Ludington Fishing Report: 35 Bites, 21 Fish...And We Still Need a Freaking HAMMER!
I pulled another last-minute audible that may or may not have been the right move. My mini-bout with Mother Nature continues. Coming into this holiday weekend, the wave forecast looked absolutely beautiful. Friday through Monday, all four days showing less than one-foot waves! That, combined with the fact that the Big King Bonanza ends Saturday, had me driving north last night. Of course, there was the mandatory Muskegon stop to have dinner with Surgeon Jenn. She's on call all weekend taking care of all you sick and accident-prone people, she thanks you for job security.
I met Logan at the boat last night and, boy, did we concoct a plan. We don't know if we're going north. We don't know if we're going south. We don't know if we're going straight out. We do know we're fishing deep. We also know there will probably be a bunch of tangles, especially on port, and we picked out an entire arsenal of plugs and flashers. So basically...we're ready!
Today's crew was me, Logan, Blake, the painter at Dreamweaver Lures, and Kelly Ross, an internet stalker who submitted a resume last week to help get me to 70 fishing buddies. See? Doesn't hurt to ask!
Rain was in the forecast, so no morning run. I know, I know..."It's only rain." That's fine for fishing. But I hate running and love fishing. There's a difference when you throw rain into the mix. I woke up to a massive storm sitting over Wisconsin and heading directly toward Ludington. Immediate one-hour delay. New meeting time at the boat...6:00am. So much for the six fish by 6:00am goal. At this point I was thinking two things. First, I hope we get to fish at least a little bit today. Second, I don't give a shit about six fish by 6:00am anymore. WE NEED ONE FREAKING HAMMER!
Heading into today, the Big King Bonanza leader, with projected winnings of $4,480, was sitting at 26.35 pounds. Eighth place, which is still worth $256, was 23.60 pounds.
The biggest king caught on my boat ever is exactly 27.00 pounds. So can we catch one big enough to win this thing? Absolutely. Is it going to be easy? Apparently freaking not. We need the hammer!
We met at the boat at 6:00am. Then we waited…and waited…and waited some more. It turned into a tough 2½-hour wait sitting on the boat watching Logan watching the weather. We were just about ready to take Logan's recommendation, say screw it and go get breakfast when I got a text from Jackpot Todd…They were heading down the channel.
A quick phone call later and...GAME ON! We pulled away from the dock and headed north. Ran up around the bathhouse and set up in 120 FOW. I figured there was about a 50/50 chance we'd be pulling lines within an hour and heading right back in…That just simply wasn't the case.
For the next three hours, we pretty much had fish on the entire freaking time. One ShitShow™ after another. Logan produced some tangles. I produced some tangles. Everybody produced some tangles. These fish were feisty!
When it was all said and done, we had 2 coho, 1 brown trout...yes, you read that correctly...and 18 kings. That's 21 fish on 35 bites! We actually threw the last king back…and it was a hog.
Apparently that's where we're at now…Twenty-one fish…Thirty-five bites…Throwing hog kings back…and...STILL NO FREAKING HAMMER!
Hot Bites
Flasher/Fly | Bechold 11 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend / Rapture Sweet Pea | Chute Rigger 139 down | 9 bites
Flasher/Fly | Pro Troll 8 Inch Green / Dreamweaver Pickled Sunshine | Out Down 150 down | 6 bites
Flasher/Fly | Prototype 8 Inch Chrome / Howie Green Gold Crinkle | High Diver 240 back | 5 bites
Meat Rig | Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Punisher | High Diver 250 back | 4 bites
Plug | Silver Horde 5 Inch Seahawk | Copper 300 Feet | 2 bites
Plug | Silver Horde 5 Inch White Lightning | Copper 400 Feet | 2 bites
Meat Rig | Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Isotope | Low Diver 150 back | 2 bites
Spoon | Dreamweaver Mini SS Wonder Veggie | Slider 78 down | 2 bites
Spoon | Dreamweaver Magnum Rasta Goose | Out Down 75 down | 1 bite
Plug | Silver Horde 5 Inch Pink Lightning | Lead Core 10 Colors | 1 bite
Plug | Moonshine 4 Inch Raspberry Carbon | Copper 200 Feet | 1 bite
What I Learned Today
Although Logan and the crew worked great together today, I'm crediting this entire trip to Jackpot Todd. Not only did he send the text that finally got us off the dock, he also met me at Wesco early this morning and handed me a true blessing for the boat. It's not quite Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin level...but it's pretty damn close. I need to figure out the proper way to reveal this thing. And yes, the exchange looked exactly like a drug deal. Both of us looking over our shoulders while the goods changed hands. Totally normal fishing stuff.
Another surprise bit of mojo came via text from Andy, dad of the Yavello CROs. His son Oliver is back in school and apparently could've drawn a picture of anything he wanted about what he did this summer. He chose our fishing trip! Oliver created an absolute masterpiece. Picture included. And yes, it's considerably better than Logan's artwork. Like...not even close.
Blake doesn't just paint all that Dreamweaver stuff you people buy. Today he proved he knows how it's supposed to be used too. Let's just say when you've got the meat-rig tyer-upper and the airbrush artist on the same boat, good things happen. Afterward Blake sent Logan a text: "That was the most fun I've ever had fishing..." Now, technically, the text went to Logan. But I'm claiming it as directed toward me…Sorry, Logan!
Kelly submitted his fishing resume last week and I bit. Turns out he's quite the fisherman. You could tell immediately that he knows his way around a trolling boat, and he fit right in. Kelly did say his absolute favorite parts were the BoatMeal™ and After Fishing Mint™. Smart man. And more importantly...Fishing Buddy #70! We did it!
Speaking of the After Fishing Mint™...LOGAN TOOK TWO! To be fair, he earned them…and ate them both. He chewed them, though. Personally, I find considerably more pleasure in letting the After Fishing Mint™ slowly dissolve…Just saying.
The fishing deck absolutely sucks without a washdown pump. My hose nozzle broke right in my hand today, so a quick trip to Lowe's was required. I now own two. Problem solved. What's right next to Lowe's? Dunham's! Got myself another Becky. What's on the way back from Dunham's? Captain Chuck's! And everything is 15% off! Picked up four more Sweet Pea flies for me and one for Logan. Sometimes the universe just lines things up for you. Feeling blessed.
Tomorrow is THE DAY! Last day of the Big King Bonanza. Last Logan Pop-Up Tournament. I think I've got me, Logan, Euge, Sister Jenn and Tim for the morning. The obvious wild card should be Euge, with approximately 28 health issues and counting. But I'm starting to think the real wild card is Logan. We hung today's fish and started cleaning…Logan split. Why? Because apparently catching 21 fish this morning wasn't enough and he had to go fish the evening troll on his uncle's boat. Last time that happened, he didn’t show up the next morning citing “too tired.” I'm watching you, Logan.
And finally, to prove to Logan that hardly anyone actually reads this crap, here's tomorrow's fishing plan: Lines in the water at 5:30am, straight out from the bathhouse in 130-150 FOW, outside of the pack, trolling north. Let's see who shows up!
Wait...I suppose lots of people could actually read this and assume I'm lying…or maybe they have a hotter spot and don't care…or maybe they'll purposely go somewhere else because they read where I'm going. Now I've confused myself…Back to work!
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