Ludington Fishing Report: 16 for 29...The Temple's Found the Hogs But No Hammers!
Yesterday Surgeon Jenn and I made the trek back to Ludington to get the Tiara ready for another weekend. I caught an early flight home from work work in Orlando, drove to Norton Shores, picked up Surgeon Jenn and pointed the truck toward Ludington. After getting everything squared away at the boat and meeting up with most of the Temple family, we made the mandatory stop at El Rancho to restock our meat rig toothpicks and grab a great dinner. Priorities.
This morning started with a run while Surgeon Jenn whipped up BoatMeal™ for the crew. Before long we were pulling away from the dock at 5:05am with a simple game plan...go back to the same water we've been fishing for the last week and a half, stay there all day, and leave when we had a boat full of hogs.
Why overthink it?
Today's crew was Scott Temple, his girlfriend Lil, and son Duncan. We were missing Grayson and Megan this trip. Megan had to stay home with the new dog, and Grayson I’m still unclear as to the drama that kept him off the boat. I missed Megan because she's my Taylor Swift buddy, and I missed Grayson because he's just fun to have on the boat.
The Detroit Steelheaders were in town this weekend, and holy cow...it looked like somebody built a small city on Lake Michigan. Boats everywhere north!
We worked our way through the crowd fishing the bank north of the bathhouse, slid out into our water in 180 feet, and suddenly...Nobody. Not another boat around us…Fine by me.
We barely had all of our rods in the water before they started firing. And they just kept firing.
We worked that same stretch of water all morning and ended up putting 15 kings and one coho in the boat on 29 bites.
Hot Bites:
Prototype 8" flasher paired with a Howie Green & Gold Crinkle fly on a high diver 150 back led the way with 6 bites.
Dreamweaver 11" Charlie Special paddle paired with a Rapture Sweet Pea fly on the chute rigger 139 down matched it with 6 bites.
Moonshine Mini Green Slice (non-glow) on the out-down rigger 50 down took 3 bites.
Dreamweaver 8" Clear Purple paddle meat rig on a high diver 200 back took 2 bites.
Dreamweaver 8" Black Mamba Spin Doctor paired with a Red Pepper fly meat head on a low diver 150 back took 2 bites.
Dreamweaver 4" Silver Red Head Plug on 5 colors of lead core took 2 bites.
Dreamweaver 4" Pinky Plug on 7 colors of lead core took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver 4" Lucky Charms Plug on copper took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver 4" A-Bomb Plug on the out-down rigger 60 down took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver Mini SS Hot Tamale on 7 colors of lead core took 1 bite.
Dreamweaver Magnum Rhinestone Cowboy on 200 copper took 1 bite.
Mr. Chrome 8" Blue Hulk flasher paired with a Dreamweaver Pickled Sunshine fly on a low diver 118 back took 1 bite.
ITO 12" White paddle meat rig with Green and Black Dots on the out-down rigger 100 down took 1 bite.
Prototype 8" flasher paired with a Howie Little Boy Blue fly on a low diver 100 back took 1 bite.
What I Learned Today:
Duncan learned Lake Michigan salmon don't care how hard you're trying. He lost more fish than he would've liked, but he never quit battling. Best of all, he landed the last fish of the day, so I think his confidence is officially back. This sport is all about mojo, and I think he got a good dose of it before pulling lines.
Surgeon Jenn has reached the point where she can basically run the entire back of the boat herself. I think I disappeared on "break" for about half the morning and somehow everything kept running just fine. She might be ready to set the diver, fight the fish, hand-line it and net it...all by herself. That probably means my days are numbered.
The funny thing is our definition of fish sizes has officially changed. At the beginning of the season a 15-pound king was a hammer. Not anymore. Now those are just hogs. Apparently, hammers have moved into the 20 to 25-pound class. Lake Michigan has officially ruined us.
I've been fishing with Scott Temple since the early 1990s, and I'm pretty sure today was the heaviest box of fish we've ever put together. That's saying something after all these years. He's finally getting the hang of it.
Tomorrow we're planning on running the exact same program with the same crew. Hopefully we'll be adding Duncan's Pa from Irons, Michigan...that's P-A, not P-A-H...others may call him Dan Doyle. Some of you old-timers remember Dan from the Blue Water Classic days. Dan has a very simple technique for catching big kings. He tightens the drag...Yells at the fish a little…well a lot! And somehow has a 20-pounder at the back of the boat in about 45 seconds.
Hopefully Dan Doyle joins us tomorrow. If he does, expect a few kings to get yelled at before they make it to the net…any of you boats north will likely hear him. If not, we'll stick with the same five of us, head to the same water and hope the hogs are still home.
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