Ludington Fishing Report: 25 Fish, 33 Bites...Mission Accomplished!
It was shaping up to be a special four-day weekend before we even got to Ludington.
Surgeon Jenn had just finished seven straight days of hospital call, wrapping up at 6:00pm last night. Today was her well-earned day off, which conveniently rolls right into the weekend.
She could've gone absolutely anywhere…The beach…Sleeping…Spa day…Shopping…Instead she looked at me and said, "I really want to go big-water salmon trolling on Lake Michigan!" Now that's the kind of enthusiasm I can get behind…So I took the day off.
Our crew today was me Surgeon Jenn, Logan, Charlie Daniels and Logan's teacher buddy Ben, who got bumped from Saturday because my daughter Riley and her crew called dibs.
Yesterday wasn't exactly relaxing…I wrapped up work work at home, blasted over to Norton Shores to pick up Surgeon Jenn, then headed north. About fifteen minutes into the drive I found myself parked on westbound I-96...For 48 minutes…Completely stopped. I'm choosing to believe that was the universe getting all of the bad mojo out of the way before we reached Ludington.
Once we finally got there it was straight to the boat, rig rods, finalize the opening lineup and get to bed…Simple.
Logan started thinking during the week…His grand plan for today involved catching the morning king bite and then running out to 200-plus feet to drag the bottom for lake trout.
Personally...That sounded like voluntarily quitting king fishing while the kings were still biting. But after watching the charter fleet spend all week vacuuming up salmon from Little Point to Manistee...maybe he was onto something. I don’t know.
Then came the morning and me: "Sweet. Sunrise isn't until 6:40am now. Maybe I'll finally get to sleep a little longer."
Logan: "I'll be at the boat at 4:15am."
Cool…There goes that idea…We shoved off at 4:40am and headed north. About ninety percent of the fleet had the exact same idea. We followed the shoreline until we found an opening in the parade of navigation lights, cut west and set up in 160 FOW on a gradual troll offshore.
Apparently I'd rather risk getting skunked than troll shoulder-to-shoulder with a hundred of you wackos. (If that offended you...it was probably meant for you.)
Logan insisted we start with setting six outside long lines. His theory...Don't put the inside rods out too early or you'll catch fish before everything is fishing. I still think that's backwards, but...It worked perfectly. Six outside rods. No bites.
Seven inside rods were then set…Still no bites. Logan was thrilled. Mission accomplished! Right?
Only then...The fish started biting. I have to admit...The man might be onto something.
We picked away all morning with a couple nice little flurries. By the time we reached the 06 line we were sitting on twelve fish and decided to turn around.
That's when everything disappeared. Visibility went from forever...to about two-tenths of a mile. Now we had no clue what the rest of the fleet was doing. Not that I trust them anyway…So we pointed west. Apparently everybody else had the exact same brilliant idea.
We worked as deep as 350 feet before slowly sliding back toward 200. When we finally pulled lines at noon with 17 kings, 5 coho and 3 steelhead…so 25 fish on 33 bites. Mission accomplished. Five-man limit, not bad for a Friday.
Hot Bites:
Prototype 8 Inch Chrome / Howie Green Crinkle | High Diver 125 back | 5 bites
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch Black Slick Dreamweaver Isotope Meat Rig | Copper 300 | 5 bites
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch Black Slick Dreamweaver Isotope Meat Rig | Low Diver 150 back | 5 bites
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch Kavorkian meat rig | High Diver 150 back | 3 bites
Dreamweaver Paddle 8 Inch Blue Bubble / Dreamweaver Blue Bubble fly | Low Diver 85 back | 2 bites
Moonshine Mini Green Slice Non-Glow | Slider 43 down | 2 bites
Moonshine 4 Inch Green with Silver Ladder | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Moonshine 5 Inch JJ Mack | Lead Core 5 Colors | 1 bite
Moonshine 5 Inch Mongolian Beef | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Yeck Standard Chubster | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Yeck Standard Fireball | Lead Core 5 Colors | 1 bite
Yeck Standard Merica | Copper 200 | 1 bite
Dreamweaver Paddle 11 Inch Charlie Special / Rapture Sweet Pea | Chute Rigger 139 down | 1 bite
Bechold 11 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend / Rapture Sweet Pea | Chute Rigger 139 down | 1 bite
Dreamweaver 4 Inch Double Glow Pink Dots | Lead Core 5 Colors | 1 bite
Dreamweaver 4 Inch Bloody Nose | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Dreamweaver SS Hot Tamale | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch John King Kryptonite | Out Down 75 down | 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Staying away from the crowd paid off. One-on-one, most fishermen are great people. Put a hundred boats within casting distance of each other dragging around a couple thousand dollars worth of gear...I'll pass.
Logan officially proved he can reel in fish. Three fish. Three landed. Nice work, buddy.
It was great having Charlie Daniels back aboard. Half the fun is trying to figure out whether there's still actually a fish attached to his line.
Good mojo comes from giving stuff away. We donated salmon eggs to a couple Rockford baseball legends who are trying to become river fishermen. Payment? A promised five-star Google review. We'll see, boys. We also ran into the scooter chick again. She was begging for trout, so she left with a nice steelhead. They all taste the same, lady!
Making salmon soup now and finally answered one of life's great mysteries: "How do you pee while wearing a cooking apron?" Easy. Flip the apron over your shoulder and pin it there with your chin. Souper simple. You're welcome.
Logan threw us all for a loop by showing up in a collared golf shirt. He actually looked pretty sharp...kind of an old-school John Daly vibe. Of course, within an hour it had fish juice all over it, exactly as expected. Then came the quote of the day: "My mom's gonna kill me...I got fish on this shirt!" We all just kind of looked at each other. Buddy...you wore a golf shirt salmon fishing. What did you think was going to happen?
Tonight the condo gets a little busier…Riley, Jordan, Brendan and Danni are all rolling into town. And Riley's bringing the family lab...Appropriately named...Dipsy. I'm pretty sure Dipsy is already excited about tomorrow morning – getting fed early of course, he will not be part of the crew – sorry bud!
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400 W. Filer St., C1, Ludington, MI 49431 | Phone: 248-534-9202 | PullHardFishing@outlook.com
