TOPIC:

Spent 10 days cruising Northern Mi visiting family and doing some fishing. Fished some familiar lakes and a new ones on or two. Hit Lower Herring lake the first two trips, a familiar smaller lake, for some walleye but didnt have much success as the bit seemed to be off the 2 trips we made there produced 1 nice 20in walleye, a few short pike, a couple rock bass and a big cat. Made some upgrades to the boat while up there completing a new track system setup that I am much happier with after convincing the wife it was needed after the Mullet lake trip.

Was going to try to get out for some salmon but family commitments kept me from hitting the old stomping grounds.

Next fishing trip was taking my mom and wife to Crystal lake after some perch, one of moms favorite. Well the perch were slow but the rock bass were willing to play and bite. Had a blast watching Mom and wife reel in the doubles on the crappie rigs they were pulling as we drifted a 24ft shelf. Couldnt tell you how many we caught but did keep a mix of perch and rockies, mostly nice rockies, that totaled 45 for the evening. Hit Crystal a second time the night of the 4th do do a little fishing and then watch some fireworks from the boat after dusk. Hit the same area we had worked the night before and brought home another mix of 50 including a 6lb smallie caught by mom on her crappie rig. Came out of the water freaked her out and the panic was pretty fun to watch as I thought she had forgot how to fight a fish. She used to battle salmon every weekend with dad but she hadn't fished in several years before those two fishing trips. Lucky for me I had turned on the go pro without informing her or the wife about 10 min before the epic battle. The video footage and their reactions on the boat were spectacular when I showed them later.

After the 4th we headed to my wife's parents to spend the rest of our trip with them and fishing the lake they live on. Since I had the boat behind the truck I took the Father in Law to a lake about 20min away that we had never been to looking for some walleye. Nice lake, fishing not so good. Talked to a guy we saw fishing and said it had not been a good fishing lake in a few years. We decided to cover some water and watch the graph for life so we trolled with crawler harnesses and a couple crankbaits off planer boards to see what we could find. Got 1 nice 20in largemouth but didn't see much else.

Fishing the In-laws lake the next couple days we rounded out the trip with several nice largemouth and a couple keeper pike and a few shorts. It was nice to get away and spend some time with the parents. Also nice to finally get a chance to really test the boat and issues I had last summer with my trolling motor and battery charging sytem. Spot Lock is awesome and had a good time using the upgraded Kota. Very happy with the changes I made to the track system and machined adapters I put together to get a couple riggers on the new boat.

Sounds like a real nice trip to me

I am heading up to Traverse City for the weekend, mostly Kayaking and drinking beer. Going to wet a line in platte lake, platte river, and loon lake for sure off the yak.

We did an afternoon trip down a middle section of the Betsie. Had a nice trip and avoided the platte crowds.

Looks nice!

Very Nice and not crowded like most days on the Platte in the summer. 3 hr trip and didnt see anyone but wildlife.