With only a few hours to fish on Saturday evening, 28 May 2011 … Tristan and I each grabbed a custom rod and headed out to try a new local lake in Omaha, Nebraska that recently opened this spring. The lake is located on 192nd and West Dodge and is named “Lawrence Youngman Lake.” We only fished for about an hour and from the shore, but managed three bass – all about 1 pound. As this lake was just opened to the public, we were pretty certain the bass would be smaller, but probably hungry … and definitely worth a scouting trip to see how things looked … and fished.
Air temperature was approximately 55 degrees with 5-10 knot winds out of the northwest, there was a slight chop to the water surface, which played in our favor as we loaded our custom rods with KVD spinnerbaits and began to stalk likely casting spots on the bank. We headed around towards the southern end of the lake, casting as we maneuvered the perimeter. After just a few casts, we realized that due to the wind piling the algae/scum on our end of the lake, we needed to swap our tactics … and our lures. So we each tied on a plastic frog, Tristan in bullfrog natural color and a bullfrog with yellow highlight for myself. And then, back to fishing … but ready for topwater excitement … and man, there’s nothing like a good bass topwater strike on a frog!
With clouds moving in and light sprinkles across the water, Tristan worked his frog and scored the first fish of the day on his Cajun Custom Rod™ – picture below.
Lawrence Youngman Lake - Omaha
I hooked up with a smaller bass about 5 minutes after, and with time running short before we needed to depart, Tristan hooked up with the third bass of the day – in between the two largemouth already caught.
So, after only an hour or so, we landed three bass on frogs from the shoreline and as we headed up to the truck, spoke with a few anglers who said they were catching similar sized-bass … that they were hungry and definitely “fun” to catch. Everyone I spoke to, including ourselves, were practicing C.P.R. (Catch. Photograph, and Release). As this lake matures and becomes more established, Lawrence Youngman is certain to become an excellent “in city” fishing lake for Omaha … as long as we anglers protect the privilege and help maintain the fishery. Pack out what you pack in, and if you see trash that someone forgot .. pick it up. File off barbs on hooks to make for easy hook removal after a successful catch … and take a kid fishing!
Jaesen Yerger – Cajun Custom Rods™
