"No greater love hath a friend," Tony said as he handed me his rod, claiming a tiger muskie was on the other end. I reeled in a 16-inch squawfish. "It's the thought that counts," I replied gaily. Tony was trying to pay me back for putting him on top of the biggest fish of his life 3 days earlier -- a 47-inch, 26.5 lb. tiger musky he caught under cloudy skies just before 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 22. Tony's previous personal best was a 44-incher caught while walleye fishing with a guide in Wisconsin about 30 years ago.

I had to attend a meeting in Vancouver on Saturday, July 21, and decided to make a fishing trip out of it. Tony Welch and I arrived at Merwin Lake on Wednesday, July 18, and fished on the 19th, 20th, and 22nd through 25th. Tony's big muskie would turn out to be the only boated "legal" muskie (over 36 inches) of the trip, despite ideal weather for several days -- cloudy, with scattered showers, water temps in the low 70s, air temps comfortably cool. I landed Tony's squawfish on the last day of this expedition (the 25th); Tony had caught another one earlier in the afternoon, both taken on a trolled crankbait intended for tiger muskies. Tony also got tangled up that day with a seagull that tried to eat his crankbait.

Here is a synopsis of how things went on this trip. The water level was about 5 feet below full pool because the power company was repairing a turbine. The water was greenish colored and a bit turbid with the bottom visible in most places to 10 or 12 feet. That's murky water for Merwin; we're used to seeing 25 feet down in this reservoir. A storm front that brought light winds and scattered showers stayed in the area through Monday, July 23.

On July 19, Tony caught and released a frisky 25-inch tiger and missed getting hooks into one that we estimated at 40 to 42 inches; I had a couple follows from juveniles under 30 inches. Friday, July 20, was the day we saw the most fish and had the most action: Tony caught and released a 27-incher, let a 28-incher shake off, hooked and lost a 42-incher, and had a couple follows; I hooked and lost a 27-incher and had several follows. We saw over a dozen fish that day, the largest about 45 inches. On Sunday, July 22, besides his 47-incher, Tony had a follow from another large fish, while I came up blank. The next day, July 23, Tony hooked and lost an 18-incher, while I had a single follow from a fish of around 40 inches. That was the only day our friend Mike Nielsen fished with us on this trip, and he blanked. Tuesday, July 24, was sunny and a bit too warm for my comfort, with a fairly stiff afternoon wind, so we fished only 5 hours and got off when the lake started getting rough, and the only action that day was a fish of about 38 to 40 inches that grabbed Tony's crankbait and spit it out before he could set the hooks, at around noon. Our score for the final day, July 25, was the 2 squawfish and 1 seagull, with no muskies sighted all day.

One reason Tony got most of the action on this trip is because I didn't fish as much. My bow trolling motor wasn't working properly, so I spent a lot of my time occupied with boat control duties, alternately running the outboard and transom-mounted electric motor to keep the boat on top of structure. Probably the problem was fishing line got wrapped around the shaft and cut the seals, letting water into the motor housing, and I'm likely in for a hefty repair bill when I get it back from the shop.

But whatever it costs, it's a small price to pay for Tony's fish-of-a-lifetime on Sunday, and for the day we had on Friday, July 20, not only because we saw lots of muskies that day, but even more so because we had the lake to ourselves. It was wrapped in soft gray clouds laying on the deck, with a light drizzle that touched us ever so softly (not enough to require rain gear), with no sound except the breeze rippling through the trees. On a lake like Merwin, which has undeveloped shorelines and feels like an untouched wilderness lake in such conditions, such moments are priceless.

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