Ludington Fishing Report: 63 Fish in Two Days and the Wheels are Falling Off

5/23/20264 min read

Ludington fishing continues to be absolutely red hot for our boat. Looking around, it seems red hot for basically every boat right now, but we’re gonna pretend we know way more than all the other boats deck loading 30-plus fish every morning. At least until the Fish Gods humble us again…which feels inevitable.

Before we get into today’s fishing report, we’ve got a few housekeeping items because apparently I now have four, maybe five readers, and they’re asking questions.

First, yes, we got our lost planer board back. A mystery person from Baldwin or Muskegon texted me saying they had found it. Then they sent another message saying they hid it somewhere in the woods off the beaten path. Totally normal behavior. So naturally I geocached that bitch and recovered it like some kind of salmon-fishing treasure hunt. Logan has already been using it again. Thank you mystery forest planer board person.

Second, we made sourdough pizza last night and it was fantastic. Caraway seeds in the dough. Excellent crust. Perfect fishing fuel. And just to clear the air here, I made the dough and the pizza. I’m capable of doing this without Surgeon Jenn. Now granted, hers tastes better. But honestly that might just be because food always tastes better when somebody else makes it. And especially when that somebody else is Surgeon Jenn. Eat the pizza.

Now onto this morning. Today’s randomized control trial lineup was: Me, Euge, Logan, Charlie Daniels, Kaedin, and Tim. Basically Tim replaced Riley from yesterday so we could continue investigating the scientific theory that Logan plus Euge equals automatic salmon destruction. Still leaning heavily toward that being the answer.

We left the dock ten minutes earlier this morning and immediately noticed something concerning. Word was out. There were probably 15 to 20 boats south stacked up around what appeared to be our little honey hole. Which raised an important question.

Did somebody read this blog? Fortunately, as we got closer, it became obvious most of the boats were fishing deeper. Meaning they clearly read somebody else’s blog. Do I have blog competition?

We slid into our normal zone north of the projects in 50 feet of water and immediately started cracking hammers. Yesterday’s bite was like somebody flipped on a light switch…Instant chaos…Three fish on…Then four…Then five…Then six.

Today was different. Today was more like a dimmer switch turned about one-third of the way up. Still hot. Still steady. Just less psychotic. Kinda perfect!

We had a few doubles. Logan had one ridiculous flurry that completely cleared his side except for one rod. The man is operating on another level right now.

We turned around sitting around 20 fish and then casually poked away at the last ten like it was no big deal.

Final tally: 25 kings. 6 lake trout. 1 steelhead. (we tossed back two mini kings.) Total: 32 fish on 39 bites.

Which means the two-day total now sits at: 63 fish on 73 bites. We figured out that works out to somewhere around seven to eight bites per hour.

Lots of records getting broken right now. We even weighed an 8.15 pound steelhead to officially break the ice for the Big King Bonanza steelhead category.

Hot bites included:

Moonshine small Steelie Ranger on 3 color – 3 bites
Stinger Brown Jelly Belly on 3 color – 1 bite
Moonshine Flounder Pounder RV standard on 5 color – 2 bites
Dreamweaver SS Copper Slurpee on 5 color – 1 bite
Stinger Pink Panties on 5 color – 1 bite
Dreamweaver SS Hot Tamale five times on 7 color – 5 bites
Spin Doctor Blue Bubble with Blue Bubble fly on 200 copper – 1 bite
Stinger Modified Coyote on 200 copper – 2 bites
Spin Doctor Dragon Slayer with green krinkle fly on high diver – 2 bites
Blue Stud 8” paddle with Blue Bubble fly on high diver – 1 bite
Dreamweaver SS Hot Tamale on out down hovering bottom – 2 bites
Logan magical prototype witchy spoon on out down – 1 bite
New standard Silver Streak on out down 45 down – 3 bites
Silver Streak standard Michael Jackson on free slider – 1 bite
Moonshine mini half moon JJ Mac on 7 color – 1 bite
Charlie Special Spin Doctor with Money Shot on high diver – 3 bites
Yeck Gold Fireball on 5 color – 3 bites
Mr. Chrome mini Wild Fire on 3 color – 5 bites
Showtime meat rig on high diver – 1 bite
Mind is mush and I’m probably forgetting two more bites.

What I Learned Today:

99% of my pictures with Kaedin in them feature him looking away from the camera. Still trying to fully assess this situation. There’s a strong possibility this somehow connects back to the eyebrow thing we discovered last year. More research required.
Tim has always claimed Miller Lite is a fish attractant and that there’s some kind of witchy connection between Yeck Fireball spoons and Fireball booze. Well…eyebrows are officially cocked (mine, not Kaedin’s). Yesterday was 30 fish with no booze. Today was 30 fish again -
But the bite noticeably slowed down once the beer came out. Now yes, Fireball booze was used to celebrate Fireball fish. BUT…We also lost our biggest fish of the season about nine and a half feet behind the boat on a Yeck Gold Fireball. So the science remains inconclusive.
Bigger salmon were definitely north of the projects. Tomorrow we’re planning to run straight to 50 feet and troll the contour line. You should probably pay attention to this bullet point if you’re fishing tomorrow.
So far the official scientific data says: Logan + Euge = 30-plus fish.
34 bites yesterday followed by 39 bites today takes a ridiculously long time to document and type up. But totally worth it if it put’s one more fish in your box!
If anyone is getting Charlie Daniels a sweatshirt as a gift, 2XL and please use scissors and cut the neckline!

Tomorrow we’re not planning to change much. Same crew. Possibly adding Sister Jenn (and yes, I’m beginning to wonder why I don’t just call her Jennifer in these blogs). Current goal is a 35-fish, 7-person limit. Which sounds exactly like the kind of cocky nonsense that’s about to get our luck completely shut down by the Fish Gods…Stay tuned.

Ludington Fishing Report: 63 Fish in Two Days and the Wheels are Falling Off

Continue Exploring with Pull Hard Fishing