Ludington Fishing Report: 131 Bites! Labor Day Weekend Beats Memorial Day!
Early to bed last night rewarded me with an 85 sleep score heading into this bonus Labor Day Monday fishing trip. We had a little last-minute crew shuffle. Nick was out, Charlie Daniels was in, and Sister Jenn elected to do the completely unreasonable thing and sleep in on Labor Day.
So today's crew was me, Euge, Logan, Tim and Charlie Daniels. Same exact plan as yesterday. Same spot. Same program. Five-man limit. Back early. Same old, same old.
Not this time, people…Not even close.
We buzzed north along the shoreline, cut west at the bathhouse and set up outside the pack. There were probably half as many boats out there as yesterday. We set up in about 160 FOW and the screen was absolutely loaded with fish from top to bottom. Perfect!
We had this shit dialed in yesterday, so just run the same program and do it again, right? Plus, today we had Logan and his little voodoo bag of tricks aboard. This should actually be better than yesterday! Nope. We got 11 rods set…Nothing. Eventually added a couple more.
There was no real morning bite. Certainly no ShitShow™ of any sort. Instead, we just started plucking away…one here…one there. A couple triples mixed in to keep everyone awake.
Unfortunately, yesterday's buttery-hook problem apparently carried over into this morning. We had fish hooked up all over the place, but the little buggers kept popping off…Hooks were sharp…Lines were tight…Fish apparently had other plans.
Logan and I kept working the divers and riggers, changing stuff around and trying to keep the bites coming. When it was all said and done, we ended up with 15 hogs on 29 bites.
Not yesterday…Not even close…But that brought our four-morning Labor Day weekend total to...76 fish on 131 bites! Yeah…I'll take that.
Hot Bites:
Flasher/Fly | Bechold 11 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend / Rapture Sweet Pea | Chute Rigger 139 down | 7 bites
Flasher/Fly | Pro Troll 8 Inch Green / Dreamweaver Pickled Sunshine | Out Down 150 down | 4 bites
Flasher/Fly | Prototype 8 Inch Chrome / Howie Green Gold Crinkle | High Diver 195 back | 3 bites
Flasher/Fly | Prototype 8 Inch Blue Green / Rapture Sweet Pea | Low Diver 130 back | 3 bites
Meat Rig | Prototype 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Blue UV | High Diver 180 back | 2 bites
Plug | Silver Horde 5 Inch Pink Lightning | Lead Core 10 Colors | 1 bite
Plug | Moonshine 4 Inch Green Ladder Back | Copper 200 Feet | 1 bite
Plug | Silver Horde 5 Inch White Lightning | Copper 400 Feet | 1 bite
Plug | Dreamweaver 4 Inch Lucky Charms | Copper 200 Feet | 1 bite
Meat Rig | Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver No See'um | Out Down 180 down | 1 bite
Plug | Dreamweaver 4 Inch Soda | Out Down 98 down | 2 bites
Meat Rig | Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Punisher | High Diver 240 back | 1 bite
Meat Rig | Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Isotope | Low Diver 160 back | 2 bites
What I Learned Today:
Turns out Logan's big fish bags really aren't that bad. Yesterday's issues were apparently all user error on Tim's part. Good news! I now own 40+ more of them. Problem solved.
It was slept on and officially decided this morning that we're going to try for another Pop-Up Tournament next Saturday. Will Logan secure a hot dog sponsor? That remains to be seen. Dream big, buddy.
Logan has somehow associated the Ric Flair "WOOOO!" with my boat. Fine. I've accepted it. Tim has now officially become Logan's WOOOO echo. Logan: WOOOO! Tim: WOOOO! I think I like it.
I finally figured out why my Pickled Sunshine program sucks compared to Logan's. Four beads. Not six beads. Logan's leader broke today, so I grabbed one of mine and handed it to him. He looked at it. Apparently diagnosed the problem immediately. Then promptly retied it using four beads instead of six. Four hours later, he was nice enough to hand me the other two beads he'd been carrying around in his pocket. Thanks, buddy.
We officially broke our Memorial Day weekend bite record of 123. No tournament today. No Big King Bonanza. No money on the line. The only thing we were really shooting for this morning was getting past 123 bites so Logan could earn two After Fishing Mints™. Final score: 131 bites, people! Mission accomplished…and Logan wanted everyone to know exactly how he consumed his reward. He chewed one and sucked one. Apparently we're developing proper After Fishing Mint™ consumption strategies now.
And that's a wrap on one hell of a Labor Day weekend…Four mornings…131 bites…76 fish. A five-man limit. A bunch of ShitShows™. A lost Budweiser spoon. A broken weekend bite record. A couple After Fishing Mints™. And somehow we still have five weekends left.
Tomorrow it's back to work work. That will also be accompanied by a three-to-four-day water fast. Logan said that's the dumbest thing he's ever heard, which I'm choosing to interpret as words of encouragement. I'm having a colonoscopy Wednesday morning, so I can't eat tomorrow anyway. My brain immediately went...Why not make it until Friday? Seems logical.
It's also back to school school. Classes officially start tomorrow, but don't worry, I've already got a good head start. And finally, back to gym gym. That one might be the most important after this four-day absence. No running. No gym. No nothing. Unless reeling in salmon counts as cardio.
Next weekend we've got Kaedin and his Rockford bass partner slated to join us, possibly with his partner's dad. A couple bass fishermen on a salmon boat? We should see some excellent KVD-style hooksets…STICK 'EM!
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