Ludington Fishing Report: 15 Kings, 24 Bites and 13 Ducks!
Wow! What a weekend!
Yesterday we put 16 hogs in the boat, so naturally we spent the rest of the day working on our Sunday fishing mojo. If you're going to catch another pile of kings, you can't just sit around. You've got to earn it.
After polishing off an outstanding salmon tail dinner, Surgeon Jenn, the Temple family and I headed to the blueberry farm. We collectively bought around 30 pounds of blueberries. Hopefully somebody has a freezer.
Next stop was Hamlin Grocery. Now this is where things got interesting. We invested twenty bucks into the Winner Every Time duck machine. The machine did not disappoint. We ended up winning 13 ducks...out of a possible ten. Don't ask me how. I just know we're currently up three ducks on the machine.
Now you can't just keep 13 ducks. So Scott became the official Jeep Wrangler spotter while Lil and Surgeon Jenn perfected the drive-by duck delivery. I'd slowly creep through the parking lots while they'd hop out, hang a duck on a Jeep door handle and jump back in before anyone noticed.
Just imagine all those Jeep owners walking back to their vehicles. "Look honey...some awesome fishermen left us a duck! I love fishermen!" You're welcome.
From there we made the mandatory stop at House of Flavors. Delicious? Absolutely. Necessary after eating salmon and then 30 pounds of blueberries? Probably not. I'm pretty sure every one of us was technically full before we even ordered ice cream, but somehow we found room.
After that we wandered over to the Concert in the Park. The estimated attendance was somewhere around 8,000 people. By my count...Maybe 1,500. Still, it was excellent people watching and served as a free seminar titled "Things Not to Do in Public."
This morning I topped off the mojo with a run. I said a run...Not a good run. But I survived.
Then it was officially time to go fishing. Today's crew was...wait...Let's do this correctly.
Surgeon Jenn, me, Scott, Lil and Duncan. I better start putting her name first because she's about running the whole boat anyway.
Poor Dan Doyle couldn't make the trip. Something about a bad back. Or maybe that was Scott. Or maybe they both had bad backs. Getting old is confusing.
We left the dock at exactly 5:05am and headed north to our same old water just outside the crowd, setting up in about 180 feet north of the bathhouse.
Most of the boats were stacked on the bank again. Once we slid outside...Nobody. Fine by me.
We put out 13 rods. Could we have run 15? Probably. But we didn't want to catch fish too fast. It actually felt slow to start. Looking back, by about six o'clock we already had two kings in the cooler and two more screaming behind the boat. Funny how your expectations change after the last couple of weeks.
We stayed on the same water all morning and ended up boxing 15 kings on 24 bites. That means the Temple family finished the weekend with 31 fish on 53 bites. I'm pretty sure that's some sort of Temple family record.
Hot Bites
Bechold 11" Kevin's Girlfriend paddle paired with a Rapture Sweet Pea fly on the chute rigger 139 down led the way with 4 bites.
Prototype 8" White flasher paired with a Howie Little Boy Blue fly on a high diver 125 back took 4 bites.
Prototype 8" Chrome flasher paired with a Howie Gold & Green Crinkle fly on a high diver 130 back took 4 bites.
ITO 8" Green Frog flasher paired with a Howie Frozen Pickle fly on a low diver 90 back took 2 bites.
Prototype 8" Chrome flasher paired with a Howie Green & Gold Crinkle fly on a low diver 130 back took 2 bites.
Dreamweaver 4" Silver Red Head on 5 colors of lead core took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver 4" Pinky on 7 colors of lead core took 1 bite.
Michigan Stinger Standard Pink Panties on 200 copper took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver Mini SS Wonder Veggie on the out-down rigger 50 down took 1 bite.
Michigan Stinger Standard Modified Coyote on 7 colors of lead core took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver Magnum Rhinestone Cowboy on 200 copper took 1 bite.
Superfly Magnum Frozen Banana on a slider 69 down took 1 bite.
ITO 12" White Meat Rig with Black and Green Dots on the out-down rigger 100 down took 1 bite.
What I Learned Today
It was nice hearing Logan went searching for the Lucky Ludington fishing coin yesterday. Unfortunately, he forgot one important step...you actually have to ask. Those things usually aren't sitting on the kitchen table with a spotlight shining on them. He did redeem himself by giving me an old Indian Head penny to add to my ever-growing collection of lucky...non-lucky...fishing coins.
We had a high diver wrap around the inside 200 copper. While untangling everything, I held the Pink Panties spoon in my hand and confidently announced, "The second this spoon stops drifting north and turns back south...it's getting bit." Sure enough...fish on. Sometimes you just have to talk nicely to your spoons.
Yesterday Duncan couldn't keep a salmon buttoned up. Today he turned into a salmon-catching machine. He did lose one...but somehow the official ruling was that it was Scott's fault. Scott, meanwhile, seemed to inherit all of Duncan's bad fish-losing mojo overnight. The only logical explanation is that Duncan transferred it to him during last night's concert while that drunk...or maybe high...guy was walking around giving everyone the stink eye as he danced the night away.
That's a wrap for another outstanding weekend.
We're packing up now and heading home by way of Norton Shores to drop Surgeon Jenn off before I switch back to work work and UWGB School – only 2 assignments left.
Next weekend should be another fun one. I'll be joining Eric Gustafson's crew with Logan, Gunner and Dan. If that bunch can't find a few hammers...they probably don't exist.
Continue Exploring with Pull Hard Fishing
If you made it this far in this blog and have got any value what-so-ever, please don’t be shy and leave me a google review or Facebook review:
400 W. Filer St., C1, Ludington, MI 49431 | Phone: 248-534-9202 | PullHardFishing@outlook.com
