, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O.
Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
Telephone (402) 471-5473. Fax: (402) 471-1984.
E-mail: classifieds@ngpc.ne.gov. Ads are
posted online at NebraskalandMagazine.com at
no additional charge.
New lodging options at park will be open year-round.
By Eric Fowler
wo new mini-lodges will open
at Ponca State Park (SP) this
spring, the first of 17 new
lodging options planned for
the park and the first that will
be open year-round.
The four-bedroom mini-lodges are
fully modern, equipped with free
wireless internet access and cable
television. Kitchens include a range,
microwave, full-sized refrigerator
and dishwasher. Each bedroom has a
queen-sized bed and a sink. Two full
bathrooms, a patio and a great room
with a wood-burning fireplace round
out the 1,524-square-foot floor plan.
A geothermal heating and cooling
system will keep the mini-lodges
comfortable year-round.
These are the first lodging additions
to the park since 14 “cozy,” 576square-foot, two-bedroom cabins
were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
The water systems of those cabins
were not designed to handle Nebraska
winters, so they are only open from
April through mid-November, but
they are booked most weekends
during that time and most weekdays
during the summer.
“The cabins we have now are okay,
but the biggest problem with them is
size,” said Jeff Fields, superintendent
of the park. “They’re pretty small, so
they don’t accommodate a lot of
people. The new mini-lodges will
accommodate family reunions,
businesses and other groups that
want bigger, more modern facilities.”
There is a growing demand: the
park drew 749,250 visitors in 2007,
more than double the 2001 count,
thanks in part to many improvements
and the activities it offers, including
a popular naturalist program.
Construction on a third mini-lodge
will begin this spring. That two-story,
four-bedroom unit will be available
in 2009, possibly sooner. A basement
will eventually be finished, adding
T
The new mini-lodges at Ponca State Park are located near the visitor center.
two more bedrooms that guests can
rent for an additional fee. Eleven
more two-story mini-lodges are
planned in this phase of park
expansion, with work continuing as
funding becomes available.
The first three mini-lodges are
being funded by the Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission’s proceeds
from the Nebraska Outdoor
Recreation and Development Act.
Jim Swenson, regional parks
director, said the agency hopes to
build the rest with private funding.
Already, the Nebraska Game and
Parks Foundation and the Peter
Kiewit Foundation have made
sizable contributions.
Work will also begin this year on
three “green” cabins that will
showcase environmentally friendly
construction, including straw bale
walls and recycled materials. The
Nebraska Environmental Trust,
Nebraska Department of
Environmental Quality, Land and
Water Conservation Fund, Nebraska
Public Power District, Better Ponca
Foundation, Cornhusker Motor Club
Foundation and the Commission
have committed $380,000 for the
$600,000 project, enough to cover
the cost of the two, two-bedroom
cabins expected to open in 2009. The
Commission is looking for partners
to fund the third cabin, which will
have four bedrooms.
Anyone interested in contributing
to the work at Ponca SP can contact
Swenson at (402) 471-5499 or
Jim.Swenson@ngpc.ne.gov, or go to
NebraskaGameAndParks
Foundation.org.
Reservations for the new facilities
won’t be taken until they are
completed, but they are expected to
fill fast. The mini-lodges will rent
for $253 per night with a two night
minimum during the summer and on
weekends. The park’s existing cabins
rent for $78 per night. Reservations
can be made up to a year in advance
by calling the park at (402) 755-2284,
calling (402) 471-1414 or going
online to OutdoorNebraska.org. ■
★
Covering 2,166 acres of forest and
bottomland along the Missouri River,
Ponca State Park is located 2 miles
north of the town of Ponca on Spur 26E.
APRIL 2008 • NEBRASKALAND 49
PHOTO BY JEFF FIELDS
FREE WAXWORMS & MEALWORMS – raise your
own. Thousands of waxworms and mealworms with
our breeder kits $22.95 - $24.95. New Illuminator
lighted glow jigs. Automatically light up when wet
and turn off when dry. (763) 323-9273,
www.waxwormkit.com.
“NIOBRARA CROSSING” – a novel by Nebraska
native G. Gray McVicker. A contemporary story about
culture-clash violence in the Sandhills. At your
favorite bookstore or on NiobraraCrossing.com.
THE OLDE MAIN STREET INN. A historic bed and
breakfast listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. Beautiful dining room with fireplace.
Featuring prime rib, buffalo, seafood, homemade
soups, chilis and desserts. 115 Main Street, Chadron
NE 69337 (308) 432-3380. www.chadron.com/oldemain.
New Mini-Lodges at Ponca State Park
This photo from 1969 is what I call “A good week’s work.”
The photo shows (from left to right) Jeff Seholl, Lowell Harris, Wes Beck Sr. and
Wes Beck Jr. The Treeing Walker coonhounds in the photo are (from left to right):
Lady, Jubal, Maggie and Lucky. We did 90 percent of our hunting on the Platte
River and creeks in the Central City area.
– Lowell Harris, Central City, Nebraska
This is a picture of my dad, Gene
Kehr. He is with a deer that he shot in
1959 in the Sandhills, 60 miles south
of Nenzel on the Harden Ranch. The
deer was a 5-by-5 buck with a 28-inch
spread that measured 1601/2 inches,
which put him 16th that year in the
trophy books. My brother Chuck was
five in this picture and Dad was 28.
Dad also killed a 7-by-7 trophy
whitetail on the same ranch in 1964.
This ranch was also where all of us
boys killed our first deer.
– Tom Kehr, Buffalo, Wyoming
This photo was taken in February
1955, in Boyd County southeast of
Butte. My grandfather, Jesse Lewis,
trapped coyotes for decades, burying
chicken manure and spreading chicken
feathers near each set of traps, making
the coyotes dig for their meal. Though
he primarily raised cattle, he spent a
significant amount of time trapping
during the era when there was a bounty
on coyotes. He loved telling the story of
catching three coyotes in one set of
traps. One thing that could always be
counted on near dusk was the chorus of
coyotes around the farm, but sadly, the
mange epidemic has apparently taken a
toll in that area. During the recent
firearm deer season we did not see or
hear a single coyote the entire week.
– Graig Kinzie, Lewellen, Nebraska
This picture shows my grandfather, Charley Peck
(right), and an unknown friend duck hunting on the
Platte River, probably in the Brady/Gothenburg area
in the late-1920s or early-30s. Notice the homemade
tin shell decoys, wooden silhouettes and the live decoy!
– Alex J. Kufeldt, Kearney, Nebraska
Send contributions to: Portraits from the Past, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
Photos should show people enjoying Nebraska outdoor activities, such as camping, boating, hunting or fishing, and must
have been taken before 1970. We will give priority to unusual photos or activities. When possible, please include a story
about the photograph and identify the people, places and approximate date it was taken. Photos will be returned.
50 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2008
Position: 541 (20 views)