Ludington Fishing Report: 50 Bites and Cherry Pie Mojo Morning

6/6/20266 min read

Lot’s of organization birdies got shot down yesterday and new ones immediately started flying around my head. Fish On For Freedom got cancelled and I originally thought I had seven people fishing today with the lake supposed to be a little sporty I would rather have less…Then realized Surgeon Jenn was leaving yesterday at 5pm for 6pm hospital call duty, so now we’re down to a manageable six. Then Euge and Uncle David decided to split after FOFF got cancelled, so now we’re down to four. Then Bad Chad bailed…down to three.

Then I ran into Glenn. Remember Glenn? Vietnam vet whose wife Wendy is the cherry pie chick. So now back to four. Then Charlie Daniels got recruited and we landed on a perfectly stealthy five-man crew.

Mojo prep officially started yesterday with a long bike ride through Ludington. Had to check the lake and confirm we were definitely not fishing. Then rode basically the entire town. Badger, marinas, downtown…all the things. Even did a lap around Dreamweaver HQ, otherwise known as the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory for salmon fishermen. I would officially like to submit a special Halloween request: Shane as Willy Wonka and Logan as an Oompa Loompa. Please make this happen this year.

Next stop was the post office. I listed some new Howie tackle stuff for sale and Zack from upstate New York wanted one single fly. Apparently it’s some kind of magical hard-to-find collector item that Lake Ontario Kings jump in the boat to bite. Naturally this instantly triggered my fishy curiosity and made me want to keep it for myself. So I slept on it. Then my mojo brain decided the correct move was mailing the fly to the dude for free. Good karma. Turns out he had me throw a few more items in the box and sent me $40 anyway. Square deal and mojo preserved.

Then it was off to the boat for some battery monitor installation work. Surgeon Jenn was the perfect helper while we ran wires with glow rods. Seriously…where was she in 2022 when I rewired all the electronics? Everything worked perfectly and we even mounted a few hat holders to get hats off the counter and make the boat slightly less chaotic.

Now for Fish On For Freedom at the American Legion…I figured normally there’s probably around 200 people involved and with the event cancelled maybe less than half would show up. Nope. Still a really strong turnout which was great to see!

You could tell Myndi was pretty emotional Thursday night having to announce the cancellation to all the captains. She puts her whole heart into this thing and still did a fantastic job MC’ing the Legion event. It really does make a difference having good people running events like that. Great food. Good spirits. Got to see Pull Hard on the trophy again. We’ll get them next year.

After Surgeon Jenn left, I made a few much-needed updates to my bite tracking app and waited for Tim and Tony before finally trying to sleep for my 3:50am alarm.

The plan this morning was meet at the boat at 4:45am. Crew was supposed to be me, Tim, Tony, Glenn and Charlie Daniels. Then I woke up at 2am to, well…you know…pee. Checked my phone and there was a text from Logan saying he’d be at my boat at 4:30am. Sweet! Of course now we needed 30 fish for the limit. All good.

We got to the boat and there was a neatly packed picnic basket sitting there. Looked suspiciously like Wendy’s work. Yep…cherry pie. One fish and a cherry pie would officially make the morning complete.

BoatMeal™ was hot. Motors were purring. And as usual, we had absolutely no clue whether we were heading north, south or straight out. That decision gets made at the pierheads…just like always. When we got to the pierheads the water was calm and the fog was thick. Perfect setup to run north to the bank.

After playing a real-life video game using radar and avoiding boats in the fog, we set up in 100 FOW just north of the bath house and there were marks absolutely everywhere.

Too many cooks in the kitchen setting lines quickly got interrupted by bites…and they just kept coming. We worked the 95-110 FOW line around the point to the 06’s before eventually turning around. Then we ran all the way out to 380 FOW to see if Logan’s little honey hole was still active. Dead. Logan shrugged and said: “At least we know.” Yep.

At this point we were sitting on 26 fish in the box, 5 throwbacks and 43 bites total.

Normally we probably would’ve called it good right there, but the consensus was to reset in 95-110 FOW and work south around the point until 1pm.

Goals were simple: 6-man kept limit. 50 bites. Maybe both.

For a minute there it got REAL exciting. We got the final seven bites needed and officially hit 50 total bites…which is an absolute first for me. Unfortunately we only landed three of the last seven. One fish short. Shake my head.

We ended up with 1 lake trout, 1 pink salmon, 2 coho, 2 steelhead, 28 kings (threw back five mini kings).

Final tally: 34 fish ON 50 BITES! That sentence still sounds fake typing it.

Hot Bites:

Lead Core 5 Colors – Spoon – Michigan Stinger Standard Glow Circus Freak – 7 bites
High Diver 133 – Flasher/Fly – Dreamweaver 8” Blue Bubble with Blue Bubble Fly – 6 bites
Lead Core 3 Colors – Spoon – Yeck Standard Chubster – 4 bites
Slider 50 Back – Spoon – Warrior Mini Fludder Red Head Blue Dolphin – 4 bites
Chute Rigger 75 Back – Flasher/Fly – Dreamweaver 11” White Slick with Pickle Sunshine – 4 bites
Lead Core 5 Colors – Spoon – Michigan Stinger Standard Blue Veggie – 3 bites
Slider 67 Back – Spoon – Dreamweaver Standard SS Soda – 2 bites
Out Down 65 Back – Spoon – Dreamweaver Standard SS Hot Tamale – 2 bites
Lead Core 5 Colors – Spoon – Michigan Stinger Standard Charlie Special – 1 bite
Lead Core 7 Colors – Spoon – Moonshine Standard Green Flounder RV – 1 bite
Low Diver 111 – Flasher/Fly – Dreamweaver 8” John King White Crush – 1 bite
Out Down 60 Back – Spoon – Dreamweaver Magnum Rhinestone Cowboy – 1 bite
Out Down 67 Back – Spoon – Dreamweaver Magnum Fuzzy Soda – 1 bite
Copper – Spoon – Dreamweaver Magnum Fuzzy Green Slice – 1 bite
Lead Core 7 Colors – Spoon – Moonshine Standard Raspberry Carbon – 1 bite
Lead Core 7 Colors – Spoon – Michigan Stinger Standard Mod Coyote – 1 bite
Lead Core 3 Colors – Spoon – Dreamweaver Standard SS Goldie Locks – 1 bite
Out Down 60 Back – Spoon – Moonshine Standard Green Blue Flounder Half Moon – 1 bite
Lead Core 5 Colors – Spoon – Moonshine Mini JJ Mac Half Moon – 1 bite
Lead Core 7 Colors – Spoon – Michigan Stinger Standard UV Granny Smith – 1 bite
High Diver 230 – Flasher/Fly – Dreamweaver 8” White Slick with Pickle Sunshine – 1 bite
Lead Core 10 Colors – Spoon – Mr. Chrome Magnum Radio Active – 1 bite
Slider 75 Back – Spoon – Mr. Chrome Mini Yeah Mon – 1 bite
Out Down 75 Back – Spoon – Silver Streak Standard Chubster Imitation – 1 bite
Out Down 75 Back – Spoon – Yeck Standard Golden Goat – 1 bite
Slider 75 Back – Spoon – Mr. Chrome Mini Starfire – 1 bite

What I Learned Today:

The bite tracking app project is progressing nicely. Regardless how simple any app is, logging 50 bites while salmon are flopping around everywhere is still complete chaos…but we nailed it today.
I find myself saying more and more that landing trolling fish is a two-person job. Netter and rod dude working together makes all the difference. Got a great video of Logan and Charlie Daniels showing this perfectly.
The cherry crop got crushed this year around Hart - frost. Glenn somehow found cherries at a local store and Wendy turned them into an absolute pie masterpiece. Let’s just say Tony was caught licking the pan.
Had a special visit from the FSU Athletic Director. I’m beginning to think universities may eventually launch NCAA salmon fishing and he was there scouting recruits. Unfortunately, I’m already committed to UWGB, but I appreciate the interest.
Feeling very grateful and humbled by all the great company and fishing lately. So far this season I’ve fished with 30 different people. No app tracks this…just an old spreadsheet. And I’ve genuinely enjoyed fishing with almost every single one of them.

I have absolutely no clue what’s happening tomorrow. More organization birdies are flying around now. Originally thought it would be same crew minus Logan. Then Glenn had plans. Now Charlie has plans. So currently it’s me, Tim and Tony and we’re hiring. Might need to go get the boat blessed at 5pm and start recruiting random people again. Stay tuned.