The Nebraska Sandhills have a reputation for huge fish — big behemoth bass, hub cap crappies and bluegills the size of dinner plates. On top of geologically unique stabilized sand dunes sit groundwater and mineral lakes, most of which are too shallow or alkaline to support fish. In those with the right depth and mineral levels, the results are shallow, productive, highly vegetated lakes that crank out macroinvertebrates and fuel big fish growth. Long growing seasons, at least within the North American Ice Belt, mean big fish are available to interested ice anglers.

Don Cox has been ice fishing in the Nebraska Sandhills for 45 years, and in his words, “really fishing it seriously since the early ‘90s.” A longtime member of Clam’s Ice Team, Don, along with his family and friends, has become a local expert on ice fishing the Nebraska Sandhills. Cox’s move to serious fishing came from a day where his pride was bruised but his mind was opened to what could lay in store if he became a better angler. “I won’t ever forget the moment I realized I had a lot to learn,” Cox said. “It was about 1990, and we sat on the ice on Pelican Lake right next to a guy that plucked out I don’t know how many large bluegills, and all we caught were small bluegills. That’s what made us start fishing tournaments and start getting better at figuring out how to catch fish.”

Nebraska’s Sandhill Lakes owe some of their prestige to one lake that is the crown jewel of the area. “Pelican Lake on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge is what started my quest to find 2-pound panfish,” Cox said. “Nebraska public Sandhill Lakes are really amazing. The thing with Sandhill lakes are that they turn over very fast and the bite can be volatile. If one lake is hopping one year, by the next year it might not fish the same. I could suggest 20 lakes to fish and it really doesn’t matter since it’s always changing.”

Cox and his sons will fish a lake when it’s hot, but they’ll also put time into searching out bites. “We’ll be the instigators. We’ll go out and find which lakes are fishing well. There’s not a lot of pressure on these lakes and some of the time we’ll be the first ones out there, and others may not find out about the lake for a year or two.”

“These lakes are just so fertile, it’s unbelievable,” Don said. “Every portion of the water column is chocked full of fish-growing potential. There are tons of macroinvertebrates that pack on the calories for these fish and add weight to a fish in a hurry. If I lived close to one of those all-you-can-eat buffets, I would look like one of those Sandhill bluegills!”

So what was that stranger sitting on a bucket on Pelican Lake doing differently on that fateful early ‘90s winter day? From that watershed moment in his fishing career, Cox shared his thoughts. “I’ll tell you what he was doing. He was sitting on vegetation and we weren’t, and we didn’t know any better. We weren’t smart enough to figure it out.”

Cox has found vegetation to be the key to fish life in the Nebraska Sandhills. “The more vegetation in a lake, the better. We can catch some roaming bluegills, but the heavier bluegills come from lakes that have abundant vegetation. We’re fishing with 4- or 5-pound test line, because if you get a big bull bluegill in the vegetation, if he starts taking off, you’re in trouble if you have 2-pound test on. You’re not going to turn him around.”

Vegetation is food and cover for macroinvertebrate insects, crustaceans and zooplankton, which in turn draw in fish like bluegills, crappies and perch. “They’re in the vegetation all of the time. There is no reason for them to move. They find plenty of their prey on plants and they can just hang in the plants all day. We’ve watched bluegills on camera feeding in the vegetation and it’s a hoot. They’ll get all puffed up and swim up on a dragonfly larvae. They’ll get right to the program and just destroy them,” Cox said about his time watching bluegills under the ice. “It’s fun to watch and amazing. I could watch a bluegill for hours.”

Cox is particularly pleased and optimistic about the efforts being undertaken this past year to restore a number of Sandhill Lakes by the Nebraska Game and Parks Department. “This is the first time that they’ve done a renovation on an entire system of lakes,” Cox said. “Rotenone and removal of common carp, installation of water control structures, carp barriers. If [Nebraska Game and Parks] can get those lakes cleaned up and knock out most of the carp, we can go from having one Pelican Lake to having nine Pelican Lakes. It’s phenomenal to have that possibility.” Renovation on Pelican Lake last year revealed that common carp had swelled to more than 300 pounds of carp per acre. Gamefish made up less than 10% of standing crop fish community biomass. The reduction in carp has immediate benefits. Common carp are particularly hard on aquatic vegetation, uprooting plants and stirring up substrates into suspension, which cloud the water and shade out rooted plants. The tremendous reduction in common carp will bring back clear water and lush aquatic plants, provide habitat for aquatic insects and zooplankton, and the good old days on Pelican Lake have a chance of returning.

Economically, renovating and restoring Sandhill Lakes to their former glory will benefit the local communities. Cox points to nearby Hyannis, Nebraska as an example. A few lakes near this small Sandhills town were renovated and now the town is able to support a hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, and restaurant. “When your population is 180, when you can bring just four guys in for a weekend it’s a boost.”

There is optimism that the glory days of panfish angling will return. In early 2019, Nebraska Game and Parks instituted a five bluegill bag limit on Pelican Lake with only one over 10 inches, helping to promote a trophy bluegill fishery. “People have gotten a lot better at ice fishing and the access to these lakes has also gotten a lot better,” Cox said. “Having more restrictive regulations is going to protect those fisheries from overharvest.”

So with a few lakes still kicking out big perch, crappies and bluegills, and more lakes getting their potential restored, what does Cox recommend for a plan of attack? “Early ice is our preferred panfish timeframe, December to mid-January. We like using search lures and something with a blade. The Clam Pinhead Mino has been our go-to the last two years. Downsized jigs, like a Clam Dropkick Jig or the Clam Drop Jig provide good options when they turn neutral and want something a little smaller,” Cox explained. Don also  recommends cutting a lot of holes and working in a team to move around the lake to find fish. Vegetation has been the key. “Cut until you find plants, then spend some time seeing if there are fish mixed in,” Cox advises. “Check out reed edges, but also looked for submerged plant edges and pockets.”

— Scott Mackenthun has been writing about the outdoors since 2005. You can follow him on Instagram and on Twitter.