Pursuing Musky on Eastern Kentucky’s Buckhorn Lake

August 25, 2008 by admin

Gentle release: Guide Gene Smith releases a 37-inch musky caught on a Cobbs jerk bait very close to wood cover.

By Chris Poore
Guide Gene Smith was only a few hundred yards from the marina, racing his boat down the center of Buckhorn Lake, when he abruptly took a 90-degree turn into a small cove. He turned with such suddenness and at such speed that I assumed he had seen someone in trouble back in the cove. “He’s going back there to help them,” I thought.
Turns out he was looking for somebody.
Over the past few weeks, Smith had been throwing his oversized jerkbait at one particular tree submerged in the water. Several times, a three-foot-long fish rose from the depths to take a look at it.
But each time, the fish sank back down.
Smith had remembered that fish, and he wanted another crack at it.

At Buckhorn Lake, a narrow, 1,300-acre impoundment a few miles from Hazard, this submerged tree is like hundreds, maybe thousands, of others. And it’s one of the reasons this lake can be such a great place to fish.

In the spring and early summer, as gizzard shad nibble algae growth off of underwater limbs, muskie camp out below and wait for the perfect opportunity to ambush. (Later in summer weed growth will emerge and the shad and suckers will move toward it for food; the musky will follow.

It’s not just any wood growth that attracts musky. Smith says it needs to be wood growth near deep water; the depth gives musky room to hide, rise and strike.

This day Smith was throwing a weighted, 9-inch Cobb’s, firetiger jerkbait. The weight gave the bait a gliding motion underwater; the firetiger color made it more visible in murky water.

Casting the bait, even for the veteran Smith, was about as graceful as throwing a small boulder in the water. But the commotion didn’t worry Smith.

“You can’t scare these fish,” he said. “Nothing scares them.”

At Buckhorn, there’s not so much to scare them. It’s the least fished of the three Kentucky impoundments stocked with musky — Green River and Cave Run lakes are the others. It’s also the smallest.

Big fish, big gear: Above: A host of lures that Smith uses to pull musky off of submerged Buckhorn Lake Structure. Smith recommends the St. Croix Musky Series rods and Ambassador 6500 reels. He also recommends braided line.

It’s size shouldn’t discourage anglers, Smith says. There are a number of reasons to fish there in addition to the bigger lakes, where Smith also fishes.

“Buckhorn typically produces several large fish every year, and overall it receives a lot less fishing pressure. Buckhorn is also long and narrow and provides more cover than any oval or round lake of the same acreage. So even though it’s smaller, you’ve got a lot more territory to fish.

“Buckhorn also gives you the opportunity to fish two distinct ecosystems. The upper lake is a total river environment. The lower lake is typical of an impoundment.”

Buckhorn also has the state working hard to protect musky, Smith said. Anglers are only permitted to keep musky over 40 inches. That’s meaningful, Smith said. A 40-inch fish has been around for five or six years.

On this day it was easy to see the opportunity. We fished for five hours and never seemed to run out of wood cover to target. Jerkbaits were the lure of the day. We didn’t switch once.

“I can catch better fish on jerkbaits generally than any other lure types,” Smith said. “Jerkbaits can be fished effectively nearly year round except for the hottest part of the year. When it’s really hot, we’ll switch to a crankbait that can dive deep around the deep weed edges, when musky moved down close to the thermocline. You can’t get a crankbait down that far.”

Several times during the day, big largemouth came up and smacked the big bait. Smith rarely fishes for bass, but targeting musky has made him better appreciate the maxim “big bait, big fish.”

“These guys who fish for bass probably don’t use a big enough lure. Here and on Green River Lake, we consistently catch 4- to 6-pound largemouths. It tells me that when those fish are turned on, they’ll move on a big bait. I even think they’ll move when they’re turned off.”

On this day, the bass were more active than the musky.

With one exception. A few minutes after Smith wrenched his boat into that cove, a 37-inch musky shot up out of the tree and grabbed his jerkbait, ending weeks of anticipation.

“I knew it was there,” he said.

Gene Smith, former of Striker Guide Service, is now a guide with Redstone Outdoors Kentucky Fishing & Hunting Guides, which focuses on Green River, Buckhorn, Dale Hollow and Cave Run Lakes. He can be contacted at www.kentucky-muskie-fishing.com.

Sidebar:

Changing tactics on Buckhorn through the seasons

How you fish Buckhorn Lake depends largely on what time of year it is. Musky Guide Gene Smith offers some tips on how to change your tactics for year-round success.

Summer
In early summer, fish leave the flats and move into deeper channels around deep wood cover. Fish are caught on twitch baits, spinner baits and jerk baits.

Fall
Weed growth is heavy and fish will begin migrating to cooler water areas such as underwater springs. Use bucktails, spinner baits and large jerkbaits such as Burts and nine-inch weighted Suicks. Both work well.

Winter
Buckhorn Lake is undergoing extreme drawdown in depth. The fish are concentrated in an extremely small area in the old river channel. The lake ices up badly in winter and the water is often muddy. Fish is erratic. But big fish are caught in late February and early March using small crankbaits and musky jerkbaits. “They’re almost always caught by bass fisherman,” Smith says. Try fishing in shallow flats on warm flats.

Spring
In March through May, water levels fluctuate tremendously. Fish begin to show up on main-lake flats in a post-spawn pattern. They feed primarily on small carp, drum and suckers, and big gizzard shad. Fishing jerkbaits on the flats and twitch baits around shallow cover will produce a lot of fish this time of year.

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