Kawartha Report

[muskylund1]

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

[Musky or Specks]

Sounds like a good trip. 44 " ski is a decent size.

[lew]

Good to hear your trip north was so productive, you boys boated some really nice fish !!

 

I'm only about 5 miles from Lower Buck but haven't fished it in years, perhaps it's time to give it another go

Edited July 8, 2014 by lew

[Rich Clemens]

Nice. Don't think anyone could ask for a better week's fishing

[Joey]

Nice, great report!

[mukluk]

Thanks for the report Tom. Congrats. are in order. Good to see that quantity and quality of fish still being caught out of Lower Buckhorn Lake.

[leaf4]

What a wicked week! I'll have to talk to my boss about getting up to his resort as he has a place in buckhorn maybe I'll sneak up for a weekend haha

[Fisherpete]

Wow, nice week you had - 21 muskies is great!

 

Pete

[captpierre]

that's as good as it gets.

 

Thanks for sharing the details

 

peter

[esoxansteel]

A great week of fishing for sure, with some good size muskies, most reports ive heard of L Lakes muskies with consistency have been smallish fish, with the odd single big fish in the mix. 20 to 21 inch buckets are pushin at least 4 or over, and some very quality walleyes to boot.

[Joeytier]

That is a fantastic week. I also fished lower buckhorn a couple times and did well for both walleye and musky as well. That swimbait tactic is a killer way to hook big walleyes

[i2cool2fool]

Awesome. I fished there back in May. It's a nice body of water and productive fishery.

[captpierre]

What kind of a hook do you use in the swimbait? Texas rig?

[Can_38]

Great post.

[Broker]

Looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for the post.

[muskylund1]

What kind of a hook do you use in the swimbait? Texas rig?

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

[fishnsled]

Sounds and looks like a fantastic week! Thanks for the report!

[JoshS]

Successful trip, well done! Nice way to target a mixed bag of fish. I like swimbaits for eyes too...

[captpierre]

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

 

Thanks Tom

[Gnote]

Sweet report! Some fine fishin.

[Tim Mills]

Nicely done. Thanks for the report. I will give that swim bait a try.