2012 Kawartha Trip

[muskylund1]

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

[Garfisher]

Nicely done, looks like a good haul of muskies for your trip

[ProFishermanJones]

i caught my first muskie ever up in that area, such a nice area, those 2 fish pictures are beauties! nice fish and nice haul of muskies!

[monsterfish]

Well done gentlemen!

 

One of my favourite lakes for sure!

[lew]

Couple very nice fish there Tom, well done.

 

Lower Buck is one of the prettiest lakes in this area and one I used to fish alot, but sorta got away from the last few years.

 

Looks like I should re-visit it again

[lhousesoccer]

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

I have both the 7.5" and 10" Monster Tubes from Red October .... how'd you work them? Jigging, or ripping? When did the hits come? On the drop? Nice skis!

[Joey]

Really nice fish there. Sounds like a very productive fishing trip. Sorry your dad could not make it

[muskylund1]

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

[Roy]

I'm glad you brothers are keeping up the tradition. Thanks for posting your report. It's one of the Kawarthas that I've never fished.

[Kawartha Kev]

Welcome to my neck of the woods Tom I have a cottage on Lower Buckhorn and as you can see its full of musky nice haul!! Nothing really huge but it makes up for it in numbers. Congrats!!

[ehg]

That looks like a productive trip.

 

Strange that bucktails caught nothing but big rubber baits worked.

Beautiful 'clear' Kawartha muskies.

Edited September 22, 2012 by ehg

[Joeytier]

Good stuff. Lower buck produced my first ever 50 incher on the opener this year. Very productive lake for walleye at times, as well.

[Rich Clemens]

I was happy with three in one week - and here you guys come in with 10. Can't imagine that kind of week, but I can dream. Congrats Tom. Appreciate you taking the time to put up a report.

[mistyriver1]

Nice going !! Congrats on a great week.

 

Lower Buck is one of the few Kawartha lakes I haven't tried either.

[muskylund1]

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

[Handlebarz]

Looks like a awesome time congrats thanks for sharing