Nebraska has trout, but the map of where they live is small. Rainbow, brook and brown trout are all recorded in the state, and they sit well down the GBIF list behind bluegill, channel catfish, common carp, largemouth bass and crappie. The trout are in two places: the Pine Ridge escarpment in the northwest corner, and the spring-fed creeks of the Sandhills in the north-central part of the state. Everything else, which is most of Nebraska, is warmwater fishing, and it is warmwater fishing on some big and interesting rivers.
Long Pine Creek and the Sandhills spring creeks
The Sandhills are a vast field of grass-covered dunes sitting on top of the Ogallala Aquifer, and where the aquifer surfaces it produces cold, steady spring creeks. Long Pine Creek, near Ainsworth, is the best known: a USGS-gauged stream with wild brown trout in a wooded canyon that feels nothing like the surrounding prairie. The Dismal River, gauged with temperature, runs cold through the middle of the Sandhills and holds trout in its upper reaches. The Snake River, a Niobrara tributary in Cherry County, is another spring-fed trout stream in the same country. These are small-water, 3-weight fisheries: Elk Hair Caddis and Parachute Adams in #14 to #16, small beadhead nymphs, and a hopper along the undercut banks from July through September. Access is mostly private, so bridges and public areas matter, and Game and Parks publishes a list of its public access sites that is worth reading before you go.
Pine Ridge streams
The Pine Ridge is a band of ponderosa-covered buttes between Chadron and Crawford, and the small creeks that drain it toward the White River hold stocked and some wild trout. Soldier Creek, Bordeaux Creek and Chadron Creek are the names to know; Chadron State Park and Fort Robinson State Park give public access to some of the better water. The fish are mostly rainbows and brookies in creeks you can step across, and the fishing is best in spring and early summer before the water warms and drops. Nebraska Game and Parks stocks these streams, so ask them about the current schedule.
Lake Ogallala and the North Platte
Below Kingsley Dam, which forms Lake McConaughy, the North Platte spills into Lake Ogallala, a small, cold, spring-fed lake that Game and Parks manages as a trout fishery. It is the most accessible trout water in the state for anyone driving Interstate 80, and it fishes from shore or a float tube with chironomids, scuds and leeches. McConaughy itself is walleye and white bass water, with rainbows recorded in the cold depths. The North Platte and Platte rivers downstream are shallow, braided and warm, and they fish for channel catfish and, in the deeper channels, flathead catfish.
The Niobrara, the Loups and the Elkhorn
The Niobrara, gauged with temperature, is Nebraska's scenic river, and the National Scenic River reach below Valentine is a smallmouth bass and channel catfish float. Smallmouth are recorded in the state and the Niobrara's rocky, spring-fed stretch is where they are most reliably found on a fly. The Loup system, made up of the North, Middle and South Loups joining to form the main Loup, is sand-bottomed and slow, and the fly fishing is catfish and the occasional pike in the deeper holes. The Elkhorn, in the northeast, is similar. All are gauged, and the temperature readings on the Niobrara and North Loup tell you when smallmouth will be active.
Sandhills lakes, the Missouri and Harlan County
The Sandhills are also dotted with shallow natural lakes, and they are the best largemouth, bluegill and northern pike fly fishing in Nebraska. Pike in a few feet of water in May, bluegill on poppers in June, bass in the reeds all summer. On the eastern edge of the state the Missouri holds flathead and blue catfish, both recorded, and the river below Gavins Point Dam is a walleye and sauger fishery. Harlan County Lake on the Republican River is walleye and white bass water, and Salt Creek through Lincoln is an overlooked catfish stream.
Before you go
Trout stocking in the Pine Ridge and at Lake Ogallala changes with the year, and Sandhills stream access depends on landowner permission. Check the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for current seasons, the stocking schedule and any park permit requirements. The Dismal and Niobrara temperature gauges are the two numbers worth watching before a trip. See the Nebraska fishing hub for all gauged waters in the state and the Nebraska trout page for the trout-specific detail.