I Fished the Nish

Hello friends and fellow Hivers. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Todays post is about my time spent on Saturday. I decided to head back to Botna Bend Park which I just visited the day prior. This time to try my luck with some fishing on the Nishnabotna River. Which many call it the Nish for short.

It didn't take long to find a nice area to set up at. I parked my car up above and I was at a location down hill about 20 feet. It was in the shade at the time. Just a few feet from me was a small drainage of water coming down the hill from a storm drainage tube. A soothing noise to hear as it drained into the river to add to the experience.

At first I threw out one line with a gob of worms on the hook. I was casting with another pole with some crank baits. I tried several different types but after about 40 minutes I gave up on it as I was having no success. I reeled in the set line to find no worm on it. I did notice previously why casting the other pole there were a few bites on it. Now they were just nibbles probably from a fish that wouldn't be able to get their mouths around the hook I was using. I decided to switch it up tactic wise.

I didn't bring a lot of choices to use as bait. I had worms, a blue gill, and just some artificial crank baits. The blue gill I used as cut bait. If anything it was nice to break out my buck knife for the first time this year to cut it up. I used the tail section and hooked it up on the bigger of my two set ups. The smaller set up I had a smaller hook which I put a worm on it.

When I fish the bottom of a river I set the lines up tight and place a bell near the rod tip. The ding ding is a promising sound to hear 😁 I use two different types of bells so if I'm not paying attention I know which rod is getting action💡

Yes the bell went off on the worm set up a few times but no action when I grabbed the pole. I reeled it in several times to see my worm was stolen. I think I re-baited close to a dozen times. The other rod with the bluegill tail got no action at all. I fished probably for a good two hours until the sun decided to take the shade away. What were the results? I fished the Nish but caught no fish. Even the best fisherman leave empty handed sometimes, right? 🤣

Hey I look at it as a testing the waters. There's fish here so there's a high probability I'll be back. Next time maybe I will use wider choices of baits. Perhaps I'll bring some live bait, corn, or some homemade mixed contraptions.

Just the act of fishing this day made for a successful day in my books. On the way out of the park I couldn't help to stop and check out the bison. I seen some interesting activity and captured some new things. A bonus you could say 😊

Bison calves are often referred to as a "Red Dogs" because of it's different brighter colors. Usually born between late March thru May and will have these colors for a few months after birth.

These photos above are kind of a chain reaction you can say. I think the wooden pail is meant to fill the feed bins by the park personnel not for individual consumption. This Bison had the pail stuck to its head for a fraction of a second as it lifted its head out, haha. The second photo is this same bison not giving me that look what are you looking at but look at what I'm about to do. He bucked the pail and it got some air and went a few feet. I guess it was playfully showing off.

Here we have a white bison which is not very common at all. The Indigenous people who once flourished in this region considered them holy. I see this photo in two ways, it's unsafe to be in front of and behind the bison. See that water faucet on? Haha.

My day came to end and before I closed my eyes for the night I witnessed this beautiful rainbow. Perhaps the end of the rainbow is where I spent a good part of my day, at Botna Bend Park!

Take care all, stay safe and have a great week ahead. Until next time!