Fished the last 3 hours of light on Black 7/2 and all day 7/3. Water got to 77 Thursday night and 80 by Friday night. The only musky seen was a small one that appeared to hit my bait under the boat, but didn’t feel anything. I was extremely confused in the next couple seconds as the fish slowly swam back down with what looked sorta like my bait in it’s mouth, then I finally figured out that my bait was still in its place, and the 35” musky had just eaten a 15” pike that must have been following my bait unseen. That was pretty stinkin cool. I wish I could arrange that to work out so perfectly all the time!

Moved to St. Marys and of course found a range of much cooler temperatures. The warmest spot I fished was 76 and had one decent musky that was just lazy cruising by, and a big walleye eating a phantom. The muskie gave a half-hearted follow.

Spent most of my time where water was about 71 and only found one more muskie. I first spotted it cruising high and on a path that might intercept my incoming lure by chance, but when it didn’t break stride I started to burn the jointed shallow raider in to recast. Just then the fish picked up the lure from 20’ away and charged. It turned in and closed the gap, then tracked the bait for a couple seconds as I started to run out of room. I gave it a quicker rip then a longer pause to get her to eat away from the boat. That let her catch up and take the tiniest little nip that I didn’t think got hooks, but then felt weight that proved otherwise. A second later the surprise tarpon leap just 15’ from the boat really let me know. It was good luck that it stayed hooked through that plus another identical leap that could not be denied, and made it in the net.

Hated to but had to quit by 4:00 Sunday to meet the family & start camping, but casted for 38 hours over 3 days (plus the 3 hour warmup the first night), with zero to very little wind and zero to very little clouds. Caught a lot of pike, a couple bass and walleye, and one really nice muskie that made it all very worthwhile.