muskie_bob

Here is my reply to a bunch of the feedback that I have received. KawarthaKev I agree the water level was down when we were out there but not nearly as bad as last year. We know the lake quite well and have managed to avoid rocks the last bunch of years we were out there. I did not attempt to squeeze into Black Duck this year and that is where I have traditionally introduced the prop to the rocks. Irishfield The fish revived well and headed right back to the deep. His belly was actually pretty thick but not that easy to see in the photo, he definitely had the feed bag on. jediangler Yes, we were fishing out of a pontoon boat and this was the first year that my back did not ache for weeks after. It definitely allowed us to stay out on the water when the waves were too big for a smaller boat. Not the best for fishing the shallows but for trolling is was sheer luxury. muskiehunter5150 The bigger muskie was caught trolling down 20 feet with a planer board using an 8" Yo-zuri hollow form shad deep diving minnow. That is the second muskie I have caught on the lake using this lure. The second muskie was caught casting a live minnow with a slow retrieve from the dock of the cottage I was staying at.

Unfortunately nobody was able to provide me with any tips on fishing lower buck (most people seem to fish pigeon or stoney) but I seemed to have done alright on my own. The conditions were rough a couple of days I was out there last weekend but at least it was not that cold. I managed to get one muskie trolling the edge of the channel and one casting in deer bay. I have attached photos of the fish caught. Hopefully, the fishing will be as good next year.

Proline is a good spot but I called today for myself and they were out. They usually have them on the weekend.

Congrats, nice healthy girth on that one too!

Nice fish, I used to fish Kashag a lot and I will agree pike are very rare but there are still some muskie to be found in there.

I agree that the perch pattern shallow raider and depth raiders work well. I have caught a bunch on a silver bladed black bucktail as well. I have also caught one on a black magnum bulldawg in black and orange. When the weather gets really cold we troll the deep edges of weedlines, when it warm up we cast bucks into the weed beds. With all that said I only got in one day of muskie fishing last year and it has been two years since my last muskie.

Nice Ski, particularly for a blue bird day. What were you mainly trolling with?

You would think with all the trouble in the economy, people would be inspired to vote. Typical Canadian behavior. We let ourselves get ripped off by oil companies without taking any effective action and complain about the government but do not vote for change.

Goteeboy, That was a great article.

In general, I would say if you are going to try casting to the edges of weedlines or rock shoals, you can't go wrong with a large bucktail spinner with a black tail and silver blade. If you do not have any luck with that then I would switch gears completely and try trolling with a believer on the shallower eye setting on the lure. If you only have bass lures, the largest rapala you have would also be good.

It would depend on your time horizon and risk preference. In the short term, you could ride the fluctuations in Gold stocks. Longer term most analysts are still bullish on energy seeing it hit $150 by the end of 2009. There are some good deals to be had with Suncor, Oilexco, and I don't think you could possibly go wrong with EnCana over a 2 to 3 year timeframe. The decline in the market has also significantly driven up the yield on a lot of the income trusts. If you are not averse to risk, HCI.UN is yielding approx 17%, and if you want a sin play as one of the other posters on this thread suggested, LIQ.UN also has a decent yield and owns a significant portion of the western Canada liquour market. Personally, I am sitting in cash waiting for signs that some of the measures taken by the central banks are having an impact. There were apparently some loopholes that will allow banks to take advantage of the bailouts without helping main street America and that concerns me a bit.

Gas was up to 1.09 in the Golden Horseshoe area in Ontario today. One problem that is negatively affecting what we pay for gas besides taxes and gouging is the fact that the Canadian dollar has dropped over 10% in the last week or so and we pay for our gas in US$. Still it is very frustrating.

I am heading up to Lower Buckhorn for my annual Muskie fishing trip and wondered if anyone could provide me with updates on how the muskie fishing has been this month? Any tips on successful lures or tactics would be much appreciated. I was told the lake has turned over but would also like confirmation of that if possible.