Cave Run Trip

[allegheny river kid]

Took a 2 day guided trip to cave run Friday and Sat.. I took my buddy down for his pre wedding gift since i'm the best man in the wedding. We discussed a few locations to head but his time allotment was narrow. My idea was a trip to KY to try some southern musky fishing, he quickly agreed and while at the Butler show we made arrangements to fish with Gregg Thomas, and it was one of the best decisions i've made in a long time. Gregg is a top notch guide to fish with and very personable and also quite funny! We had an absolute blast fishing and shooting the bull all day long! We had a good bit of action the first morning, within an hour i hooked up a decent fish on mag dawg that quickly threw the bait, within the next 2 hrs we had 7 more fish up to the boat, most came hard and we thought for sure we would connect but it wasn't in the stars. We took a break around lunch and planned on fishing from 4 til dark. We went back to the lodge and ate and napped for a bit and headed back out for the afternoon. We worked weeds and deep timber and couldn't get much going. Late in the evening Gregg hooked up on smaller fish on a small crankbait and that was it for the day. We planned to start the next day at around 5:30 am so it was an early morning for us, we headed out and weather looked real. We kept throwing big rubber and at around 7:30am i hooked up and landed a 36 on shad colored mag dawg. The next fish came an hour later following hard on some big blades, he followed around the 8 but disappeared. We left and hit a few more spots and then headed back after a few hours. Within a half hour my buddy hooked up 45 in fish that was put in the net, the fish took a white and blue medussa almost right at the boat. This was his personal best musky and it was beaut. We snapped a few photos and quickly released it. We pounded the area for another hour and half and had no more fish up. We started working some deep water, around 1 i thought i caught a quick glimpse of a fish behind my bait on the 8 and lost sight of the fish quickly, about the 4th time around the fish come out of nowhere and grabbed the tail of the bait and was qiuckly gone. We worked the area for awhile longer and had no action. We tried trolling for a few hours and planned to end the trip around 4ish. About 3 we nabbed a 38 in trolling some deep wood, at 345 we were pulling in line to change baits and make a few more passes, one line that Gregg was reeling in was tangled with another, the lure got stuck about 10ft from the boat when a low to mid 40s fish came out of nowhere and smashed the bait! It was pure chaos for about 10 secs until the fish finally shook lose, we were all in shock after this as it was an awesome sight! We didn't get anymore rips trolling and called it a day. We had follows and action from probably 20 fish in 2 days and managed to put 4 in the net. I would highly recommend Gregg if you ever make it Cave or Minnesota for a fishing trip and need a great guide, he definitely made a lasting impression on both of us and memories that we will both remember for years and years to come!!!!

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[toothyfishman]

Sounds like you had a good time.....I like Gregg, talked to him at two shows now. Very nice guy.

[the yeti]

i've fished with gregg twice down there. i echo your feelings on him..just an all around great guy.

[allegheny river kid]

I had a blast even though we only had time to make the drive and fish and make the drive back. Would've loved to stayed another day and check out a few things down there. The landscape is awesome, RT 801 runs through mountains of rock that they blasted to put a road through, just neat to me. Would love to see the area in the fall and wet a line for the fall bite!!!!

[the yeti]

I'm pretty good friends with a guy down there. Next time you go, you'd be well served to take a day just to check stuff out. I LOVE it down there. I've actually considered moving there.

Something to consider would be booking next time with Gregg during Tony Grants Fall hoe down. He has a big party at his property in the fall.

What were your thoughts on the Kave? I've tried (with limited success) applying specific casting patterns I learned down there. I've found though, that nothing I've learned anywhere else, really, truly transitions over to being a good river pattern though. Early in the spring, however, I've actually had ok luck (follows, and some pike) with rattletraps on the river (as shallow as i can throw em) and slowly presenting jerkbaits and gliders. I'm a river rat by nature, and I find it strange that our river muskies wouldn't be more apt to key in on the rattle traps during those "chocolate" water days.

[Red Childress]

The Cave Run area is almost identical to the area in which I was born and raised except my area is even more mountainous and further back in the boonies....the road building techniques in that portion of the Appalachain range is a sight to see. All roads follow the contour of the creeks and rivers because that is the flattest part of that terrain. All rock and steep sided mountains makes flash flooding the biggest fear among the residents that live along the creeks/rivers.

Newer roads coming through my area are now being built on top of old strip mines and connecting them together by filling up a "holler" with material faster than blasting the sides of a mountain away to put another road in a flood plain.

The upside of living there is the top notch moonshine.

[ThreeRiversEsox]

If you want to see some more amazing engineer work take a ride up to the Canadian Shield where they are blasting granite to make room to expand the single lane speedways. It's simply ridiculous to think of all the blasting they have to do, drilling cores partially down, inserting dynamite, blasting and removing all of the debris, crushing it, and then using it for fill!!

[Mark G.]

I had to spend some time in Harrisonburg, VA for business...nothing to do with turkey farms...and made the drive home to Erie once. Not sure what route I was on but that was some of the most beautiful mountain scenery I have ever seen. What made it tough was enjoying a little too much VA peach shine the night before!

[Red Childress]

The Apple and Blackberry are also great choices......the left-overs are nice to use for lighting up the BBQ pit.

[allegheny river kid]

I really thought the lake was nice. I liked fishing the weeds, but fishing the timber was by far my favorite. Making contact with that wood never knowing if you were going to feel a tug after or not. The fish we got moving in the timber hit rite at the boat. Gregg warned us this is generally how they do so we were prepared. We also got to see and be very close to a bald eagle that had flown out to the main lake point and was nesting in one of the "hollers". Aa far as transitioning anything into a river pattern i don't really know. I mean we threw alot of mag dawgs and medussas, i throw shallow mag dawgs and shallow regular dawgs alot now and have been doing good moving fish and getting a few to eat. I think you could get a few fish with there rattle trap pattern but like you said its hard to fish them shallow unless your reeling like larry dahlberg at mach 3. I think its so successful down there because of there shad populations and most of the fish feeding heavy on them. The ones we noticed were all 2 to 4 in long, the same size as most traps. I asked him about topwater cause i was itching to throw one and he said that he didn't really throw them down there much so i stuck with the rubber. I've always said fishing a lake and fishing a river are 2 different things. Fish in a river IMO move around alot more than a lake and current plays a big factor in there location. A lake they move around more from one piece of structure to another wether it be sand, wood or weeds, mainlake humps, etc... This is only my opinion it could easily be incorrect....

[allegheny river kid]

I also asked gregg about maybe booking a trip in the fall and he told me that we were his last clients of the season on Cave run, the rest of the season til november he would be guiding in Minnesota and once he was done there he was done til march.