muskylund1

skdds, I haven't logged on in a while so I just saw your post. If you want Bass Lower Buckhorn/Deer Bay is a terrific lake for both Smallmouth and Largemouth. I would recommend working the shoreline starting at Bayview resort and heading south towards the two small islands on the south side of the lake. Focus on early morning and evening and you will find them shallow. Throw topwaters, tubes and wacky worms. Focus on the inside weedline and any rocks your can find. For musky, the weedbed that starts in front of Beachwood and extends out toward the islands is a great spot. You can cast over the weeds with Bucktails, Jerkbaits or Shallow cranks. If you have a depth finder focus on the deep weedline in 10-12' for the bigger muskies. For walleye, I would suggest focusing on early morning or later in the evening and fish the weedlines snap jigging 1/8 to 1/4 oz bucktail jigs or jigs baited with a gulp minnow. A pretty aggressive snap will produce reaction bites. I also did well a couple of years ago casting swimbaits over & through the weedbeds in Black Duck Bay using a 1/2 oz bullet head jig with a 5" Berkley Flatback Shad. Reel it medium fast for a few feet, stop for half a second and continue reeling, repeat. I hope you have a great trip. My family has been staying at Beachwood and fishing Lower Buckhorn for 35 years. The fishing is still great there. Tom

We had another great trip to Lower Buckhorn Lake this year July 18-25. We boated 21 Muskies in total. I personally caught 14. We also had some good Bass fishing for both Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass. I even managed to catch several Walleyes while taking a break from Bass or Musky fishing. Overall the size on the Muskies we boated this year was not great. The last several years we have boated at least 1 over 45", but not this year. Our biggest was 40.5", but had quite a few in the mid to upper 30" class. My brother hooked a lost a huge Smallmouth that probably would have been close to 24". We did catch plenty of Bass in the 17-20" range so we definitely can't complain about that. The strangest thing was how low the weeds were this year. I don't think I've ever seen the weeds that low in the 35 years we have been fishing Lower Buckhorn. That may have been one reason why we struggled to catch Muskies via casting techniques. Typically we boat 80% or more of our Muskies via casting, but this year 14 of our Muskies were caught trolling. Our Bass were mainly caught on Tube jigs along with a few on top water. The Walleyes were caught on a jig and Gulp Minnow. Tom

The swimbait was rigged on an Owner Bullet Head Jig. This is designed for Saltwater. The jig was either 1/2 oz or 3/4 oz. I'm not entirely sure. The technique can be found online if you search for "Doug Stange Swimbait Walleye". You should be able to find both articles and videos detailing this technique. Tom

I spent last week on Lower Buckhorn with my brother and nephew. My brother and I have been doing this trip for about 33 years now. Our dad started taking us years ago, but now he is too old and frail to come along. We had one of our best years ever. We boated 21 Muskies for the week, including 6 over 40". The two biggest were both 44". Muskies were caught on a variety of baits, but bucktails seemed to get the most action. All of our fish were caught casting. We only had one strike trolling and didn't hook the fish. My 44" fish hit a Double Cowgirl in the Whitefish color pattern. Bass fishing was good with lots of fish up to 2lbs. We did catch a few in the 3-4 lb. range and my brother even landed Largemouths of 20" and 21". We did not catch as many Smallmouth as usual, but that may have been because the Largemouth were more numerous in our usual Smallmouth spots this year. A few were caught on topwater, but most were caught on tube jigs. I don't usually target Walleye on this trip, but this year I made an exception. I caught 5 Walleyes, including 19", 20", 21.5", 24" and 26". All but one were caught on a Berkley Flatback Shad swimbait rigged with a 1/2 oz bullet head jig and a short wire leader.The technique I used was to swim it fairly fast with frequent momentary pauses. I would cast this in the same places that we fished for muskies and even had 3 Muskies strike it including a 36" that I landed. Tom

We've been fishing this lake for 33 years. I was about Ben's age when we started going there. It was not the best week of fishing we ever had there, but it definitely ranks in the top 6 for Musky. Tom

My brother, nephew and I spent July 6-13 on Lower Buckhorn fishing for Bass and Muskies. The Bass fishing was good, but not great. We caught lots of quality fish in the 1-2 lb range and a few in the 2-4 lb range. Muskie fishing was very good with 21 Muskies boated for the week. Largest was a 47" Muskie boated by my 13 year old nephew Ben on the first night. We had only been trolling for about 5 minutes when he hooked that Kawartha beauty. It was his first Muskie ever. One of our goals for the trip was to get Ben his first Muskie, but I had no idea it would be such a nice fish. Of 21 Muskies boated, 11 were caught casting and 10 were caught trolling. All of our trolling fish were taken in the evenings from 7:00 to 10:00. Productive trolling lures were Wiley Headshakers, Wiley Deep Divers and 10" Jakes. Productive casting lures included bucktails and large soft plastic swimbaits such as Kickin Minnows and Swimmin Joes. For casting we focused on the deep weedlines of large main lake weed beds. For trolling we focused on the Southern end of Deer Bay in the 15' to 25' depths. The Muskies were relating schools of suspended baitfish that were 6' to 10' down over deeper water. There seemed to be an evening peak each night during which large schools of baitfish would get very thick and high in the water column. Experience tells me this is usually because they are being chased by predators. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. Tom

There's not that many American Plan lodges that I know of anymore in Wisconsin. Check out Sunrise Lodge on Lac Vieux Desert in Wisconsin. We stayed there in 2002. Nice place. The fishing is decent too. LVD is famous musky water. The world record Tiger Musky was caught there. You may also be able to get something like an American plan at Alpine Resort in Presque Isle, Wisconsin. We looked at staying there, but our plans changed that year. It's on a chain of lakes that offer good Walleye, Pike, Musky, Smallmouth, Largemouth and Panfish. Tom

Thanks for the nice words gents. Lower Buckhorn is a really nice lake. We've been fishing it for 30 years so we feel like we know it pretty well now. In the Summer we typically average 15-20 muskies in a week long trip, so numbers wise this was below our average. I was surprised that Bucktails did not seem to be working too. My brother did have one small Muskie jump off on a Double 10 early in the week, but that was it. It was not for lack off effort with bucktails. The fish were just not interested. We've found large musky-sized tubes and swimbaits to be very productive over the last several years. The thing that surprised me the most was the lack of action while trolling. We spent a couple of hours each day trolling for exactly one momentary rip. I know there are 50" Muskies in the lake. We've hooked 2 or 3 that would have been in that class or close, but somehow they have eluded the landing net until now. We've caught quite a few in the 44"-46" range and one that was 48". We know we'd have a better shot at bigger fish if we went somewhere else, but then we'd be starting all over again. Lower Buckhorn is also a terrific Bass lake for both Smallmouth and Largemouth. There are lots of 3-4 lb Bass with some over 5 and even a few bigger. Tom

VTBass, I use both the 7.5" Ninja Tubes as well as the 10" Monster Tubes also. I like to use them as a glider. I want them to go side to side, up, down. Very erratic. I don't work them particularly fast. I try to work out a cadence of 2 sideward pulls and and upward pull, followed by 3 sideward pulls and 2 upward pulls, etc. Play around to get the movement that you like. There is really no wrong way to fish these things. I'm sure you could catch fish by heavily weighting them and jigging them on the bottom, but the tubes I am using are not rigged to do that. I've used the rigging they were sold with as well as created my own rigs. There is a video of how to rig them on Red October's website. I buy my tubes through Musky Tackle Online. The hits are sometimes very hard and other times it might be just a tick or you feel some weight. Since I'm not jigging them it is hard to tell when the fish are hitting, but I would bet a lot of the hits come on the pause. Perhaps you don't detect the strike until the next pull. Remember that the key with gliders is the pause and an erratic retrieve. I don't want just a rythmic side to side action. Good luck to you. Tom

I spent last week on Lower Buckhorn with my brother for our annual 2012 Kawartha Fishing Trip. We've been doing this trip for 30 years now. This is the second year that we have gone without our Dad who is too old and infirm to make the trip and is now in assisted living. The fishing was slow, but we still managed to land 10 muskies, including a 46", 45", 39", 38", 35", 34", 33", 30" and 2 caugth on Bass tackle that were both below 30". We did some bass fishing a couple of hours each day, but spent most of our time chasing muskies. The Bass fishing was slow for us, but we were probably fishing too shallow. We did have one fish fry of fresh Bass and Walleye, but aside from that all fish were released. Trolling was unproductive for us. All of our muskies were taken casting. Big rubber baits accounted for most of our Muaky action (6 muskies) including the 4 biggest fish. Large Swimmin Joes and Red October Monster Tubes were the baits of choice. We also landed 3 muskies on topwater baits: Weagles and Zara Spooks. A Bobbie Bait took 1 Musky. Buckatils were totally unproductive. Tom

It's interesting to me that people are still blaming the decline of Walleye in the Kawarthas on Crappie. According to the article,the decline in the Walleye population is believed to be linked to the loss of habitat related to changes in water clarity. We have seen this on the lake that we have been fishing in the Kawarthas for the last 30 years. When we started fishing there, there were clearly defined weed spots and clearly defined rock spots. Now due to the increase of weeds resulting from the greatly increased water clarity (a result of Zebra mussels), there are basically almost no areas of the lake that are simply rock. There are weed spots and weed/rock spots. During the same period, we have seen a huge increase in the Largemouth Bass population. Thirty years ago it was rare to catch a Largemouth on the lake we fish. The lake was dominated by Smallmouth, Walleye and Musky. Now the Bass population is probably 50/50 or even 60/40 Largemouth to Smallmouth. The panfish population seems to be better than ever, probably due to the increase in weedu cover. Please show me the research by reputable biologists for any lake in North America showing that Crappies have caused a decline in a Walleye population. I know of no such research. If it exists, I am willing to be corrected. I can on the other hand show you research conducted by the Wisconsin DNR that shows that Largemouth Bass prey significantly on young Walleye. Wisconsin DNR research shows that lakes that have excellent Largemouth Bass habitat tend to have poor Walleye habitat whereas lakes with good Smallmouth Bass habitat tend to have good Walleye habitat. Clearly the ecosystem of the Kawartha lakes has significantly changed over the last 30 years due in no small part to the invasive Zebra Mussels. It is worth noting that Walleyes, Crappies and Zebra Mussels are all exotic species to the Kawarthas. All were introduced. Whether we like Crappies or not, they are here to stay. I do not believe they are causing the Walleye decline nor do I believe it will help the future of the fishery to keep saying that they are. People need to stop killing the walleyes and let them spawn. The MNR will need to greatly restrict Walleye harvest and take steps to protect the prime spawners. They have alreay begun to do this with recent changes to the regulations. It will probably take at least 10 years to see the true effects of the new regulations. There may need to be some level of rehabilitative walleye stocking in order to boost the population back to sustainable levels while harvest is restricted. The MNR should also consider a slot limit that allows some harvest of smaller males while protecting spawning females. These are just my opinions. I could be wrong. Tom http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/fisheries/species/muskie/MUE_ImpactOnWalleye.pdf http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2010/06/fishery.htm

You could try Sanders Mechanical. 657-2090. RR 1 Lakefield, Buckhorn Peterborough. I blew a cylinder while I was staying on Lower Buckhorn lake several years ago. They installed a new powerhead for me fairly quickly. I don't know if they would do rebuilds this time of year or not, but they seem honest and do good work. The owners of the resort that we always stay at trust them. Tom

I spent last week at Beachwood Resort on Lower Buckhorn Lake in the Kawarthas. The fishing was good, but not great. Weather was warm and the water temps increased about 10 degrees Fahrenheit while we were there. With winds out of the North and East all week we struggled a bit to find consistent patterns, but we still caught fish every day. Three of us, including my 83 year old Dad, boated 12 muskies for the week (all released). The biggest muskies were a 45" and a 44". Bass fishing was decent, but not great (all released). The biggest Smallmouth was a 19.5" that I caught on a Zara spook. The 45" musky hit a Lindy Tiger Tube that I cast back to fish that followed up my brother's Dunwright glider. My brother' 44" musky hit a homemade bucktail that I had made for him a couple of years agos. We caught fish on topwater, bucktails, jerkbaits, crankbaits and swimbaits. All fish were caught casting. Here are some of the pics. Tom

I just returned from a week on Lower Buckhorn. For the week we boated 16 muskies between my 83 year old Dad, my brother and myself.. The weather seemed to put the muskies off a bit and the average size was lower than normal. My buddy Jason who was staying in another cabin caught a 45" at the beginning of the week. My best musky last week was a 38" on a black/silver bucktail. My brother took a 40" on an M&G Tandem Spin. I lost a low to mid 40 inch musky that bit me off on a Zara Spook with no leader. I'll have to remember to use a leader next time. We also caught and released 7 Bass over 4 pounds, including 2 Smallmouths over 20". Most of the Bass were taken on tube jigs, but at least of the 4 pounders was taken on a Zara Spook and Dad got a 20" Smallmouth on a buzzbait. No pics because the film is still in the camera. I will post some pics when I get them developed. Tom

I've been fishing Lower Buckhorn for over 25 years and have never caught a Crappie in that lake. I've heard that others have caught them, but I've not seen one yet. It still amazes me that some people think that Crappies are eating all the Walleyes. I personally think that is nothing short of insane. Sure Crappies are exotics in the Kawarthas, but so are Walleyes. I never heard of a single instance in any lake or river in all of North America where Crappies have hurt the Walleye or Bass populations. I don't fish for Crappies. Actually I don't fish for walleyes either. I mainly target Bass and Muskies. One thing that I have noticed over the past 15 years is that the water on Lower Buckhorn Lake is much clearer than it used to be. I suppose that is mainly due to the Zebra Mussels. What has also ocurred is an explosion in weed growth. Along with that has come an explosion in the Largemouth Bass population. I have seen a number of studies that show that Largemouth Bass are a major predator on young walleyes. Walleyes typcially do better on lakes more suited to smallmouth and muskies and less well on lakes suited to Largemouth and Northern Pike. I was really glad to see that the MNR finally has decided to put some more restrictive regs on walleye fishing in the Kawarthas. I'm not sure they got it exactly right, but it is an improvement. I would have preferred to see a slot limit. I'm sure that Crappies will find their niche and the population will level off. There are thousands of examples of lakes across North America that have excellent Crappie and Walleye populations. These fish tend to coexist quite well. Tom

Here's some pics from our trip to Lower Buckhorn the last week of June 2007. We'll be back up at Beachwood Resort the last week of June this year. Note: all fish in these pictures were released. For the week, we kept 1 walleye to eat (not pictured) and everything else went back in the lake. Tom

Burt, I just sent you a PM. Tom

I just returned from a week on Lower Buckhorn in the Kawartha's of Southern Ontario. My brother and I boated 14 muskies with 3 over 40". The biggest was 41". We didn't see any big fish (over 45") this year and much of the week was kind of slow fishing, but in the end we did fairly well. Our best fish were boated using jerkbaits: Suicks and Bobbies. I did manage a 40" on a Musky Magic Instigator. I also boated a couple of nice walleyes on musky gear; a 3lb and a 5lb. We also had a blast catching and releasing many bass up to 4lb while taking a break from musky fishing. The weird thing was that we hardly had any follows, missed strikes or lost fish. I think we had 3 follows, 2 missed strikes and only 1 lost fish. Tom