Dogwood Muskies
by Tim Mead

Cabin fever has long settled-in among northern muskie anglers. There are still pockets of snow in the woods. Ten inches of ice and 2 inches of slush cover the lakes, making a trip to catch a mess of perch for dinner undesirable. Yet, somewhere the muskies are on the move. Rather than head north, think south for early spring muskies. The dogwoods are in bloom and the muskies are eager.

Cave Run Lake in Kentucky is home to muskies and is as good a spot to try for a 50-inch fish as anywhere in the United States and ranks among the best on the continent. Muskies that size are by definition rare. Some are caught at Cave Run, however, every year. Cave Run Lake is nestled in the hills of eastern Kentucky, a little less than 100 miles from Lexington and a few miles west of Morehead. I-64 east from Lexington passes a few miles north of Cave Run and the Lake is adjacent to Kentucky Route 801. Cave Run is a large lake, 48 miles long at summer pool with 8,270 surface acres. Since it is a Corps of Engineers reservoir, the shoreline is protected from development -- there are no suburban neighborhoods along the bank.

Justin Mullins is a full-time muskie guide and outfitter who plies his craft at Cave Run, though he has experience fishing for muskies throughout North America.

Justin concentrates on weedy flats in spring. First thing in the morning, we headed for a large area of the lake known as the Zilpo Flats. The Flats are a long, wide shallow portion of the lake with flooded timber, the latter principally stumps. Justin said, as the boat dropped off plane, "They were in here yesterday. We raised 11 fish and caught 2, including the first muskie ever for my client. We would have caught more, I think, had he been a more experienced muskie fisherman. He really did not have a good sense of how big and how powerful they are. He’s a bass fisherman from Mississippi."

Teaching folks the difference between muskie fishing and the fishing styles they may be accustomed to, Justin said, is a major problem for muskie guides. Justin explained, "I try to convince folks that most fish come in the first 5 feet of a cast or the last 5 feet. They have to do a figure-8 at the end of each cast. If they don’t, they are sacrificing a major portion of the time a muskie may hit."
In spring, flats are a good spot for muskies in southern reservoirs. While picking up a rod, Justin said, "Here on the flats is where I usually start in the spring. For one thing, my clients and I catch fish here. There’s no ’bad place’ to cast, so folks unaccustomed to casting with muskie gear and heavy lures do not have to hit specific targets. And, as you can see on the depth finder, we are just starting to get some growing weed cover." While there are some spots on Cave Run where coontail is abundant and pondweed patches are showing up, the dominant weed in Cave Run is milfoil. As in other muskie lakes, the weeds attract bait and muskies follow the bait.

Justin has fished Cave Run for muskies since he was a child. He has been a full-time muskie guide for the last half-decade or so. Justin chuckled when I asked if he remembered his first trip as the guide. "Sure," he answered. "Took a fellow into Big Cave Run. He caught a 44-incher on a 1-ounce spinnerbait and I have not heard from him since!"     

In spring, Justin has a stable of "favorite" lures for Cave Run muskies. After a spring cold front, Justin believes muskie anglers should "go to rubber. Something like a Bull Dawg."  Justin’s favorite colors are black and chartreuse, black and orange, and sherbet. We fished together in the wake of gully-washing rains (which caused substantial local flooding) and the passage of a couple of cold fronts -- the sort of days many would describe as a "beautiful spring day" but anglers know to be tough.

We began moving across the flat, each casting a different lure assuming that with different lures we could learn more than if we each threw the same thing. We worked our lures as close to the top of the developing weeds as possible, with intermittent pulls and lifts.

In order to cast heavy muskie-sized lures, Justin said you need two things: 1) a superbraid line 50-pound test, and 2) a stiff rod over 7-feet long. Justin used heavy monofilament leaders about 14 inches long with high quality ball bearing swivels and heavy snaps. Southern muskie reservoirs are filled with standing timber and stumps. Wire cable leaders saw into the rotting wood more readily than mono leaders do, so the latter are much more successful keeping lures working effectively.

Shortly after we began casting, Justin noticed a fish he estimated at just less than 40 inches behind his lure, but the fish did not take. We were on the inside edge of a large weed bed. Farther toward the old river channel and on the outside edge of the weeds, Justin raised another musky that he thought was a little larger, but this fish would not take either. Justin said, "What that tells me is that the big fish are already in the weeds." Surface water temperatures had increased from the mid-50’s a week earlier to the mid-60s by the time I was at Cave Run.

As we circled back over the developing weeds, Justin lifted his rod sharply and grunted as he set the hook. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dandy musky come out of the water 20 feet from the boat. Justin was whooping and hollering as though this was the first fish he ever caught, though I knew from the photos in the shop that there were many before. I hope he never loses that enthusiasm. In the meantime, I grabbed the net and prepared to land the muskie, a nice fish about 40-inches long.

After a couple of quick pictures, Justin lowered the fish back to the water and it darted off.

While we were re-establishing our fishing order, Justin exclaimed, "Wow, that freaked me out. Did you see that? I could see the white of her mouth when she came up to get that lure. I’ll never get over seeing that as long as I live!" On-and-off for the next few days I would hear Justin muttering to himself, "Boy, I could see the white of her mouth as she swallowed that lure. I could not have pulled that away from her had I wanted. That was awesome," or words to that effect.

Justin summed up his theory of fishing and guiding. He said, "I play the odds. If the odds are, fish are in the weeds, I fish the weeds. I try to put the odds in my favor. And I like to teach people what they need to know, how to fish whatever lure they want to fish or that I think most likely to catch muskies at the time. I try not to provide too many details and concentrate on what we need to do to put fish in the boat."

Justin’s springtime list of productive musky lures at Cave Run goes beyond the lures he and I used successfully. In addition to those we threw, Justin recommends tandem 1-ounce spinnerbaits, white tail and nickel blades or black tail and chartreuse blades. Rubber skirts seem to slide through the timber and weeds better than hair tails. Spinnerbaits are worked just over the weeds, as slowly as practical.     

Additional spring selections Justin recommends include twitch baits. Shallow Invaders and Musky Stalkers are among them.  His favorite colors are chartreuse with black dots and shad. In the evening, fishing over the Zilpo Flats, I raised a very large fish with a twitch bait, however the monster appeared from behind me and disappeared before I could figure-8 it onto the lure
Among jerk baits for spring, Justin suggested a Sledge or a Squirrelly Burt. A small Manna 10 is the only spring glider Justin has found effective on Cave Run muskies. He said, "These are lures that can be fished real shallow, and that’s where the muskies are right now." For crankbaits, Justin recommended a Shallow Raider or Jake.   

For many northern muskie anglers struggling in the late throes of cabin fever, springtime at Cave Run with Justin Mullins  (606-780-4260 or crash05@adelphia.net) www.crashslanding.com

May be just the antidote required. And for those of us in the southeast, compared to Lake of the Woods, Cave Run is a mere hop-step and jump away. Don’t sell Cave Run short. There is a good population of muskies there and some trophies as well. Besides, the dogwoods are in bloom.

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