Ludington Fishing Report: Last Chance at BKB Session 1...We Went 16 for 19!
Alright! July 3rd. The final day of Big King Bonanza Session 1…That means I need a 21-pound salmon, an 11-pound steelhead, a 25-pound lake trout and a 10-pound brown trout. In other words...we're hog hunting today. Right now we're sitting in third place in the king division and that's it. Time to see if we can change that.
Yesterday's mojo prep kinda backfired…I worked work until 3:40pm, then headed to Muskegon to pick up Surgeon Jenn after she wrapped up seven straight 12-hour on-call shifts at the hospital saving lives. We boogied north to Ludington and, naturally, made a stop at El Rancho.
We had a tight schedule. Eat. Prep the boat. Get to bed…Average wait time at El Rancho has been 4 minutes and 31 seconds…Oh wait...it's July in Ludington. How silly of me. Official wait time: 32 minutes and 5 seconds. Yes, we started the stopwatch.
That little adventure put us behind by about a half hour. Then it was Wesco for ice, down to the boat to rig the opening lineup and finally to bed...whenever that ended up being.
The reward? A whopping 63 sleep score…Outstanding. I still managed to squeeze in a 15-minute run before daylight to get the blood flowing, and we left the condo at 4:40am...right in the middle of a rainstorm.
Our crew today was me, Surgeon Jenn, Euge, Tim and Sister Jenn.
We blasted north and set up just above the bathhouse in 142 FOW. Check out the Lowrance screenshot...fish were absolutely everywhere.
We were still setting our 15-line spread when we landed our first fish. More importantly, it guaranteed we wouldn't get skunked. Then...Nothing.
We had lines in just before 5:30am and by 6:50 we had only five fish in the box. Unfortunately none of them were Big King Bonanza material…Time for a change.
I pointed the boat west looking for different water and eventually found what we were after in 325 to 350 FOW. Now we had players. The deep-water troll finally came alive and we picked away the rest of the morning, finishing with 16 fish on 19 bites.
Not the Bonanza fish we were after, but it sure felt good finally putting together a legitimate deep-water program.
Hot Bites:
Dreamweaver 8" Blue Bubble Spindoctor paired with a Dreamweaver Blue Bubble Fly on a high diver 250 back – 6 bites
Dreamweaver 10" Spindoctor paired with a Dreamweaver White Ghost Fly on a low diver 200 back – 3 bites
Moonshine Mini Green Slice (non-glow) on the out-down rigger 90 down – 3 bites
Dreamweaver 11" Charlie Special paddle paired with a Rapture Sweet Pea Fly on the chute rigger 150 down – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 8" Spindoctor paired with a Dreamweaver A-Bomb Fly on a high diver 250 back – 1 bite
Mr. Chrome 8" Green Hulk flasher paired with a Rapture Sweet Pea Fly on a low diver 150 back – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 8" Charlie Special Spindoctor paired with a Rapture Sweet Pea Fly on the out-down rigger 90 down – 1 bite
Moonshine Mini Green Slice (non-glow) on a slider 90 down – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 11" White Crush paddle paired with a KRW Riverside Fly on the chute rigger 120 down – 1 bite
Silver Streak Standard Chubster Imitation on 3 colors of lead core – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
We never found our Bonanza fish, but it was nice feeling like we finally had a legitimate deep-water program. At least for one morning.
Add chopped pear to your BoatMeal™. Absolutely delicious. Oh...and I officially have the mother load of cayenne pepper now. We're set for a while, Charlie Daniels.
Speaking of food...Nurse Chris' Nature Valley Cinnamon Almond Butter Biscuits officially get credit for starting the deep-water flurry. Sorry Todd...I texted you about the Blue Bubble. I texted you Yacht Rock. Completely forgot to mention the NVBs.
I'm getting surprisingly comfortable in front of the camera. We shot a few sample fish-cleaning videos today and I thought they turned out pretty darn good.
We officially adopted After Fishing Mints™ into our program. Yep, just like a fancy restaurant. As soon as we throttle back inside the harbor after a hard morning of fishing, everyone gets one delicious After Fishing Mint™. I have absolutely no clue if they improve fishing mojo, but they definitely improve breath.
Most importantly, I learned I have a couple of souper fans. Johnny and Chief from Dog House stopped by the fish cleaning cage just to say hi...all the way from F Dock! Yep, Chief is actually his real name. It's even on his driver's license. They even looked at Surgeon Jenn and said, "You must be Surgeon Jenn!" That made my day.
I've got a new smoker waiting for me in Ludington, so I need to fire that up before trusting it with salmon. We've also got to respool a downrigger and pick tomorrow's opening lineup.
Tomorrow is the Fourth of July in Ludington…Big decisions ahead…
Do I sign up for the one-mile run and parade my clumsy, out-of-breath self down the street in front of 30,000 people?
Then there's the usual question...North? South? Straight out?
Sister Jenn and Tim are heading home after the morning bite, and I'm still not sure what Euge's doing.
I guess we'll figure out all life decisions at the pierheads...just like always.
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