7/8 Fox River.
I know its not muskies, but I had a pipe dream that if I could catch browns on mice in the upper white river, I could catch a brookie in the fox! Well, it worked a couple times on a mid teens fish, and had a couple very nice fish hit and miss… as is the nature of mousing 🙄

7/9 Lower Tahq.
Water temps around 75 all evening. We didn't get there till after 4 PM after leaving the Fox at 9AM. Part of why it may be my last trip with a certain person 👿 Got to the camp and walked around, set up, never did he tell me we were to immediately check in, which lead to taking down and setting up again! Anyhow, we finally made it out, and didn't get a lot of action. whiny a$$ decides there are no walleye in there and no muskies so he sits down and pouts. I continue to fish and tune him out, and as soon as we got some cloud cover the fish turned on. I had three solid strikes, and two follows in about an hour, landed one pike to top it off, but could not pin a ski. First strike was a suick and was easily a mid 40's fish, next 2 were on topwater, and missed (as was the northern of about 26"), the sun came back out, fished turned off, and then as night came tweedle dumb got bit by a musquito and we had to leave (at an idle because there might be a log in the way)

Dollarville 7/10
After wasting our morning in Tahq. bay looking for marble eyes we finally made it up to dollarville, we put in by the campground, and fished down to the dam, and back. Fished from about 6-10PM caught a couple smallies, my buddy was again insistent that walleyes could not live in such water, and pouted till he got bit by a mosquito, and wanted to leave. I had one solid contact on a jerk bait about 8 PM and once again no freiken hooks.

Munuscong 7/11
After another late morning of unnecessary cleaning showering, packing, we made it to the bay about noon. We went right to the walleyes (secretly hoping it would earn me some more casting time for fun fish to catch) in the north (upstream)bound channel, and ended up sitting on a school of perch for 4 hours [smilie=ballchain.gif] Fina;;y we started to move around, and saw some great sites, huge ships right past us, and found some awesome cabbage beds in about 10 fow. We casted for about an hour and had one small mid 20's fish follow, and caught another walleye, on musky tackle. We then moved towards Raber Bay, and found Circle Island, there is a very cool lighthouse out there and the are rock piles, and cabbage beds all around. I figured the skis wouldn't discriminate between essentially the same body of water with a different name, so while my buddy was trolling crawlers, I was casting…… And hooked a PIG, which promptly turned my single strand leader into a newfangled christmas ornament, wrapping it around the lip twice, and in and out of every hook, then as per my season opened its mouth and miraculously let go!

Two Hearted River 7/12
Similiar morning as the rest, we decided to see some sights, and check out the fire damage. We got some great pics of the fire, and fields of black needleless pines, with bright green ferns coming up on the floor. Its amazing how quickly it recovered with undergrowth. And then stopped at a few 2-tracks to check out the river. I found a few mid sized browns, and had the biggest brookie I have ever imagined eat a rapala…. and as per my season opened its mouth and let go! Awesome river though

Lower Tahq. 7/12
Spent the last few hours of daylight in a last ditch effort to catch a muskie, and had about the worst possible conditions, and the same results. However I once again proved all Walleye fisherman are doing it wrong not using suicks, and hit a 22" at dusk (which makes 7 this year on suicks and phantoms)… Also proving to my buddy that there are indeed walleye in the river! Also while breaking my favorite custom big dawg as it got caught under a cleat on the rail of the boat 👿

So, it was a fun trip, completely frustrating at times, but it was great to see the eastern UP, fish its waters, actually hook a ski on Munuscong casting, saw a badger, and as surprising as it sounds, a crap ton of deer! (since everything I read claims the wolves ate them all ) So, as soon as I can stop hooking the wrong species, and start hooking the right ones, I will be having a great season. And next year, I might find someone with some patience that like to fish for skis to go with me instead [smilie=biggrin.gif]