Ludington Fishing Report: Ladies Am 4th Place...Right at the Buzzer!
The Ladies Tournament has always been one of my favorites. Back in 2020 my daughters decided they'd had enough of the kids tournament and wanted to fish with the ladies instead. We ended up winning the whole thing. We've cashed a few checks since then, but that first-place trophy has been avoiding us ever since. We figured we were due.
Our crew today was Surgeon Jenn, Elise, Sister Jenn, Alison and Jesse. The ladies were ready…Ready to have fun…Ready to cash a giant check…Ready to hoist a giant trophy.
We pointed the Tiara north, ran past the bathhouse and headed out to about 165 FOW before setting up on a gradual troll into deeper water. Apparently a few more of you decided our water looked pretty good because there were a lot more boats joining the party today.
Fine by me.
It's always entertaining watching boats from out of town troll Ludington. Everybody has their own system. Some of them look...creative. Maybe they're still recovering from tournament festivities the night before. Either way, we found fish.
And then things got ridiculous…We had another outstanding king bite going when all of a sudden...Five rods. Five screaming drags (well, clickers off of course!) Five women with rods in their hands…Absolute chaos…Absolute perfection. And somehow...They landed every single one. I don't know if I've ever watched five simultaneous hookups get converted into five fish that smoothly. The ladies absolutely crushed it.
By about 9:30 we were sitting on nine kings when we had to stop for a little maintenance project involving the chute rigger. While Surgeon Jenn and Jesse untangled the paddle, we figured...Why not sneak a 12-inch meat rig down to 139 feet? We were sitting in 280 FOW.
It lasted about ten seconds…Fish on…HOG! Alison grabbed the rod and worked in a beautiful 18-pound lake trout.
Now the wheels started turning. We figured our best four fish weighed somewhere around 64 pounds, but we really needed either another lake trout or a steelhead to round out the box.
I wasn't about to sit in 350 FOW hoping to get lucky. We yanked lines in record time and ran straight out to the area where we'd hooked a steelhead earlier in the week.
The clock was ticking…At 12:45pm...Fish on…and it was jumping…Steelhead! Right at the buzzer. Mission accomplished.
When everything was over we finished with 9 kings, 2 lake trout and 2 steelhead on 20 bites.
For a little while...We were sitting in first place. Unfortunately we've learned a valuable lesson this year. Never count your chickens before they hatch. By the time the scales closed, we ended up finishing fourth with just over 72 pounds on our best five fish.
Still an awesome day.
Hot Bites:
Dreamweaver 8" Blue Bubble Spin Doctor with Dreamweaver Blue Bubble fly on a high diver 111 back – 4 bites
Dreamweaver 11" Charlie Special paddle with Rapture Sweet Pea fly on the chute rigger 139 down – 4 bites
Prototype 8" White flasher with Dreamweaver Little Boy Blue fly on a low diver 85 back – 4 bites
Michigan Stinger Magnum Modified Carmel Dolphin on 5 colors – 2 bites
Dreamweaver Magnum Rhinestone Cowboy on copper – 2 bites
Dreamweaver Mini Hot Tamale on copper – 1 bite
ITO 12" Meat Rig (Green & Black Spots) on the chute rigger 139 down – 1 bite
Yeck Standard Goldilocks on 7 colors – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 8" Lake Trout Candy Spin Doctor with Wonder Bread Spin-N-Glo on a low diver 180 back – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Logan apparently believes in paying off fishing bets the same way Wimpy paid for hamburgers. Two bucks today...maybe another dollar tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it.
Alison discovered that squeezing an 18-pound lake trout makes it...well...poop. She thought this was absolutely hilarious. I still don't understand why. Too much Fireball, apparently.
Five women...five rods...five fish. That may have been the coolest few minutes I've watched all season.
The emergency steelhead run with fifteen minutes left actually worked. Sometimes crazy plans beat good plans.
I'm beat…The crew is beat…I give you folks who fish these multi-day tournaments all over the Great Lakes a ton of credit.
The wind is already starting to build, and there's a pretty good chance tomorrow gets called. I love fishing...But if this tournament magically turns into a one-day Sunday shootout...You won't hear a single complaint coming from Condo Pull Hard.
Besides...We just got back from El Rancho. The mojo has officially been replenished.
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
