Sewing pictures together in PS

[mjs1973]

I took a bunch of shots of a Little Arbor Vita Lake while on vacation last week with the thought of sewing them together to make 1 panaramic shot of the lake. Any good tips on how to get each picture to blend together too look like 1 photo instead of 12? Getting them to line up was pretty easy, and getting the colors in the trees to blend isn't too bad, but the water and the sky is driving me nuts do to some shots being lighter and others being considerably darker. Any suggestions of tips that I could use to get this to work without spending the entire weekend adjusting every pixel??? I have attached what I have done so far, which isn't much, as a referance. Any suggestions, as always, are greatly appreciated.

Mike