Big Boys Day 2: Still Crushing It (Kinda), Sick Day?

Today was Day 2 of the Big Boys Tournament, and for the second day in a row, Pull Hard was content to keep our $1,000 safely in the boat fund where it belongs. Same crew as yesterday (Riley, Glenn, Charlie, and Kaedin), But today was gonna be special because Parker was supposed to join. Yes, The Parker, big fish whisperer and meat rig magician. Except… no Parker? Huh? Charlie broke the news, “Parker’s sick.”
Wait. What? People call in sick for fishing? I’m 55 years old and have never heard of such a thing. He better be in a hospital bed or hooked up to an IV full of Gatorade, because you do not call in sick for fishing. This is sacred stuff people. Ahh, Parker…buddy…it’s freakin July in Ludington! Anyway, the show must go on.

Yesterday we hit up the Lakeshore Food Club fish-cleaning event. Let me be clear: some of us worked hard. Glenn and Riley? Full-on sweat equity. Me? I moved a couple coolers and took one picture. You’re welcome. The good news is we touched a LOT of fish = Good Fish Mojo for the week. I also grilled up eight king salmon tails for prep meals. Pretty sure I’ll be glowing in the dark from the mercury by Thursday.

Launched at 5:10am, fishing by 5:35am—guess where we went?
Straight out again! Apparently, no one reads these reports. Or they all have a GPS pin marked “Super Duper Secret Hot Spot,” somewhere else, because there were only two other boats around us and not a single tournament team. More room for us!

Set up in 65 FOW on a 225 heading. Bite started at 5:45am, last bite came just after noon. Slow and steady today, a little nap-friendly.

Final tally: 11 fish on 18 bites (4 kings, 3 steelhead, 2 coho, 2 lake trout)

Hot Bites:

• Yeck Fireball on 5-color: 3 bites (only landed 1 – turns out the crew only gets a Fireball shot if it results in a fish!)

• Yeck Chubster on 3-color: 2 bites

• DW Rasta Goose on 10-color: 2 bites

• Stinger Jager Bomb on 3-color: 2 bites

• Red Tail Spin Doctor Meat Rig (mystery name) on low diver 100 back: 2 bites

• Mr. Chrome Fin’s Frog Glow on 7-color: 1 bite

• Moonshine Mag Happy Meal, 70 down: 1 bite

• Mag Orange Slice on 200 copper: 1 bite

• DW Mag “Soda,” 50 down: 1 bite

• DW Green/Blue Standard, 44 down: 1 bite

• Showtime Meat Rig, mag high diver 120 back: 1 bite

• Yeck G.O.A.T. on 5-color: 1 bite

• Pro King Mag White Russian, 73 down: 1 bite

What I Learned Today:

• When the bite slows, Kaedin turns into a nervous pacing machine. He wore a path in the SeaDeck. If you see smoke on the back deck, it’s just Kaedin doing hot laps.
  When the bugs and heat kicked in? It turned into a full-blown hose fight. Riley got in on it too!

• Charlie’s homemade cinnamon rolls > Family Fare.
  Also equal in power to Wendy’s cherry pie. Not saying which one was better (I like my friends happy), but let’s just say one was clearly better and it wasn’t dusty.

• Beer magic is real. Riley and Charlie both poured a splash overboard… BOOM, instant fish.

• Bob Marley = Bites. None of us wanted it, none of us liked it, but Riley insisted on XM Channel “Bob Marley” or whatever it is. Within 5 seconds of switching, Rasta Goose got crushed. I guess that’s why they call it “One Love.”

• Sick day for fishing is a thing now. 2025 is weird, man.

Up Next…Pull Hard Starts Paying to Play! Tomorrow begins the donation period—$700 just to show up and throw lures. Plus the 333. So… $800. Add a full gas tank, fresh ice, and pumped-out potty, and we’re well on our way to burning money in a beautiful and fishy way. Not to worry though, we will have a new crew: Morgan, Tim, Nick, and Riley. We’re bringing in the big guns people!