Published: May 13, 2008 03:16 pm         

Battling the big ones...

Local reporter spends early-morning trip onto Cave Run with local guides

Fog lay thick on the water as the three-boat fishing party slid through the south end of the river that runs into Cave Run Lake. The eight anglers huddled in the pre-dawn chill while the motors took them to a secluded spot where they would, hopefully, catch the fish of 10,000 casts.

The musky is a large, prehistoric looking fish with large sharp teeth and a long fat body. It’s silver scales glitter in the sunlight when someone is lucky enough to lure them near a boat, but it doesn’t happen often.

Fishing for musky is more like hunting, and learning where the good fishing spots are hidden is hard to do without a guide service. There are four different full time services with permits on the lake. The long-time musky hunters like Cave Run Pro Shop owner Mike Tackett guard their hot spots and bait secrets from everyone.

“In musky fishing you are either a hero or a zero,” Tackett, who also operates TNT Guide Service, said. “One bite a day is a good day. A great day is putting one in the boat. With us, 96-97 percent of the time for the last 5 years, my clients have put a musky in the boat.”

Having a guide for a full day generally costs around $300. The cost is based on an eight-hour day, but Tackett said they usually spend 10-12 hours on the boat.

Clyde Scobee is one of Tackett’s many repeat customers. As a dentist from Winchester, Scobee has the freedom to schedule an entire day of fishing. “It’s a disease and I am getting worse instead of better,” he said. “Once I hooked my first musky, it was big and powerful and challenging and I was addicted. I started in February this year instead of March.”

The musky is native to the waters of Cave Run, but many associate the fish with waters much further north. Unlike the lakes in Canada and Wisconsin that have “musky season” Cave Run offers fishing whenever a sportsman wants, so long as the weather cooperates. Tackett says he stops offering musky tours when the water temperature reaches 85 degrees and the fish retreat to the Lake’s cooler bottom. As the waters cool toward the end of August, the hunt begins again.

Generally the fish begin biting in February. “The fish are getting ready to spawn and they begin aggressively feeding,” TNT guide C.C. Campbell said. Using a rattletrap, named for its distinctive sound as it pulls through the water, is good bait early in the season. But in early May, the fishermen threw out rattlers and spinners of a verity of sizes. “They’re post-spawn now, so they are healing and they are hungry,” Campbell explained as eight lines dipped in and out of the water. “You have to change it up sometimes because you don’t know what they are going to come after. Once you get their attention though, they’ll come right up to the boat.”

After a morning of catching a peak at two musky, but hooking none, the party took a short rest before heading out to the waters on the main lake. After less than half an hour in the early afternoon sun, a beautiful 51-inch fish followed the bait right up to the boat. As Tackett swept the rod in the trademark figure eight before pulling the bait out of the water, the fish bit and was netted by Scobee. Another repeat client, Mike Patterson, was able to reel in a 31 inch musky as well.

Although musky must be at least 31 inches long before a fisherman can keep them, all of the catches made on TNT tours are released. “We operate CPR here,” Tackett said. “Catch, photo, and release.”

Putting the trophy fish back into the water means they live to swim, and be caught, another day. “When I first started fishing this lake 25 years ago, a 50-inch fish back then would be lucky to weigh 27 pounds,” Tackett said. “Musky, Inc. Chapter 52 has worked that long to keep these musky in the water. Now those fish weigh 35 pounds.”

Musky are such a popular trophy fish, many fisherman want to keep them, but the guides at TNT are pushing for an alternative. “If you break the state record, we might let you keep it,” Tackett said. “You can take a photo and sent the length and girth to a taxidermists who can do reproductions instead. A fiberglass mount is going to last longer and the colors won’t ever fade.”

Tackett and the guides at TNT spend three to four days a week on the water with clients, and the others out hunting alone. Tackett says researching the good spots every day helps TNT live up to their motto, “Exploding the myth of 10,000 casts.”