Four Man Limit Before I Even Peed!
Sunday weather redemption was an absolute beauty. Light east wind, clear skies, and one of those sunrise situations where you just kind of sit there and think…yeah, this is why we do this.
Same crew as yesterday. Me, Charlie Daniels, Mark, and Rick. Same plan too. Run the exact same program, grab our 12 lake trout, sprinkle in a few bonus kings, lines out by 10, back at the dock by 10:30 like a bunch of professionals.
Well…we immediately got off schedule. Pushed launch back 15 minutes. Rookie move. I justified it by saying “why set up in the dark?” which is exactly what rookies say.
Yesterday Rick was saying, “first fish in the boat and it’s only 6:10am.” Today? “It’s 6:22am…yesterday we already had one by now…” Relax Rick. We’ll get there.
We set 11 lines and for a brief moment…nothing. Then it went from nothing…to absolute chaos. Three straight hours of a full-blown feeding frenzy in 55 FOW.
Hog kings. Hammer lakers. Hog lakers. Hammer kings. At some point we didn’t even know what we were catching anymore or what we were supposed to call them. It turned into “just reel it in and we’ll figure it out later.”
You’d think after five or six fish the crew would be dialed in on the long diver leads. Nope. Still chaos. Reel the puck to the tip, back up to the steering wheel, etc…Oh, and turn that damn clicker off! Probably the same conversation every boat in Ludington is having?
We ended up boating 15 lake trout, tossed three back, and added 3 kings for 25 bites. Honestly there might have been more bites, but things were happening so fast I’m pretty sure a couple just got lost in the madness.
Final tally…18 for 25 on the day.
Hot bites:
Stinger Blond Tangerine on 3 color – 1 bite (king)
Yeck Malort on 7 color – 2 bites (king)
Yeck Irish Fireball on 5 color – 1 bite (king)
Brown trout spin-n-glow lake trout rig on high diver back 130 ticking bottom – 5 bites
Wonderbread Whirly Gig lake trout rig on downrigger on bottom – 7 bites
Logan secret lake trout thingy on rigger on bottom – 3 bites (king)
Logan green lake trout on high diver 130 back ticking bottom – 3 bites
Fat Nancy flasher with double wonderbread spin-n-glows on chute rigger on bottom – 3 bites
What I learned today:
Mark is fully bought into the major minor moon phase theory after those musky seminars. Either lake trout don’t care and eat all day, or the moon was absolutely dialed both days. Jury is still out.
Charlie and I are now experts at disassembling a Cannon downrigger mid-backlash crisis. Two weekends in a row. Not a skill I wanted, but here we are.
That floating tribal net from last weekend? Still there. Same exact spot. Just waiting to ruin someone else’s morning. You’re welcome for the heads up.
Mark was glowing after not one but two 4-man limits. Direct quote from this morning…“4 man limit before I even peed.” Not sure that’s a fishing metric, but it is now.
Two straight mornings of Boatmeal™ and I’m officially sold. Chili powder in the mix? Game changer.
Scott at Captain Chucks was kind enough to weigh the king for the Bonanza on his day off...solid dude as always!
Weekend total…34 for 46. Not a bad weekend for a crew without Logan. Now imagine if Logan shows up with his mojo lined up with the moon and one of those lucky Ludington coins…we might need a bigger boat…at least a bigger fish box.
Boat’s packed. Time to leave fishing fantasy land and head back to real life. Picking up daughter Delaney’s apartment stuff on the way home, knocking out schoolwork early like an overachiever, and then back to collecting some bills.
Next weekend…Surgeon Jenn is back in the boat. Things could get dangerous.
400 W. Filer St., C1, Ludington, MI 49431 | Phone: 248-534-9202 | PullHardFishing@outlook.com
