Ludington Fishing Report: Fishy Fingers...Best Fingers Ever!
It was going to be hard to beat yesterday’s awesome troll, but today we were going to give it a go. Surgeon Jenn and I had a great day fishing and after fishing yesterday, including a walk to the lighthouse and a trip to House of Flavors. Food food, not ice cream.
If you recall, yesterday went exactly to plan. Today, not so much. We had a few ups and downs first thing.
Our crew was me, Surgeon Jenn, Charlie Daniels, who is feeling much better, thanks for all the shout-outs, Petunia Josh and PJ’s buddy Luke, our 73rd fishing buddy of 2026 and from either Alabama or Missouri or Mississippi…or somewhere down there.
I thought we had a solid plan. Set lines in the channel, troll past the pierheads, turn south for ¾ mile, turn around and head north, and time it to hit the pierheads around 6:45am, when all the bites happened yesterday. Stay on a north troll until the rods stop popping, pull lines, head to our 200 FOW north and finish our 25-fish limit.
Like I said, solid plan…and…Ahh, none of that happened. Not even close, except the proximity part.
When we were running north at about 8:30am, we had one 8-inch throwback. I was thinking at least this wasn’t a technical skunk, and this was the first time since the inception of BoatMeal™ that I ate my entire BoatMeal™ without an interruption. That’s not a good sign.
We finally set up a little south of the bathhouse in 200 FOW and started getting bites right away. I’ll take what I can get at this point, but clearly we should have just started here.
We kept trolling north of Big Point and got zero bites from the point north. Once we got back south of the point, we started getting bites again.
We mustered up 6 kings, 2 steelhead and 1 coho on 13 bites.
Certainly not the morning we had scripted, but after having one tiny throwback at 8:30am, nine fish on 13 bites sounded pretty damn good!
Hot Bites:
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Magnum Purple Orange | Lead Core 2 Color | 3 bites
Meat Rig | Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch Dreamweaver Punisher | High Diver 200 back | 2 bites
Flasher/Fly | Prototype 8 Inch Chrome Howie Banks Frog | Low Diver 125 back | 2 bites
Spoon | Yeck Standard Malort | Lead Core 2 Color | 1 bite
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Magnum Carmel Dolphin | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Spoon | Mr. Chrome Magnum Blue with Black Dots | Lead Core 5 Colors | 1 bite
Spoon | Yeck Standard Goldilocks | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Spoon | Silver Streak Standard Imitation Chubster | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Standard Helmut Transparent UV | Lead Core 5 Colors | 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
I don’t watch, listen to or read the “news” and pride myself on getting my updates from others on the water. There were apparently some gems today about things happening in the world that I didn’t know about. I can’t remember what they were, though, so now I’m priding myself on not remembering them.
Josh seemed to make a rookie move by only bringing four Bud Lights for him and Luke in his Little Playmate cooler. They went fast! I also learned not to make “have another” comments when a new-to-me fisherman stumbles in the boat after a couple beers until I verify there are no prosthetics involved. Whoops! Sorry!
So far this year, Petunia Josh is the only person I’ve fished with who gets me so excited that I’ve actually jumped 1-2 feet off the deck of the boat. Yep, this time it was for NOT reeling…At all…Twice…Same fish…Lost it! I jumped!
Surgeon Jenn made Charlie Daniels a special BoatMeal™ with no cayenne and no hot honey because he’s been sick. Charlie: “That was really good…the best breakfast I’ve had in a couple days.” Me: “What did you have yesterday?” Charlie: “Nothing.” Me: “What did you have the day before?” Charlie: “Nothing.” Surgeon Jenn: “I’ll take the compliment!”
I think I heard Josh call us Michiganders “Michiganners.” No “d.” I think I like it. I’m going to try to start using it. Thanks, man!
While unloading the fish from the fish box into the cooler, I was down below putting my sunglasses away and properly overheard the quote of the day: “Fishy fingers…best fingers ever!” Yep. Petunia Josh.
I think I want to put a mic on and walk the pier while all the out-of-towners are fishing out there and play dumb. Well, maybe not play, but ask them questions like, “What are you fishing for?”, “Is this like saltwater fishing?”, “What’s that big net for?” and see what kind of intel I can get. I think it could be fun. Plus, I’ve never caught a fish off the pier. Perhaps I’ll actually learn how!
Keep in mind PJ was involved in an outing back in July that involved too many fish to fit in the boat. We cleaned eight today. And what did he bring to haul home the salmon fillets? Yep. The same Little Playmate that housed the four Bud Lights. He forgot his Bajio sunglasses. Forgot his custom-logo’d Yeti coffee mug. But remembered the cooler. Nice job, dude.
Tomorrow will be a big morning. We’re souper excited to have PJ and Luke back, but this time joined by Kate. We always fish well with Kate in the boat. I don’t care what tries to distract me between now and morning. We are going to head north, set up in our 140-150 FOW and slowly work our way out toward 200. That’s the plan.
And based on how well today’s plan worked...What could possibly go wrong?
Time to make some soup!
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