Brett Erickson's July 20th

Got up to Muskie Bay Resort Tuesday night around 8pm (July 20). Got the boat in the water and everything else unloaded in the cabin and then hit the water for about 4 hours with Robin Holden and his friend Ursala. It is always good/bad to have a female in the boat. Good because there will be fish caught. Bad because they will catch them all!!! First pass on our first spot produced a nice 43"er. Not to bad for her first muskie ever. On our second spot we were just getting set up and were out over deep water and the rod went off and her second muskie was a very chunky 46"er. Got that one released and got the lines back out and then she lost a 40"er half way through the first pass. Not too bad for her first time muskie fishing and to boat 2 and lose one in the first 4 hours of a trip. Hopefully the weather cooperates and things keep getting better as we head towards the full moon on Sunday.

After 2 unusually cold years, the water temps up here are above 70F and there is an actual thermocline at about 35'. Never saw a thermocline up here the last 2 years. The fish are definitely liking the warm water and are going after all the traditional baits. Just as in year's past, Slammer 10" Deep Shads produced everything. All the fish we caught last night were on the new solid plastic bodied models. They are a little wider than the wood ones, have a great rolling action, track at higher speeds than the wood models and require less tuning (this particular bait was brand new and never had to tune it at all).
Brett Erickson