Kawartha Kev

Great shots as usual Brandon especially the waterfalls love those I haven't had time to take any lately but still remember when I started taking those kind of shots you taught me a lot. Thanks again!! Wish I had some of the camera equipment you have still just got my little 4.5 MegPixel point and shoot Nikon. Looking forward to seeing more of Alaska definitely God's country. Kawartha Kev

Gorgeous photo Whitespinnerbait!!

I saw a couple of Bald eagles a couple weeks ago on Lower Buckhorn but not close enough for pics have also seen these guys pileated woodpeckers on the lake Pileated Woodpecker Close-up by Kawartha Kev, on Flickr Pileated Woodpecker by Kawartha Kev, on Flickr Here's some Osprey

Here is a pic of the same nest from 2004 Dscn0294 by Kawartha Kev, on Flickr

Is that the osprey nest on Lower Buckhorn at the end of the narrows before you get out to the main part of the lake going east toward Reach Harbour it sure looks like it? As to being the biggest I'm not so sure I have seen lots of nest all over the lake and they all look huge some more than others. I have a picture of that same nest from a couple years ago. The biggest one I have seen used to be on the hydro pole on the north side of the lake in the narrows before they cut the wires going across the lake at that point. They now also nest on the south side pole but the nest is on a platform not a natural one. I'll try and find the pic to compare to your nest if it is the same one. By the way the BBQ looks YUMMMMMMMMMY!!! Kawartha Kev

Well just got back from the cottage on lower Buckhorn after a couple days. Weather wasn't the greatest but did manage to get in some fishing. Wind was strong so I was limited to the back bays off the main lake as my 12ft tinny was not up to the big lake. Anyway managed some largemouth bass and 2 muskies. The best musky was a solid chunky 36" and the other was a smaller 30" with a really bad scar on its side but otherwise healthy as it put up a better fight going airborne twice and swam away fine. The outings also produce lots of wildlife including a pair of bald eagles really huge compared to the many osprey on the lake. I also came across a breeding ball of garter snakes if you are not familiar with this it is a ball of snakes all wrapped up together usually consisting of one large female and several small males pretty need to see unfortunately I did not have my camera with me for the fish or wildlife isn't it always the way. anyway looks like the fishing is heating up for the fall I'll half to remember my camera next time!! Kawartha Kev

Congrats Scugog!! Looks like your typical Kawartha muskie plenty more where that came from on that lake come back in a month or so and the action should start heating up!! Kawartha Kev

Hoops My go to musky lure for Lower Buckhorn is definitely the large Super Vibrax #6 black with a bit of red bucktail with the silver blade can't tell you how many musky I have caught on it. Kawartha Kev

welcome to Lower Buckhorn. You will be located at the corner of Deer bay with lots of access to good fishing depending where and what you want to go for all I can say is be careful this lake has lots of shallow rocky areas that are just outside the main channel especially on the northern part of the lake. Deer Bay is pretty much wide open with some good weed beds but I have never fished it much my time has been spent in a lot of the back bays but you have to be really careful going into those places they are full of unmarked rocky areas that will eat your motor if you are not careful I love it back in Black Duck Bay but again I stress be careful don't know what kind of boat you use I just have a 14 ft aluminum and am always cautious in there and I have been on the lake 20+ years good luck don't know what you fish for but there are lots of bass and musky for sure if you know how to go after them Good Luck!! Kawartha Kev

Anybody else going to the Sir Paul McCartney concerts on Sun or Mon at the ACC I've been waiting for this one for a long time only a couple more sleeps. I'm going to the Mon. show if anyone goes to the Sunday show please post a report can't wait to see the legend probably won't get another chance as he is really getting up there in age. Wish I could have seen him the rest of the Beatles but I was just a kid at the time of their hayday oh well still should be a great show. Kawartha Kev

Probably an early Perseid meteor Lew the Perseid meteor shower peaks in a week or so check out this site for up to date info if you are interested Spaceweather Info enjoy Kawartha Kev

What is the opening date for musky fishing in the Kawarthas this year? I heard it might be extended it was always the first Sat. in June but I heard it might be a week earlier so is it already open? I can't seem to access the MNR fishing site to check does anyone know for sure? Kawartha Kev

i have had a cottage on Lower Buckhorn for 20 years and only ever caught 1 crappie although I have never really targeted them Kawartha Kev

I have a cottage on Lower Buckhorn and keep up to date with things by watching a webcam from a resort on the lake. I haven't been up to the cottage yet this year but it looks like the water levels are way down and there as no snow around to melt and raise the level anytime soon doesn't look good. Here is a link to the webcam if you are interested. Anyone else around the area that can add to the info on lake levels in the Kawartha's? Lower Buckhorn Webcam Here is a linkto the resort if you want to update the webcam pic Reach Harbour Resort Lower Buckhorn

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder always remember that. Merry Christmas Brandon !! Kawartha Kev

Perhaps you should read this story. Enjoy!! LOL!! Kawartha Kev The Musky and the Squirrel by Don Jordan Muskies are the baddest things that swim in fresh water, especially to potential diners like perch and walleye, ducks and ducklings, small mammals and frogs and even other muskies. Muskies aren't afraid to tackle prey larger than they can swallow, and they will attack human swimmers. Humans report musky bites in Wisconsin about once a year, and lots of muskellunge attacks never get reported. You just hear about them. Most people never see the victims or experience a musky bite in person. Once when hosting a company cookout for some colleagues at Amnicon Lake, Wis., one of my guests was bitten on the leg by a small muskellunge. We all heard screams from the lake where several guests were swimming, floating on inflatable rafts. A young woman who had been floating in my fisherman's belly boat was screaming bloody murder and flailing away at the surface with her hands and arms. "Something's biting me! Help!" she screamed, again and again. Of course, having just told my guests about the 100-lb. giant muskellunge alleged to live in the lake, nobody rushed to the victim's rescue. I considered leaping into the lake, but only momentarily, because by that time, the woman was out of the belly boat and running in knee-deep water to the shore. She was hysterical as she collapsed on the lakeside yard, face beet red, sobbing, groveling in pain and babbling incoherently. Everyone there dashed to her side, and I pried her hands away from the spot on her lower leg where the musky had delivered its bite. At first, I couldn't see a mark, but as the water drained, pink began to show around the edges of the wound. On her calf, about five inches above her ankle, blood slowly revealed the bite marks. The fish's tooth marks spanned only about three inches at what would be the back of the musky's jaws, and the entire bite wasn't much bigger than that of a small dog. But it was there, and it did bleed a little. The attack had come from a fish I estimated to be no more than two feet long, an aggressive youngster. The victim's legs, dangling from the surface must have appealed to it. Later, I figured the attack had come when she floated over the top of a fish attracting brush pile I had sunk about 20 feet off the end of my dock. Small muskies often hang about there, waiting to ambush the many small perch, bluegill and crappie that reside there. We all joked about it later, but not a single guest returned to the water that day, and I haven't been skinny-dipping at night off the end of my dock since then. Wise Amnicon Lake skinny-dippers have long since adopted the backstroke as their swimming stroke of choice. Muskies are bad, and probably the small ones are more willing to make such Charlie Chicken Hawk-like attacks. Attacks on humans by muskies big enough to do real damage are rare, and it is foolish to worry about some freshwater jaws down there waiting to rip unwary water skiers, swimmers and jet skiers to shreds. Other critters have more to worry about as a fishing buddy from Freedom, Indiana, Dennis Knoy, and I discovered during one fall musky fishing trip. At the time, I was fishing strictly from my canoe. I had come to believe, and still do, that the canoe's stealthy approach creates more chances at musky lounging in shallow water than is possible with a larger fishing boat. Knoy and I were casting top water baits, following the shoreline, working shallow weedbeds and points. We had seen a few fish and even raised one or two, but we hadn't hooked a keeper in three days. So, when we paddled over to begin casting the Boy Scout Island shoreline, we were fishing by rote--not really trying to make mental contact with the lake and all its various life forms--and casting mechanically. There are a few oak trees on Boy Scout Island, and their acorns are of course great squirrel attractors. It's not unusual to see a gray squirrel working an overhanging oak tree where they often drop acorns into the lake. They make small splashes. You've probably heard the sound--kind of like a nice bluegill striking some surface-riding insect. Knoy and I had stopped talking. We were at burn-out and ready to call it day, maybe even a week, when something else hit the surface, somewhere up ahead along the shoreline we were following. It wasn't a bluegill. It sounded like a large mammal, maybe even a human tossing big, flat rocks into the lake. "My god, did you hear that Don?" asked Knoy. "Are you kidding? Hell yes I heard it. It was big, whatever it was," I said while picking up my paddle to head on down the shoreline to where the noise arose. We could see big ripples coming from along the bank, and more crashes echoed through the late afternoon fall air. We closed to within about 50 to 60 yards and spotted the source of the disturbance. A huge musky was working the shoreline. We could see enormous ripples and turbulence where it had just been. Some trees had been felled there during low water two years earlier. But heavy recent rainfall had swollen Lake Amnicon and raised the water level well over a foot. This put the tree stumps in the water. About two feet of lake separated the stumps from the bank. The bank itself had been adversely affected by the combination of tree-cutting and high water. Wave action had cut a steep vertical bank there that rose straight from the lake, rising about three feet above the surface. There, among those stumps, this fish we guessed to be at least five feet long, was leaping and rolling. It's head was massive, and from even our distant vantage point, we could see its golden-green, irridescent flanks as it worked the shallow water. "It's huge," whispered Knoy as we stopped paddling to make a cautious approach and avoid spooking the musky. I picked up my small sculling paddle and Knoy reached for his casting rod when something unusual happened. A gray squirrel that had been rustling the leaves on the forest floor had gradually worked its way to the edge of the cut-away bank. Acorns were dropping from an overhanging oak. Most hit the water, but some hit the stumps and stayed there. The squirrel had spotted this untouched hoard of acorns. He made a few nervous paces, and even ran out on a log trying to reach them, but they were just out of reach. This was a determined squirrel, and any bird feeder can tell you there's no way to deter a determined squirrel. It back-tracked off the log and returned to the cut-away. The feast below was in reach if the squirrel could leap from the high bank to the stumps, and that's just what it did. Afraid the rodent might spook our fish, we remained still in the water, hoping the critter would stuff its cheeks and depart. It didn't. It sat there on its haunches munching acorns, and that decision was its undoing. The stump's top was only an inch or two above the water, and we saw the musky before the squirrel did. As Knoy and I watched, a big hump appeared on the surface about five feet from the squirrel's stump. Anyone who's ever seen a musky trail a lure near the surface has seen this wave the fish makes as it swims just under the surface. This one made an unusually large hump, and it moved fast. The fish was on the stump in an blink of the eye. It leapt from the water, grabbed the squirrel and disappeared on the other side of the stump. "Did you see that?" we asked each other simultaneously. Just as we spoke, the squirrel suddenly popped to the top and swam like crazy toward the cut-away bank. The musky hit it again, but only got its tail. The squirrel reached the bank and was clawing up it when the musky tried again, this time stripping all the fur off the bushy tail. But the squirrel held fast and clawed its way desparately up the bank to safety. "Jesus, that's a monster," I told Knoy. "And I don't have a thing that looks like a squirrel in my tackle box." Neither did Knoy. I tied on a big Mepps Musky Killer with a gray squirrel tail treble hook dressing while Knoy opted for a big white buzz bait. When the canoe got to within 20 yards, we started casting. We beat the water to a froth, dropping lures over the entire area where we'd seen the squirrel attacked. No follows, no rolls, no strikes. This was a big musky and had no doubt been suckered by angling tricks many times during its life. It wasn't buying our presentations, and after about 30 minutes we gave up and headed on down the shoreline, chattering about what we'd seen. "I've never seen anthing like that, have you?" asked Knoy. "Nope. Never. That's one to tell the grandchildren, for sure," I replied. "That squirrel was one lucky dude, eh?" "No crap. Bet he doesn't go near the water again anytime soon," said Knoy. We had gone about 100 yards past the site of the incident and were chuckling about the poor squirrel's bare, pink tail when the crashing and thrashing started again. "He's back! Let's try one more time," I whispered to Knoy, excited once again about a chance at this trophy-sized monster. I turned the canoe and headed back to the stumps. This time as we approached, we could see the musky leaping around the squirrel's stump. When we closed to within about 20 feet, we could see what the fish was up to. The fish wasn't leaping after another meal, it was clearing the water just enough to reach the top of the stump where it opened its mouth and dropped a mouthful of acorns. Neither of us could believe what we were seeing, but we watched the fish make several more trips, repeating the process until there was a visible pile of acorns atop its squirrel trap. Stunned, we made a few half-hearted casts, but we never saw that fish again. It was after fresh meat and knew how to get it. Go To Musky Links 1/16/97. -30-

Tired of hearing about Tiger then maybe you will enjoy playing a game of golf with him here is a link to a fun little game you might enjoyTiger Woods Golf Enjoy Kawartha Kev

Lets see your pictures of the fall colours. I'll get it started here is a picture from beautiful Lower Buckhorn in the Kawartha's. Enjoy! Kawartha Kev

I believe it is an Amanita but not the Fly Agaric that has been suggested it is more likely the Amanita flavoconia which is the most common Amanita around. The fly agaric is deeper orange rather than the yellow colour of this mushroom. The damage done to the mushroom is probably from slugs but I would not want to eat it all Amanita species are not edible beware. Here is a site with info about it Mushroom Site Kawartha Kev

I was wondering what happens after Sept.15 with the pleasure craft card. I got mine the first year they introduced them 10 years ago so I am not worried about it but a friend was wondering. I know you can be fined etc. but I was wondering if they are going to change the way you can get one after Sept. 15? Is there going to be an age requirement or some sort of graduated system lice the drivers license so the government can fleece people for money or maybe make people do a course etc. has anyone heard anything just curious. Kawartha Kev

My bad Polliwog mixed up bow and stern. Thanks. I have a small 12ft aluminum and use the portable running lights although I am one of the few I have seen with them most small boats don't bother they should nothing like almost being run over by a big boat in the dark. Kawartha Kev

I think you also require some kind of running lights if travelling 1 hour before / after sunset or sunrise I may be wrong. There are portable clamp on lights that run off batteries you need a bow light red/green and a white stern running light. kawartha Kev

Hey Pickeral Hunter When you say the west end of the lake I don't know how far you mean. Lower Buckhorn only goes down about as far as Wolfe Island on your map beyond that you have to go through another set of locks there are also some overflow dams down in Black Duck Bay that flow into Lovesick you can also fish Deer Bay it is part of Lower Buckhorn. I have mentioned several times about fishing on this lake as I have a cottage on the lake and I will stress this again be careful especially on the north side of the lake outside the main channel as there are lots of rock reefs just below water level and many are unmarked as far as fishing goes there are lots of places depending on what fish species you are targeting and by your name I might assume pickeral which I don't target much except early in the spring before muskie and bass season opens. I like Black Duck Bay for bass and musky but it is at the east end of the lake and can be very dangerous with unmarked rocks and very weedy thats all I can say. Good luck let me know if you want further info and how you do. Kawartha Kev

Great pics as usual Brandon. I loved Grouse Mountain when I was out there visiting brings back great memories. When I was last there it was early in the year so the bird demonstration wasn't being done yet but the bear exhibit was open I remember taking pics of the bears and wolves and even a big raven thanks for the memories. Kev

Well I finally got up to open the cottage. I couldn't make it for the long weekend as I had to work oh well no big loss as the weather was bad anyway. So the last 2 days I was up and had the lake more or less to myself I probably saw only 10 - 15 boats all day. The wind was up on Thurs. and so was the temp. close to 30C and so was the water level still very high and running fast in the narrows and several rocks are under water that are normally exposed so be careful if you are out there Lower Buckhorn has lots of these rocky areas. The fishing was fast and furious for everything except what I was looking for the Walleyes. One spot was full of rock bass I probably caught 10 or so and some were pretty chunky this spot also resulted in a 1lb. smallie and some sunfish. Another spot was full of perch probably 15 to 20 again some good size and also a 1.5lb largie as well. The perch fishing was non stop and then was gone and you know what that means.... I knew a big fish was around and had shut it down and then the muskie hit. It wasn't big by any means about 24" but made my light weight walleye rod work. So I got to break in my new Frabil Net I picked up at the Sportsmen's show this year so it has been officially slimed the first time out lots of fun. Sorry there's no pics I forgot the camera but they would have been OOS anyway and I don't do those. Its funny when you try to catch a musky its hopeless and when you don't its easy oh and by the way all fish were caught on a simple night crawler go figure. Now if I could just find those EYES !!Looking forward to a good season hopefully pics to follow!! Kawartha Kev