Fishing The Republican River

Even though there was a motel in Alma with access to the large lake, Bob still preferred the river.

We learned we could follow the river all the way from Alma to Orleans, Nebraska. For access to the river, we could use Mocking Bird or on the south side all of the roads known as Fisherman's Gate. Over the years, we checked every possible access.

In 1964, Mom, Dad, Cindy, Robbie, Bob and I traveled to Alma. The river was running full; we could drive across the Alma bridge and follow the first road to the place where the river flowed into the Lake. We did catch fish that day and the kids had plenty of room to play.

Milt Bash

One of our first stops when we arrived was to visit with Milt. He was our go-to guy for the best place to fish the river. Some years we caught fish; some years we didn't. Milt would send fish home with us on those times when our luck wasn't so good.

Special Memories

We were enjoying our trip up the river and the catfish were biting. The line would drift in the current, the fish would grab it and start swimming up stream. There was one experience when some of them were so big, we could not land them. Another time we caught several pan size catfish and put them on the stringer. It was one of those hot summer days and Bob preferred to clean them later. There was no place to keep live fish at the motel, so we left them in the river on the stringer. The next morning when we came back, the stringer full of fish was gone; possibly taken by a large snapping turtle.

Just one more thing to mention. There were snakes up the river! One time I was going up a small embankment and one slithered right in front of me. I screamed and jumped away. Another time I was relaxing when something in my mind whispered "snake". I looked up the river and there was a large bull snake swimming in the river. I watched that snake as far as I could see him to make sure he did not slither out of the river. Good times and bad, my memories of fishing the Republican River are very special to me.