Ludington Fishing Report: 30 Bites, 16 Fish & a Scuba Spy!
Today was lined up to be an epic morning. We totally took advantage of the extra hour of sleep. We had a solid plan, a box full of hot lures, and calm winds in the forecast.
We launched around 7am and started north, heading to the exact same 80 FOW we'd fished the last two trips. Our goal today was a 15-fish limit. I figured we'd catch more salmon right away and wouldn't have time to cull salmon for steelhead.
Winds sucked. Waves sucked. Fishing was awesome!
We had like a dozen bites in the first hour. There were picture-perfect blobs of bait with hooks around them for miles in 70–90 FOW, and that's where we stayed.
We lost a ton of fish, so it took us four hours to hit our 15th keeper, but we ended up with 6 steelhead and 10 kings on 30 bites! (Threw a baby steelhead back for you.)
Hot Bites:
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Magnum Charlie Special | Lead Core 3 Colors with 6 oz Snap Weight | 7 bites
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Magnum Charlie Special | Copper 200 Feet | 4 bites
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Magnum Jordo with Orange Stripe | Lead Core 2 Colors | 4 bites
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Standard Green Dolphin | Lead Core 3 Colors with 3 oz Snap Weight | 4 bites
Spoon | Moonshine Mini Green Slice | Copper 200 Feet | 3 bites
Spoon | Dreamweaver Mini SS Soda | Lead Core 7 Colors | 2 bites
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Standard Modified Coyote | Lead Core 7 Colors | 2 bites
Flasher/Fly | Bechold 8 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend Rapture Sweet Pea | High Diver 100 back | 1 bite
Flasher/Fly | Dreamweaver Paddle 8 Inch Closer Dreamweaver Pickled Pepper Vegan Rig | High Diver 150 back | 1 bite
Spoon | Yeck Standard Rasta Goose | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Plug | Bandit 5 Inch Purple Pink | Chute Long Line | 1 bite
What I Learned Today
We met a dude who calls himself "Scuba Jake" at the fish cleaning station, and we're trying to work a deal with him. He came proudly with a limit of lake trout. We helped him clean the trout, and he helped us with intel. You see, the spearfishermen can get five feet from the fish. He told us where he was and what he saw. I'm thinking we could employ a fleet of spearfishermen north, south, and straight out come tournament time. Only report to us, of course!
We apologize to the two boats we almost jacked up today. Boat one was in the middle of a Jeff/Logan meltdown where Surgeon Jenn and I were retying some bright mono on our 3-colors when three bites happened. The result was three lost fish and a wad of line on the deck. Boat two was when we'd just boated keeper number 15 and were pulling lines, happy to get moving and clearly not paying attention. Sorry to all, and we'll pay way more attention next time!
One of my goals today was to turn the heads of walleye gurus Mark and Timmy, also Bandit collector addict types. Against Logan's will, SJ and I ran a Bandit down the chute, 100 back, then a Church cone, then 250 back. It didn't take long, and we boated a king. A nice king, to boot! I can see Mark now up at Big Point with nine Bandits out!
My other goal was to prove or disprove snap weights for salmon trolling. Logan elected to run 200 coppers and 7-colors. SJ ran a 2-color, then we had a 3-color with a 3 oz snap weight, 100 feet, then board. Next, a 3-color with a 6 oz snap weight, 100 feet, then board. Those two snap-weight rods took 37% of our bites. There will be more to come on this find!
That's it for Ludington for a couple of weeks for me. Towing the Tundra back in a few. Gonna crack out the Breville and make some delicious green juice for the week. The usual work work and UWGB school stuff.
Surgeon Jenn is in Detroit later in the week for surgeon stuff, so we'll be keeping a close eye on Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair for next weekend. Then Logan is throwing a pop-up steelhead tournament on the 14th.
Wonder what Scuba Jake is doing on the 14th? If you see a diver down flag in the double zeros in 80 FOW, he’s all mine!
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