Ludington Fishing Report: El Lago Mojo? 14 Fish Later...I Still Don't Know
I ended up driving to Ludington Thursday afternoon, met Surgeon Jenn for dinner in Muskegon, then headed up to the condo for an early bedtime. I slept in Friday morning, which in my world apparently means 5:00am. Got up and knocked out 3.1 miles, including a five-minute halfway stop at the lighthouse to watch the pier fishing activity.
My highly scientific assessment? About 1 out of the 15 people appeared to know what they were doing. Or at least how to cast more than 20 feet.
Did some work work, hit Meijer, made a blueberry farm run, then headed down to the boat to get ready for the weekend.
Now this is where things started getting weird…El Lago…El Lago has been on the radar all week, thanks to Logan repeatedly referring to their food as a “culinary delight.” I have obviously been avoiding the place because of my longstanding commitment to El Rancho.
But I finally broke under pier pressure…Sorry, El Rancho…Jeff (not me), Goeff, Matt and I met Logan at El Lago. Also part of the weekend crew, but not at dinner, were Scotty, of walleye-jigging fame, and Rusty.
Logan wanted me to rate El Lago like a Soup Club meeting, so here we go…We were seated immediately. Well, Logan already had us a high-top table, so that's a plus…Our waitress was souper nice and seemed to know the menu. Everyone ordered and things were moving along exactly as expected. Then...We waited…And waited…And waited. No need for a stop watch here people. I'd say about an hour went by before Jeff (not me), finally asked if she could check on our food. Magically, it was ready!
I ordered their version of nachos. I was expecting one of those giant plates you see coming out of El Rancho that could feed a family of six. Nope. Small plate. Small pile of chips. Didn't even really look like nachos. I had to strategically work the complimentary basket of chips into the meal just to make the math work. But the taste? Dammit, Logan…Culinary delight. Then I checked the toothpicks. Individually wrapped and absolutely no apparent quality-control standards. Different sizes. Different shapes. Complete toothpick anarchy.
Lots of questionable stuff happening here…But the food was delicious enough that I landed on a solid 8.5/10. Logan also gave it an 8.5. The others refused to participate in our highly respected restaurant-rating process.
Now I had a much bigger problem. What happens to the fishing mojo? Is all the El Rancho juju gone? Is El Lago juju better? Does El Lago even have fishing juju? For that matter, does El Rancho actually have fishing juju? Maybe we're just that good at fishing? Suddenly all of life's major questions were flashing through my head…What is my purpose?...For what would I die? Did I just ruin an entire salmon season by eating nachos at the wrong Mexican restaurant? These are the questions that kept me awake way too close to my 9:00pm bedtime.
I got up at 3:30am, ran 1.5 miles and made it to the boat in time for us to leave the dock around 5:00am. And we were actually sticking to the plan! We ran about two miles south and set up in 45 FOW. Plugs….Plugs…And more plugs.
I didn't particularly enjoy Logan's version of “pier head fishing” the last time we tried it because apparently part of the program I involves other boats running directly toward you on plane. Turns out I still don't like that. There were a ton of marks though, which had everybody excited. We almost made it all the way back to the pierheads before turning deeper and finally picked up a small king on the turn.
Good enough for me…No skunk. Done here! We pulled everything and ran south of the projects, setting back up in 70 FOW on a southwest troll.
From there we slowly picked away…Nothing insane. No giant feeding frenzy. Just enough action to keep everybody busy and make me continue wondering whether El Lago had completely destroyed our mojo or actually improved it.
When we finally wrapped things up, we had 7 kings, 3 steelhead, 2 coho and 2 lake trout for 14 fish on 25 bites.
So...Good mojo? Bad mojo? I still have no freaking idea.
Hot Bites:
Yeck Standard Fireball | Lead Core 5 Colors | 4 bites
Warrior Mini Mixed Veggie Flutter | Lead Core 7 Colors | 2 bites
Moonshine Standard Green Knight Half Moon | Lead Core 10 Colors | 2 bites
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Isotope | High Diver 150 back | 2 bites
Michigan Stinger Standard Green Black Dots | Copper 200 | 2 bites
Prototype 8 Inch White / Dreamweaver Little Boy Blue | Low Diver 125 back | 2 bites
Bechold 11 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend / Rapture Sweet Pea | Chute Rigger 150 down | 2 bites
Northeast Troller Standard Black Eye Peas | Out Down 50 down | 1 bite
Dreamweaver 4 Inch Pinky | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Moonshine Mini Green Slice Non Glow | Out Down 64 down | 1 bite
Moonshine Mini Half Moon Non Glow | Slider 50 down | 1 bite
ITO 12 Inch Diabolical Black War Frog | Chute Rigger 100 down | 1 bite
Prototype 8 Inch Silver / Howie Green Crinkle | High Diver 150 back | 1 bite
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch Blue Bubble / Dreamweaver Blue Bubble | Low Diver 100 back | 1 bite
Unknown Standard Budweiser | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Michigan Stinger Magnum Modified Coyote | Lead Core 10 Colors | 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Rusty's new-to-him truck apparently broke down just as he pulled into town last night. I was sleeping, so I missed the excitement. Apparently a tow was involved.
Speaking of Rusty, I learned today that he'd never done the big-lake salmon thing before. Always an honor to introduce somebody to this ridiculous sport. I didn't even have to ask if he was new. First fish hits and Rusty is fighting it with his left hand below the reel. Yep…We've got ourselves a rookie! To his credit, his landing percentage was actually pretty good...provided either Scotty or I was holding the net.
Matt entered today's trip with a five-year moratorium on netting fish. Here's the thing. Once the first fish hits the deck and the skunk is officially gone, I become a little more relaxed about what happens next. Well...kinda.
We did lose a coveted Isotope meat rig while Matt stood there waiting for me to handline the fish directly to the boat. Fortunately, there's video evidence showing approximately four feet of perfectly usable net handle sticking out behind him. The five-year moratorium is officially under review.
I also learned that Jeff (not me), has some pretty major stuff getting fixed on Monday. If you know, you know. If you don't know, you probably don't need to know. Bottom line, the dude could use some good mojo sent his way.
And since we're talking about good people...Who has my back? Logan has my back! He went way out of his way to do something extraordinary for Surgeon Jenn and me, and we both appreciate it. Thanks, buddy!
Got a text from Alison too. No, surprisingly it wasn't about Big Fish Brad's salmon-based skincare routine. She was letting me know the Lakeshore Food Club fundraising dinner isn't happening this year. Bummer. I already told Alison, Logan and Wayne Brown that maybe we should just do something ourselves. Fancy Pull Hard dinner? This seems like something that could get completely out of control very quickly, which means I'm obviously interested.
Speaking of dinner, the new Andy's place opens tomorrow. It looks pretty cool. During my run in the dark this morning, the place was completely lit up with what appeared to be about 70 TVs running. Fantastic if you like TVs. Not fantastic if you're the dude paying the electric bill.
So where does all this leave us on the great El Rancho vs. El Lago Fishing Mojo Debate of 2026? We went 14 for 25. The crew seemed happy. We caught four different species. Nobody got skunked. BoatMeal™ was consumed. I'd normally call that good mojo. But would El Rancho have produced 18? Twenty? Twenty-five? See the problem? I went to bed confused and somehow came back from fishing even more confused.
Same crew tomorrow. They're currently walking around Ludington drinking beer and smoking stogies, which apparently is their preferred method of preparing their bodies for an early-morning salmon troll.
I have a special surprise planned for everybody tomorrow too. Some people are expecting to read about it in this blog, but it's big enough that I'm not quite sure how I want to announce it yet…So you'll have to wait.
As for fishing, the current plan is either to start straight out and a little south, T-bone the dumping box around 65 to 66 FOW, then pull lines and run north to the deep side of the bank...
Or...
Skip all that nonsense and just run straight north to the deep side of the bank. That's basically two completely different plans. Which means we're as prepared as ever.
Stay tuned.
Continue Exploring with Pull Hard Fishing
If you made it this far in this blog and have got any value what-so-ever, please don’t be shy and leave me a google review or Facebook review:
400 W. Filer St., C1, Ludington, MI 49431 | Phone: 248-534-9202 | PullHardFishing@outlook.com
