Ehhhh. My year was pretty drab. LOL. Like I said in the previous thread, the major highlight for me was Ethan catching his first muskie. And at 39.5", it was a pretty decent first. LSC let me down 4 times this year. Every single time I made the 3 hr trip there, I got hit with the worst possible conditions. Post frontal, high pressure, etc. I couldn't catch a break out there. Thorn treated me well this year though, with the most action I've ever had there. Suckers had some to do with it, but also had plenty of action on artificial. One other highlight there was watching a 40 lber eat 6' from the boat. Just couldn't close that deal though, which was probably then the biggest low for me this year. It was one of those times when you can't do anything for a few minutes except for just stare in the water, awestruck at what just happened while the swirling water slowly becomes still again. Dayum. That sucked.

My numbers arent near what other have on the year but I have to say I am more than happy with the fish I was able to catch this year, especially considering the fact that it had been 3 years since catching my first muskie and the 2 years after catching my first I switched to strictly muskie fishing with not a single fish caught. Countless hours of muskie fishing for 2 straight years without catching one fish made me set fairly low standard goals for the year last winter. Meaning, my main goal for the year was to catch 1 muskie, any size, any where. I also had a secondary goal of catching a fish on Skegemog since that is the lake I spend most of my time on but that was mostly just a wish.

Highlights:
-Catching my first muskie while actually targeting muskie and first since 2009. (My only regret with this fish was that I cheated on Skegemog to get it) Although it felt good to get the 3 year skunk off my back, part of me was sad I didnt go to Skeg again that weekend instead…
-A couple weeks later I finally caught a fish from Skegemog, a 48"er that felt just as good if not better than my first muskie ever. At that point of the year any other fish the rest of the year was just gravy for the season.
-First multi fish day which was actually a multi fish hour.
-Netted my first fish while targeting muskie alone in the boat.
-Caught my first fish in the figure 8.
-In total boated 8 fish on the year, only 2 of which were over 42".

Lowlights:
-Losing 2 big fish on the Antrim chain on opening day of the season.
-Missing 2 opportunities at possible 50"+ fish on Skegemog.
-4 different days where the boat team contacted double digit fish without landing one.
-Losing 2 big fish on my last time fishing of the year on Christmas Eve.

If you would have told me I would catch 8 fish and one would be a 48" fish from Skeg at this time last year I would tell you you were crazy and I would be extatic to have a year like that. Now at this point in the year all I can think about is all of the missed opportunities I had and how much better the year could have been if I was able to convert those chances. Needless to say I am going to have some much higher goals for 2013.

Decent year for me, but still not where I want to be. 2011 was terrible for me so I was very happy to get a good amount of fish in the boat in 2012. A couple highlights were:

– Basically tripling my catch from 2010
– Having MMA win the IOC (even though I didn't help at all ha)
– Catching a fish in March
– Having a great time again at AML even though I lost a couple big ones
– Fishing the Indiana Musky Classic and catching a fish in it.

2012 was a pretty good year for my brothers and I. I would say we probably learned and applied more in this past year than the two previous years. The biggest difference was probably what retrieves worked best depending on the time of year and where the fish were located. That certainly upped the number of eats we got. The second would be fly size, and how the fly should be fished based on size.

We also targeted bigger fish better this year, which increased the average size fish we caught. The biggest highlight for myself was probably a topwater fish that followed from one side of the boat to the other before eating.

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I will share my humorous low moment of 2012. It occurred at the east launch of Murray in late November. Normally, when alone, I have a rope with a clip that I attach to the bow eye, and tie the other end to the trailer, Back into the water, boat floats off and then I slowly pull it back to shore.

However on this trip, when I did it, the clip pulled out of the bow eye and there my boat is floating 25' from shore. If it was summer time, no problem. But when the water temp is 42, wading isn't an option.

A light breeze was blowing parallel to shore and my boat drifted into the old blowdown dead tree just north of the ramp. I've never been known to be agile and nimble, so picture me crawling out on the dead tree, trying not to fall off. Eventually, I got within ten feet of the boat, and after repeated attempts, succeeded in throwing the rope into the boat and getting it tangled in the net. I pulled the boat towards me, stepped out on an even smaller branch, and got in the boat with only getting one foot soaked. You would think, with all that effort, I'd catch a ski. Nope! But it did create a lasting memory every time I'll see that tree in the future!

Charlie

-Started off with a nasty boat remodel, got through it and learned a lot. Mostly that I'm happier without a boat payment….
-Two PBs and a personal monkey off of my back in one neck of the woods.
-Probably less than 150hrs on the water (grrrr)
-Had some excellent company in the boat and on other boats learning more about muskies, life, "squatchin", good beer, saw more big fish than expected, and good times
-just like every year before…..the sickness progresses

"Will Schultz" said:
2012 was fun. Fished the fewest number of days on St Clair in the last 12 years and liked not being out there. Had lots of "firsts" this year, some great and some not so great, a couple I hope happen again and a couple I really hope never happen again. The "firsts" that were the best were sliding my net under a number of first muskies and a couple first 50's. Then there were the PB's, those were special too. All in all, my boat had 84 days and 756 hours with 7.2 hours per fish.

Had to repost, missed a whole month of hours the first time…

Don't forget about the time you hit that orange barrel [smilie=2thumbsup.gif]

Late to the party here, but just catching up as I sit in my new house with no TV, no radio, an empty fridge and a single, luxury lawn chair. Just now starting to get my mind back on all things wet…finally.

Sooo…2012 was weird for me. Lost the job in late April, which you would think would be a real cast-blocker…but with a surprisingly supportive & understanding wife who was probably overly concerned with me keeping my fragile sanity during that challenge of my manhood…I was actually issued a bright green light for outdoor ventures. It takes a big man to say no to the freedom and spend the never ending hours searching for jobs instead of slinging the days away. I am not that man. I fished like crazy. The first few months were spent on the relatively fruitless but ultra-fun local Titt chain, with a few bountiful up north trips mixed in. I did heavily cut back on the LSC hours, which I didn't mind too much. Less time there meant that we weren't really on the fish like the past 3 years (plus Corey got salmon fever and decided to catch pretty much every last one out of the big lake.) Still, hours-per-giant, we were not much below years past, but with a smaller overall average for some reason. I will say that 2012 did prove to be a touch super-awesome on LSC as I got 3 guys their first 50, which, as I read others' posts and agree, is more satisfying than notching your own belt once you get fat & old & start liking stuff like waterfalls & butterflies. They were all amazing fish with tremendous life-changing reactions that I'll never forget, but one of those was a 55"er which hit at the boat for John E. Sox and was freaking epic with leviathan headshakes and an intense shallow water fight.

2012's freedom also made possible a great week up north with a slew of boys from age 2 up to 16. Mostly relatives, these kids wanted to fish…bad. And they weren't too pumped with the chubs, perch & 14" pike that they had caught in years past when they went up with a non-fishing crew. They had seen our pics, the pressure was on. 1 hour of casting edges to start the week & we had nothing to show…the boys were panicked! Then I hit some shallow stretches while they POUNDED pop & I got into a few quick fish. We were off and running – the minn kota was put to the test as 3 boats were hauled in tow for a spell with pretty good results, but it did involve handing the main rod off to those who struggled with the baitcasters for the most part that day. By hour 2 of day 2 we were a well-oiled machine, though. The boys strained the water with up to 6 slinging from the main boat at a time, & when the untangling got a little much for the dads, we trolled slop with topwater & johnson silver minnows…with at times hilarious amounts of action on short lines. 10 kids SCREAMING as a 38"er goes skyward and crosses 3 lines with drag peeling is not something that I was prepared for during my lunch break. "UNCLE PETE!!!! It's huge! Why doesn't it stay in the water!?!?! It's a shark uncle Pete!! Just like Jaws!!! This thing is going to tear us up!!!! It's coming at the boat, it's coming at the boat!!! YEAHHHHH!!!!" The incredibly overwhelming volume in an otherwise pristine environment really got me laughing…to the point where I had trouble steering, clearing lines or getting the net. Their excitement never waned all week. We ate 30 hot dogs a day, drank cases of pop, shot boxes of ammo. It was a blast. And thanks to them, I will never again be surprised when, in the middle of a silent drift towards promising water, 2 otherwise sane fishing partners go skyward off the gunwhale right next to me and throw whitewater all the way in a heated race towards a floating log.

Overall, hoping for more of the same in 2013 as I get older & have a harder time looking away from waterfalls…