An annual trip to Craig Lake in Baraga County used to be a family tradition of ours. Special regs make Craig a special place with no motors allowed, gas or electric, so you have to paddle everywhere you go, plus no live bait and catch and immediate release on all bass, pike, and muskie. So many great memories from this place over the years, fishing and non-fishing related, including my first ever muskie. My dad, brothers, uncles, and cousins had made a yearly trip there for some 20 or so years straight, from when I was a little kid up through my college years but due to various scheduling/health reasons, this tradition ended 5 or so years ago. At my last family Christmas get together, my dad announced that he wanted to renew the Craig Lake tradition and told everyone that he reserved one of the cabins on Craig for a few days in July. Unfortunately, the only ones able to come this time around were my dad, my brother, and I and I invited Chris along as well. It was a little disappointing that the whole family couldn’t make it but it was still a great time and always a good place to escape from reality for a few days out in the wilderness to recharge the batteries.

We carried in canoes and supplies Thursday and Chris joined us early Friday morning and we stayed until Sunday. It was great to get back there again and spend some quality time with my dad and brother and get back to where I contracted this muskie disease several years ago. Weather was amazing for this time of the year. Prefrontal conditions on day one with rain and a thunderstorm overnight leading into some sun with clouds during day two and some more rain that night, followed by mostly sunny/partly cloudy days over the weekend. Unseasonably cool temps made for great fishing weather as temps were in the upper 50s to 70 degree range all weekend.

The fishing was great the first night leading up to the storm with fish going crazy on top water. We caught lots of pike and smallmouth on that first night with fish hitting the surface on the first or second cast at every one of my old go-to spots. Brought me back to the good old days. When Chris arrived on Friday, we switched gears and started going after the bigger fish out of the old row boat provided at the cabin. Fishing was a little slow overall but fairly consistent action throughout the days. Caught some nice pike, including one really nice one and we moved one muskie right off the bat which got the confidence going and we ended up contacting 4 muskies total over the 4 day trip. 3 of those 4 fish ate but only one made it in the boat. It wasn’t very big but it was a gorgeous looking Tiger with one of the coolest looking patterns I have ever seen on a fish. I will try to post a photo of it soon. Had one decent fish nip the tail of a bait right at the side of the boat but didn’t get hooks. Then on the last night just before dark, I had an absolute giant crush the bait about 10’ from the boat. I never saw her coming as she T-boned it from the side perfectly and came out of the water on the strike so I got a great look at her but somehow I pulled the bait right out of her mouth on the hookset and didn’t get a single hook in her. We threw everything we had on that spot the rest of the time but she never made another appearance. Gonna be one of those moments that haunts me for a long time but it will keep me coming back again in the years to come.