Fishing close to Holmes

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

The grandfather threads a nightcrawler on the hook, and the grandson takes it from there.

Dylan McCurley lowers the rod tip behind his right shoulder and lets fly. The hook and bobber spin in circles before plopping into Holmes Lake a good 15 yards off shore.

A fine cast for a 3-year-old, but Dylan only wants to talk about the fish he caught a few minutes earlier. The boy landed a 13-inch largemouth bass, says proud grandfather Mel Hoffman, before they let the fish go.

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Dylan McCurley, 3, and his grandfather, Mel Hoffman, fish for bluegill and bass at Holmes Lake. Generations of anglers have fished at Holmes for more than 45 years, but a recent renovation project has increased the number of people fishing at the lake and their odds for success. (Joe Duggan)

Generations of anglers have been fishing together at the east Lincoln reservoir for more than 45 years. But such scenes are playing out with greater frequency in the past couple of years thanks to a major renovation of Holmes.

The project removed more than 300,000 cubic yards of sediment that flowed into the lake over four decades. It also stabilized the shore to reduce bank erosion and built fishing piers and jetties to make it easier for shore anglers to reach deeper water.

The top goal of the project was to improve water quality — make it clearer and cleaner — so aquatic vegetation would return and fish such as largemouth and bluegill would thrive.

Ask most anyone who fishes at Holmes, and they’ll tell you the project has produced as advertised.

“I think they did a good job,” Hoffman said. “It’s nice to have a fishery of this quality in the city instead of having to pay for that overpriced $4-a-gallon gas to drive somewhere else.”

The project was completed in 2005 by a governmental partnership consisting of the city of Lincoln, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the Nebraska Environmental Trust.

While people could enjoy the new trail and park amenities immediately, anglers had to be patient. It took a couple of years for the first stockings of bass, bluegill, channel catfish and walleye to grow to catchable size.

The wait is over, said Bill Parker of Lincoln, who takes his fly rod to Holmes about twice a week.

“It’s the best (fishing lake) in the county,” Parker said moments after releasing a 10-inch largemouth. “The water’s been really clean, even after a big rain, which makes the fishing really nice. I always catch fish.”

Most fish in the lake still run a little small. For example, the most common size for bass is about 10 inches, and bluegill would be about 6 inches.

But thanks to the stocking of  mature bass in the lake, anglers can catch largemouth up to about 22 inches if they work for them. And bluegill measuring up to 9 inches aren’t uncommon. Some catfish in the 5-pound range also have been caught.

On a recent two-hour visit to Holmes, tournament bass angler Aaron Lee Jakub caught lots of 10-inchers. He was impressed with the aquatic habitat and said that on a return trip, he will spend more time working submerged brush piles and weedlines with a jig or plastic worm to find bigger fish.

His father, Jim Jakub, lives just five minutes from the lake. He said after a recent big rain, he was surprised at how clean the water looked, which shows how the rehab project has been successful at keeping sediment-heavy storm runoff out of Holmes.

“It’s a lot better than it used to be,” he said. “I just hope they enforce the releasing of bass.”

It’s not unusual to see half a dozen bass boats on the lake about any time of day. Before the renovation, bass fishermen wouldn’t dream of fishing at Holmes.

On June 17, a local chapter of the National Bass Anglers Association held a tournament at the lake that attracted 14 boats. Everyone caught fish, but not everyone caught bass longer than the tournament’s 12-inch minimum, said Jason Cyboron, tournament organizer.

The biggest bass caught that night weighed 4½ pounds. To comply with the lake’s regulation on releasing bass, all participants used a hand-held scale to record a fish’s weight immediately after landing it. No fish are put in livewells.

“I thought the lake looked great,” Cyboron said. “There’s a lot of habitat for bass.”

The lake also attracts shore anglers by the hundreds, said Matt Mittelstadt, southeast district supervisor for the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department. The abundance of aggressive panfish and largemouth make the lake perfect for introducing kids to angling.

“Anywhere you can get to the shoreline you’ll find people fishing,” he said.

Surveys done at Holmes Lake indicate the park’s visitation has doubled since the renovation was completed, said Jeff Jackson, the state biologist who supervises public fisheries in Southeast Nebraska. While he doesn’t yet have the numbers to back it up, he’s sure the average daily number of anglers has more than doubled.

Clearer, cleaner water gets the credit for improved fishing, Jackson said. And the future looks good, because there is no agriculture and very little major construction in the watershed that drains into Holmes, which means less muddy runoff following a downpour.

Now the greatest threat to the lake’s water quality is phosphorus fertilizer and pet waste. Such contamination increases the chances of a fish-killing algae bloom.

But agencies have been working to educate property owners in the watershed to use nonphosphorus fertilizer on their lawns and to dispose of pet waste, Jackson said.

Otherwise, the future of the fishery will rely on anglers following regulations, especially mandatory release of all bass. A high density of largemouth helps prevent bluegill from becoming stunted, and it also helps control rough fish such as carp that might make it into the lake, Jackson said.

“Without bass in there, everything else gets out of kilter,” he said.

Jackson said keeping out undesirable species is the reason behind the ban on live baitfish. Biologists also frequently see crappie appear in a renovated lake because of illegal stocking. Jackson hopes that doesn’t happen at Holmes because of the crappie’s tendency to crowd out bluegill.

At present, the bass and bluegill populations will be self-sustaining, meaning catfish will be the only fish the commission will continue to stock in Holmes, Jackson said.

Over the years, the agency has rehabbed dozens of lakes across the state.

“I think Holmes has been one of the top ones,” Jackson said. “Everything really worked well together.”

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.