Excited to hear everyone's success this season. I'll start it off.
2017 was especially good to me. I did not fish nearly as much as usual but I spent a lot more of my time on the water with some of the of the best people I know. Overall fish count from just the chain was 15 over a span of roughly 350 hours. I typically get 500-600 hours on chain waters in a season but only logged 20 hours after oct 1st due to a busy work schedule. We had opportunities on many other fish including some nice ones but that's all part of the excitement and experience of muskie fishing. Thanks to everyone who I was fortunate to share my boat with. I look forward to 2018 and making many new memories with friends new and old. If anyone wants to jump in next season by all means get ahold of me. I'd be more than happy to share the heartbreak and hero moments on the chain.
Thanks for letting me in the boat with you, good times.
Forgot to wrap it up…
Great year, lots of firsts in the boat for many anglers which is always awesome. Thanks to some very generous friends I got to spend a good amount of time fishing the places that I absolutely love. Continued many long standing traditions and started a new one. As usual, there were some heart breaks and a couple "Oh God!" moments that have me excited for 2018.
2017 was a memorable season. Fortunate to have been part of a fish of a lifetime, spend a week and Canada, and help a deserving family friend get their first.
Changed jobs late summer so hours fished were very low, and I did not fish with many friends that I had wanted. Also, didn't make it over to Thorn for the first season in 15 years.
Looking forward to 2018.
2017 was pretty fun, but didn't fish a ton and therefore my fish catch wasn't the best. We did have a good trip to Canada and I made it to a good amount of the MMA outings so that was a positive. Passing the new regulations was a huge win for 2017 so that makes up for my lack of fishing I guess haha. Looking to buy a new boat in 2018 and get some more 'adventures' in such as fishing new waters in the UP, northern Michigan, and getting back on Murray quite a bit. Hoping to make it to LSC a couple times in the Summer and Fall as well, but won't be torn up if I don't make it out there.
2017 was a great year with a combination of both success and heartbreak. I was happy to be able to put more time on the water this year than in any year in the past, and although it did not lead to near as many fish caught as in past years, I can say it was by far my most fun year of fishing. The main reason for that was due to focusing a vast majority of my time on the water on the Antrim chain. I also decided to start keeping a log of all my trips on the chain. Its the first year I can say that I fished every single lake on the chain and put 346 hours in total between them, with 89 hours on the upper and 257 on the lower. This led to a whopping 1 fish in the net per 69.2 hours on the water. You can probably do the math on that and figure out that that's not a very good ratio, but I was able to catch fish on a couple lakes I had not caught them on yet. I did have my chances at a handful of other fish that would have been year makers, but they did not make it to the net and are still haunting me.
Luckily, I was able to escape the low density grind a few times and explore some new bodies of water for the first time, which is always fun. I fished 11 new bodies of water between the UP and Northern LP and found a couple real nice spots that I will definitely be going back to in the future. There is so much untapped potential in our great state. I am excited to do some more exploring in the coming season. One of my bigger highlights of the year was exploring some new lakes in the UP with my wife and seeing how she reacted to seeing her first couple of follows. Even though she was not able to hook one this year, that alone was worth the trip. I hope to be able to get her to land one this year.
Probably my favorite highlight of the year though, was being able to witness Nick land an absolute giant back in October. There is nothing that compares to the emotions of moments like that and they are so much better when you get to experience it with your friends. Looking forward to more moments like that in the years to come.
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