Unseasonably warm weather extends our Musky season in the Kawartha’s. We caught 2 fish 15 minutes apart.

Posted on November 27, 2011 by richard

Mother Nature is being kind to us Musky hunters here in the Kawartha Lakes region. On Friday November 25th, the temperature hit 14C (57F) & we hit the water for one last kick at the can. This is the latest in the year that we have ever been able to fish Musky as the season used to end on November 15th. It was extended until December 15th last year but the weather & snow came early & we shut it down for the year on November 10th.

The BEST part is we had the entire lake to ourselves! Most people have winterized their boats & have packed away all their gear. Not us!  We saw 1 other boat all day & it was carrying duck hunters. The sun was shining & the wind was not as high as predicted making it a fantastic day to be on the water.

The water temperature is down to 4C (39F) so we decide to fish large plastics & slowed right down. We started to fish deeper water & would let the baits sink down as we figured this was our best chances of success. After an hour & 1 follower, we decided to change spots & Larry was casting a Storm Kickin’ Minnow over a 16 foot ledge that drops off to 29 feet when a 37 inch Musky inhaled his lure.

We repositioned the boat & 15 minutes later, Larry grunts & says “OH! There’s another one! Bigger fish!” & I looked over just in time to see the musky just under the surface with her mouth wide open & gills flaring as she shook her head wildly in attempts to get free. The hook was well set & Larry easily turned her toward me & it was in the net in under 20 seconds. It measured a 43 inches & had a 16 inch girth & of course, was safely released.

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Slow down & use plastic baits when fishing Musky in the Fall. See the results…

Posted on October 26, 2011 by richard

The water temperature has dropped to 50F on Lower Buckhorn & it’s time to fish slow & steady.  It really is my favorite time of year to fish. Most of the resorts are closed & all the pleasure boaters are done for the year. Only the fisher-people remain & there are not many of us out it seems. All the more lake for us to fish without interruptions or intrusions.

I was out myself on Saturday Oct. 22nd and was on the water right before moonrise, my favorite time. I was fishing with my Lindy Tiger Tube (white) along a rocky drop-off & casting out into the deeper water & bringing it slowly back up the wall. The wind was up around 20mph & I was able to drift along while using the trolling motor to keep me on the edge.

While having my thumb & forefinger on the line, I felt a subtle tap on my line just like when walleye fishing with minnows. I immediately set the hook with a hard upward jerk of the rod & FISH ON! I gave it another hard jerk to make sure the hook was all the way in & the fight began. After a brief struggle trying to get the net untangled on the treble hooks on my other rod (d’oh!), I managed to land a nice 42 incher.

42 inch Musky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then on Sunday, I was out with Larry & we were fishing a spot where Larry had caught a nice Musky 2 years ago in November. He said “maybe lightning will strike twice” as he put on a brand new Storm Seeker Shad lure.

 

A few casts later & Larry had a nice fish on that put up a good fight & stayed down for what seemed a long time before we saw her. After it was in the bag, the hook came out & the fish just laid perfectly still in an upright position. This was great as it gave us plenty of time to take a few pictures & release it with relative ease. It was probably the least stress we have ever put on a fish.

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Sometimes you catch the odd big Walleye while Musky fishing. But two??

Posted on September 5, 2011 by richard

It is not uncommon to catch big Bass while Musky fishing and I have even caught a few big Walleye on our lake. But I have never caught two big Walleye on the same day, a half hour apart, using different baits, in different parts of the lake before.

We were back on the water on Sunday morning of Sept. 4th around 9am. A thunderstorm hit in the wee hours of the morning & dumped about 2 inches of rain. The temperature dropped from 31C (88F) to 23C (73F) & there were more thunderstorms in the forecast for the afternoon. The wind was also up to about 15-20km from the southwest; talk about a total change from the day before!

While I think the the fishing will be more difficult under these weather conditions, there is the added bonus of minimal pleasure boaters on the water disrupting our hunt. Also, it is Sunday morning of a long weekend & the lake doesn’t seem to wake up until around 11 am.

We got out around 9 am and headed for one of our typical Musky spots & started casting. I decided that today I was going to throw my biggest lures all day & try and catch BIG fish. With the conditions we were facing I wanted to slow my retrieve down and also try some glider type baits. I started out using a 9″ Sledge, (pearl tiger color pictured here) and it is the weighted model which allows it to stay down longer between jerks.

9" Sledge

 

While drifting with the wind along a weed edge over a drop off into 20 -25 feet, I cast over the top of the weeds & gave it a couple of cranks of the reel when a fish slammed the lure! It gave a few head shakes & stayed down in the weeds & felt like a small Musky. However once I pulled it threw all the cabbage weeds I saw it was a decent Walleye! It had the back treble hook imbedded in its back & was the reason it felt like a bigger fish at first. Too big to keep as it was over the 20″ maximum slot size for our lake so we did the CPR thing (Catch, Photograph & Release) & went back fishing.

A half hour later, we had moved on to a different location and I was using my 10″ inch Jake Bait that was successful yesterday when I boated a 42″ x 18″ Musky. This time I saw the Walleye hit my lure right at boat side; this was an aggressive fish! It was only 24″ long & it is hitting a 10″ lure for heaven sakes!

The two fish were almost identical in size & weight and would have made a nice meal but they had to be released. We did not even see a Musky on this day but the Walleye sure were active and aggressive. Maybe we should have switched species & target them? Nah! We are Musky addicts & only fish for walleye for the 3 weeks before the start of Musky season. If we do go for walleye, we have to leave the musky gear at home because ‘sure as shit’, I’m not going to fish walleye for long while my Musky rod is with me. LOL.

Remember…..TIGHT LINES & SHARP HOOKS!

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One of my favourite Kawartha Lake spots produces again. A nice 42″ x 18″ Musky. Read on..

Posted on September 4, 2011 by richard

We were Musky hunting on Saturday September 3rd & had seen fish each time we were out on the water. We were on the water for the moonrise period (1:36pm) & as expected, we had action. Unfortunately, no Musky in the boat; Larry had 2 followers & a fish get off and I had a fish that got off when it threw my bucktail. Looks like we missed our chance at that feeding window so we decided to call it an afternoon around 3pm.

Back on the water after a wonderful meal around 7pm and the cottage boat traffic has died down, allowing us to fish some of our spots that we could not earlier in the day. I have described this particular spot in before as it is one of my favourites; an 8 foot weed flat near rocks with a sharp drop off into 15′ with even deeper water nearby.

At 7:30pm, I was casting a 10 inch, walleye coloured Jake bait  towards the weed edge and over the drop off. I was giving it quick, hard jerks and as soon as the lure came into view about 12 feet from the boat, I saw a Musky hit the lure. It was heading to my left and I set the hook with a lighting fast motion upward & to my right. I could see the fish was coming up & I quickly dropped my rod in the water to keep it down. The fish tried that move 3 times & each time I had to drop my rod in the water to keep control of her.  It then decided to charge the boat & thankfully went on the outside of the trolling motor & over to the other side of the boat & made a run for the deep water.

This is when the equipment I use takes over; my drag was set perfect so the Musky’s run was a short one. Once it knew it wasn’t going any further, it decided to do the alligator death roll for a bit & I was able to turn his head toward the net & Larry had in the bag! It was a nice fat female that measured 42 x 18 inches.

Another successful live release and we did have to cut off two of the trebles hooks to reduce damage to the fish. I strongly recommend all Musky fisher-persons do the same; it’s a small price to pay (40 hooks for $5) to prevent damaging a precious resource.

Remember….TIGHT LINES & SHARP HOOKS!

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“I love the smell of Musky in the morning. It smells like……Victory!”

Posted on August 22, 2011 by richard

That’s what my fishing partner, Larry said after I boated a small Musky on Sunday morning. Making a reference to one of my favourite movies, Apocalypse Now and Robert Duval’s famous line about the smell of napalm. Got to watch that movie again soon; its a classic.

We were fishing a classic musky fishing spot; a weed flat in about 8 feet that had a steep drop off to 20 feet with even deeper water nearby. The weather was changing between cloudy & sun with the potential for thunderstorms. There was little wind & I was able to use the trolling motor to keep us in the best position to fish this structure. Larry was casting a Double Cowgirl bucktail & I was throwing a 10 inch Jake bait as we were looking for big fish. Big lures usually mean big fish but not today.

As I was retrieving with hard jerks, the lure came into view about 15 feet from the boat.  I had just given it a jerk and was letting it pause when all of a sudden I saw the Musky attack it from the side and head for the bottom. I thought it was a bigger fish from the quick glimpse I had but when I set the hook, the fish came leaping out of the water and I could see it was much smaller.  We got it in & unfortunately it was badly hooked & I had to cut a treble hook from its lower jaw.  It spilled a little blood and was released otherwise unharmed.

The fish measured at 35 inches & I’ll take it, but it doesn’t get me excited. I’m getting spoiled as I usually land bigger fish and our lake has a lot of fish in the 40-47 inch range with the odd 50 incher reported. Anyway, here are a couple of pics.

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Musky leaps at least 6 feet on boatside strike. If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t believe it either. Read on.

Posted on August 14, 2011 by richard

WOW! is all I can say about this story. Once again, I am fishing with my good friend Larry Pearson on Lower Buckhorn Lake on Saturday August 13th and it’s 1pm. Beautiful day with sunny skies, 30 degrees (86F) with a slight breeze just to make a ripple in the water. We had been fishing for about 3 hours & the only action was a nice fish I raised on a Tiger Tube. It took a swipe at it & missed right before my eyes at boatside! That’s been the story of my year so far, lots of hits & misses!

We then decided to try one of our favourite spots on the way home for lunch. It’s an underwater hump that we have caught big fish trolling but today we decided to stop & cast it for 15 minutes.  The spot is located in the Deer Bay portion of the lake & is in open water which makes it difficult to fish due to the pleasure boaters & water skiers that frequent the area.  The hump is about 100 sq yards & comes up from 25 feet to 10 feet with weeds on the top. It is a perfect ambush spot for Musky as it has the deep water near by to take their prey.

We decided to start right on top & fish the outside casting in towards the edges. There were 2 water ski boats & jet skiers nearby making a lot of noise and waves but they were keeping a respectful distance. I am not feeling particularly confident that it is a good time to fish here but we continue.

On our 2nd drift over, Larry’s says “There’s a fish!” and I turned just in time to see the fish come completely straight out of the water & go higher than I have ever seen ANY fish jump, let alone a Musky! I estimate it reached 6 feet but it could have been higher. The fish was parallel to the water when it was at the peak of it’s leap & I was looking up & I’m standing on the casting platform! What an awesome sight, only 8 feet from the boat! It did a head shake and then it seemed like the fish ‘paused’ for a split second & then came straight down, head first & went for the bottom. This was great because it picked up all the slack in Larry’s line & the fight was on!  And what a fight it was!  I could see that the two of the treble hooks were in the back of the fish which is never good. Larry let the fish peel some line & tire itself out but it was stubborn & gave a longer than usual fight for a 42.5 inch Musky.  The two treble hooks came out of it’s back & now there is only one hook from the back treble in it’s mouth & we need to land this fish now. However, you can’t horse it or you will lose it so Larry let the fish circle around & when I saw the head coming at me, I stuck the net under the fish & it was safely in the bag just as the hook came out of it’s mouth.

Whew! What a great leap followed by a great fight, followed by a great net job. I’m getting good with the net as Larry is out-fishing me big time this year. Good for him & as long as one of us is catching Musky, that’s what counts. It’s a team effort. Here are the pictures. Really wish we had it on film. :(

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Musky fishing during moonset & moonrise periods produce success on Lower Buckhorn. Read on..

Posted on August 1, 2011 by richard

It is common knowledge with Musky fisherman that if you want to increase your odds of catching fish, you must know your moon phases. There are major & minor periods that you must know & to fish at those times if you want to put fish in your boat, maybe even a fish of a lifetime!  Being a weekend warrior, I am more into fishing the minor periods, moonrise & moon set. I NEVER leave the dock without knowing what stage the moon is in & when it will rise & when will it set  Of course, there a many other variables & factors that go into catching Musky, but I am a big believer that these 2 phases will increase your catch ratio like it has mine.  30 minutes before & after moonrise & moon set are considered ‘feeding windows’ as the musky tend to be more active during these periods and is when I prefer to fish whenever possible. This weekend we caught fish during each phase as we were lucky that they occurred during the evening & early morning times which is when I love to be on the water.  Read on….

My fishing partner, Larry Pearson and I are out the evening of Saturday July 30th & the moon sets at 8:17pm, so we get to one of our favourite ‘big fish’ spots around 7:30pm. The weather is perfect with a small breeze and clear skies with a high of 33C (91F) and stable the past 3 days. I was burning a big bucktail & Larry has a 6″ Crane bait tied on & we are fishing a large hump that has several weed patches and drops off into 30-35ft. We are positioned right on top to fish the weed edges because we know they are in there ready to ambush & then head for the deep water nearby. At 8:30pm, with the sun just about to set in 5 minutes (another feeding window), Larry says ‘There’s a fish! Feels like decent one too!”. I reel in & quickly grab the net. Now, the water temperature is very warm at 78.4F & we want that fish in the net & released as soon as possible as the warm water is really hard on their ability to recuperate. The fish is very lively & comes completely out of the water 8 feet from the boat & we both can see it is a good one & well hooked. Larry gets it boatside & it starts doing a barrel roll & wraps the line around 3 or 4 times before it stops. After Larry gets it to unravel, I see it only has 1 treble left in the top of its mouth. No time to mess around, I see my chance & reached as far out as I could & lifted under the fish, making sure I didn’t touch the line. The hook came out as soon as the beast was bagged which is a bonus.  We kept the fish in the water until we got the camera ready & snapped off 3 quick pics. Even though the fish was out of the water a total of 45 – 60 seconds, we still spent over 2 minutes before she was ready to swim off on her own. Always a sweet sight. Larry’s fish measured 40” x 13” & was approximately 10 pounds.

Caught during moonset period. 40" x 13"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, I set out by myself at 5:30am as Larry is not an early riser.  I wanted to make sure I was fishing during moonrise which was at 7:07am. It also happened to be a ‘new moon’ phase which is a major moon phase so this was definitely a bonus for me in my confidence on catching a musky today! Confidence is key & my PMA (positive musky attitude) was on high!  However, after I had thrown casts for about an hour and a half, I decided I would troll my favourite deep water hump that has produced some of my bigger fish the last couple of years. I made 3 passes without success, and at the end of the last pass, I decided to cast the weed edge off of the islands right in front of Larry’s place. I can see that he is up & outside & probably ready to go fishing, so I won’t stay out much longer. On my 3rd cast, FISH ON! & I say it loud enough that he can hear me & watch as I land a smaller 35 inch fish. Looked at my watch & it was 7:34am, still within that 1/2 hour window of moonrise. I’m not surprised. Took one picture only & let her go to grow!

Caught during moonrise period. 35"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are not fishing during these times, you should be! Here is information on understanding the different Moon phases and other information. The site is called moonconnection.com.

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Lower Buckhorn Bass angler kills Musky after improper release. Read on.

Posted on July 24, 2011 by richard

My friend and fishing partner, Larry was out Musky hunting alone the other night and related the following story.  He went to one of our favourite ‘hotspots’ near an island & there was a boat with 3 guys fishing for bass already there.  He decided to fish close by, when he noticed one of the bass fisherman had a musky on. After a few minutes they finally landed it in their net & after getting it untangled, they simply tossed it overboard(!) like you would with a small panfish. They then moved back upwind to do another pass and as Larry drifted towards where they just were, he could see the musky floating on its back. He quickly grabbed the fish & started to try & revive it but sadly, after at a good 20 minutes, he was unable to & the fish was dead.

Larry is now pissed off & can see these guys are still close by so he decides to tell them what they did. He tells them “You know you killed that musky back there?”  The guy says “What are you talking, I released it.”  Larry goes on to tell them how he saw them toss it back like a bass & that they need to learn how to properly release a musky before fishing & a few other things. He also reminds them that they could be charged for killing that fish. They don’t have a response & pack up & leave. Hopefully they think twice next time.

I cannot stress enough, the importance of proper release techniques & that all anglers have a responsibility to know how to release all types of fish that they may potentially catch. It is common to catch musky while fishing for bass & walleye so it is important to know what to do when it happens. Usually when people are fishing for bass they are using light line & smaller rods & it takes them a lot longer to land them which puts tremendous stress on the fish. I would like to see them not try to bring it in the boat & just unhook it while still in the water but most will net it.  The next important thing is to grab the fish under the gill & support the body of the fish with your other hand holding it horizontal & lower it into the lake while leaning over the boat. Then grab onto its tail & just hold the fish upright. It will slowly regain its bearings on its own & you can tilt the fish from side to side which helps in the recovery. When it is ready to go, you will feel it get stronger & it should just swim away after you release your grip on the tail. If it doesn’t, grab the tail again & hold on longer until it does. When the water temperature is above 76F, the fish shouldn’t be taken out of the water at all & if you have to take a picture, make sure the camera is ready before you take the fish out of the net which should still be in the water.  Please read my earlier post about the proper tools needed for a safe & proper release of a musky. I also have a youtube video of releasing a 45″ musky we caught in 2009. It shows how we just hold onto the fish slowly tilting it before it swims away slowly. Check it out here.

Remember….TIGHT LINES & SHARP HOOKS!

 

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Is it me or are the Musky in Lower Buckhorn Lake not biting? Got skunked again this weekend :(

Posted on July 11, 2011 by richard

The weekend weather was hot & humid which brings out the pleasure boaters & jet skiers. This reduces the time & places you can fish, however being a weekend warrior, you just have to deal with.  I decided to fish the moonrise period on Saturday which was for 3:35pm & left the dock at 2:00pm. Of course, it is also the hottest part of the day & the busiest so I have to be on my toes with all the traffic out there.  I decide to fish a weed flat out of the way and crossed the channel safe & sound.  I cast a few Double Cowgirls until the sweat was running down my shoulder blades. Conditions were perfect for the fish to be in the weeds but I couldn’t raise one.  I was able to troll after my arms grew tired but I decided to pack it in after a couple of hours.

We had dinner & went back out around 7:30pm which by then the lake had quieted down considerably.  I had been throwing a topwater bait for about 15 minutes when I said “One of us should have raised a fish by now” & cast my lure again. A few cranks of the reel & there was a splash being my bait & a flash of a tail break the surface. Damn musky missed the lure altogether! I kept reeling hoping the fish would strike again but it didn’t. Repeated casts in the general area went untouched. Grrrr that makes it 4 fish that have missed my bait altogether so far.  We fished sunset right into the night but to no avail & called it a night around 10:30pm.

The next morning we fished from 9:00am to 12:30pm and again, no success. I had one small musky follow my spinnerbait but it was only curious & not looking for a meal. I started my figure 8 & it turned away (heavy sigh!).  Thus has been the story of my musky fishing this year. Off to a terrible start but that’s the way it goes when Musky fishing and I love it.  Can’t wait to get back out there soon.

Remember…Tight Lines and Sharp Hooks!

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Fishing the Ottawa River with guide Bill Craig of Mister Muskie Charters tomorrow.

Posted on June 27, 2011 by richard

I’ve been looking forward to this trip since we booked it last year. Bill Craig of Mister Muskie Charters has been fishing the Ottawa River for the past 32 years. They are located out of Arnprior, Ontario. They came highly recommended and we hope to land a big fish or two. Forecast is for sunny with clouds moving in later in the day with a high of only 19C. Lets hope the conditions are favourable. Check out their website & book your trip today.

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