Ludington Fishing Report: Banana Beer? Watermelon Gazpacho?

So, as any reasonable Ludington salmon guy knows, your program is supposed to improve over time. Day one is the warm-up, day two is the show! Yesterday there was 7 fish on 11 bites. Today should be legendary!

If you read these things, you know that pre-fish activities are crucial to establishing the boat mojo. Yesterday’s crew split up after fishing. Riley and friends: Ludington Bay, Pere Marquette Winery, a little golf with Nick, some Alley/Sandbar shenanigans. Me & special guest: Mini golf (because real golf is a scam), a winery cameo with Riley, Peter Pan Land, and Ludington Bay…where I ordered the watermelon mint gazpacho.

Now, as a card-carrying member of Soup’r Club™, I had to try this Gazpacho – I’m considering making gazpacho for the July 8th Soup’r Club™ meeting. Flavor-wise this was a home run – unbelievable - refreshing, well-balanced flavor. But texture? Not a chunk in sight – like it was made with a Breville juicer. I could’ve sucked it down with a straw. I need my gazpacho chewable please! Wait, this is a fishing report blog, not a soup club blog (yes, we do have one of those!).

I wrapped up my night by handpicking 20 primo lures for the Sunday Opening Lineup. The weather was stable – winds were calm – the barometer was doing something that seemed promising. I’m thinking we better only bring one bag of ice – two may take up too much room in the fish box with all the fish we’re gonna catch! Slept great! No running for me this Sunday. Great avocado, eggs and sourdough bread for breakfast. All was perfect!

Boat time was 5:01am. We left the dock with a plan to hit 120 FOW, a little south of yesterday’s start. This would give Nick and I time to get the 17 rods (plus 3 sliders = 20 lures!) into the water before the king salmon chaos. Nick and I were in the zone - line-setting machines. Legs muscles were well stretched – ready to run from one side of the boat to the other! The Lowrance screen was lit-up...thick hooks from top to bottom. The cannonballs dropping through fish and fish were chasing our lures. Everything pointed to “this is about to be insane.” Except… it wasn’t.

Cue up the troll speed debacle please. Normally, 900 RPM gets us 2.0–2.5 SOG, with the Fish Hawk in the same basic range. Today? 900 RPM = 3.0 SOG and 3.5 on the Fish Hawk Turn slightly? And the boat started to crab – and crab really bad! WTF is happening here? So, I turned us around and trolled south—instantly better. RPMs matched reality. Lines stopped looking like crap. But… still no bites – we did have a super-duper sunrise though!

Then came the big reveal - newbie Jake drank banana beer last night. Banana and beer…WTF? Game over. We were cursed. No amount of turning, speed tweaks, or lure changes could save us now. We had to be content seeing a set of balloons floating on the water – how fun…”look at the balloons, better get a picture!”.

We were in desperate times. We pulled the port out-down to change spoons and surprise! There was a dang laker hanging out, “Sup Laker? Check out the balloons!” Shoutout to Brendan for not effin it up! The skunk was avoided, and the fishing trip was a success. Thanks, Silver Streak Caramel Dolphin, you beautiful bastard. Also, thanks to the Rapala hook file for making those hooks needle sharp!

Then… the skies turned. The Lowrance radar showed yellow blobs from the south— The phone radar showed red and yellow storms north and heading south, towards us - which was weird because the wind was coming from the south. And that’s that! Anytime I’ve seen weather coming from the opposite direction as the wind, it’s never a good sign – 9am and pulling lines.

Hot Bites (or do I say Hot Bite?):

• Silver Streak Mag Caramel Dolphin, 85' down on the out-down = 1 laker

What I Learned Today:

• Riley’s new Xtra Tuffs from Chuck’s looked great… as she slept below deck the entire troll. Looking through my camera roll, we had a few sleepers! #SandbarWinsAgain

• Local dude Joe says the only way to cancel a banana curse is to toss the offender overboard and let them swim to shore. I suggested tying a rope around Jake and dragging him (he’s new and I didn’t want to be rude). Joe said that simply would not work so we just dealt with it.

• XM radio stations didn’t matter today. We got through Lithium and The Blend. Zero fish opinions.

• That 0.5 feature on the iPhone can really, really make a 4 lb laker look like a 20 lb laker! What a feature!

• Gazpacho can be delicious and still have texture problems. That’s the only real takeaway!

June Fishing is done! Next up is Fourth of July Weekend in Ludington! Fireworks, fish, food, and fun boat conversations (we need to get the Yeck Fireball to show). Can’t wait to see what kind of fun and chaos next weekend brings.