Ludington Fishing Report: Illegal Charter? A DNR Visit, a Speeding Ticket and Hot Sauce Prototypes
Fair warning...there are birdies flying everywhere in my head right now, and I don't like following up such a nice relaxing week with this many birdies. Seriously, the roughest part of my entire week was waking up Wednesday at 12:20am with one thought..."Oh man...how am I making BoatMeal™ in a crockpot with six people staying in the condo?"
That's the kind of stuff I like worrying about. Way better than work work or fishing politics or any politics.
I was absolutely fired up heading into this nine-day fish-a-thon. Three tournaments. Nine mornings on the water. Lots of opportunities to chase hogs.
Yesterday started with me leaving Howell a little early. The plan was simple. Return the smoker to Cabela's in Grandville, meet Surgeon Jenn in Norton Shores after she finished saving lives, then head north to Ludington. About ten minutes into I-96, however, I met the county sheriff. He was kind enough to award me my first speeding ticket since 1990. To his credit, he cut me a pretty nice break. He clocked me at 85 in a 70 and only wrote me for 75.
Good mojo? Bad mojo? We'll come back to that.
Cabela's turned into Meijer while waiting for Surgeon Jenn to finish doing real surgeon stuff. (She still laughs every time someone asks, "Wait...are you actually a real surgeon?")
We rolled into Ludington at exactly 4:03pm. Yes, we were timing it because I desperately needed a haircut. Walked up...Nice little sign on the door. Closed. Perfect.
Next stop was the boat to get rods ready, followed by a very discreet back-alley meeting with Ged from Yeck. Apparently cannonballs are now traded like this because lead is impossible to find. Mission accomplished. Then Wesco for ice. Then back to the boat to finish the opening lineup. Everything actually went smoothly for a change.
In the meantime, I can already tell tournament week changes Ludington. People get...different. Everybody suddenly has the secret spot. The secret lure. The secret speed. The secret moon phase.
Me? I'll keep doing what I've always done. If you ask, I'll tell you what we're running. I'll keep posting reports. The only downside is I have a feeling people may stop sharing information with me because they want to win that Happy Gilmore-sized paycheck. Worst case...I go back to eight bites.
Our crew this morning was me, Surgeon Jenn, Ricky from Waterford, Evan from West Virginia, Eli "The Son-of-a-Bitch" (that's literally how he introduces himself), and Jarrod "Habanero" Harmon.
Yep...Habanero Harmon…Best hot sauce guy on the planet.
Harmon and I met at the Grand Rapids show where he somehow fell in love with Soup Club. He's now our Platinum Sponsor, and we've been trying to get him fishing ever since. Finally happened today.
Now...North? South? Straight out? The iPhone wasn't giving us much, so we pointed south and set up just south of the projects. Unfortunately...There just weren't many fish home. Surface temp was 68 degrees with 42-degree water only 38 feet down.
We worked from 80 out to 160 FOW and managed two kings, one lake trout and one steelhead on five bites. Not exactly setting the lake on fire. "The Son-of-a-Bitch" did spend quite a while fighting what looked like a hammer before it finally came unbuttoned. Go figure.
Hot Bites:
Moonshine Magnum Agent Orange on 3 colors of lead core – 1 bite
ITO 12" White/Green paddle with meat rig on the chute rigger 127 down – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 4" Yellow Glow plug on the out-down rigger 65 down – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 4" Chrome Red Head plug on 5 colors of lead core – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 11" Charlie Special paddle with KRW Riverside fly on the chute rigger 135 down – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
We started the morning with exactly 791.7 engine hours. Didn't plan it. Didn't even notice until we were leaving. That's officially good mojo.
I'm still looking for the legendary Ludington Fighting Coin. Somebody has to know where one is.
Around 9:45am the DNR paid us a visit. At first I figured it was a routine inspection. Then the officer asked me for the name of every person onboard. Apparently someone reported that I'm running illegal charters. Interesting. We went through names, licenses, fish, life jackets, throwables...the whole inspection. We weren't exactly getting bit anyway, so it gave us a nice little mid-morning break and an opportunity to have a pretty entertaining discussion about whichever one of you decided to make that phone call.
BoatMeal™ reached another level today. The crockpot oatmeal itself was...fine. Habanero Harmon's hot sauce, however, completely stole the show. Absolutely incredible.
Speaking of prototypes...I'm fortunate enough to test prototype fishing tackle once in a while. Today I got to test prototype hot sauce too. I even put it on Nurse Chris' Nature Valley Biscuits. Sounds ridiculous. Tasted amazing. Honestly, I wanted to drink the stuff straight from the bottle but wasn't sure what proper hot sauce etiquette looked like.
Two comments absolutely made my day. At 5:55am, after landing his first fish, Harmon looked at me and said, "That's the biggest fish I've ever caught!" Then after Ricky landed his king he simply smiled and said, "This is the best thing that's happened to me all year."
My favorite part of the day was watching Surgeon Jenn completely run the boat. Setting rods. Explaining the spread. Teaching the program. Evan watched the whole thing and finally asked, "Hey...do you have a sister?"
Now it's time to get cleaned up, finish boat chores, throw on a suit and tie, stop by Captain Chuck's and then head over to a wedding in Irons.
Tomorrow is FSU Steve's on-the-water interview for the tournament crew. Surgeon Jenn, Alison and Jesse will also be aboard. The girls need some more rod-and-net teamwork before the Women's Tournament.
Let's see if tomorrow's birdies finally start flying in the right direction.
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
