Ludington Fishing Report: Logan Finally Asked...And We Have THE COIN!
Day 2 with the Matt Brown crew of Jeff (not me), Geoff, Scotty, Matt and Rusty.
But today isn't really about the Matt Brown crew…Today is about something much bigger…The Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin.
This thing has been on our radar basically since New Year's. Surgeon Jenn, Logan and I have managed to scrape together a collection of old Ludington coins that kinda, sorta lean in the right direction, and apparently they've worked. We're having our best fishing year ever, so I'm certainly not taking them off the boat.
But none of them were THE Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin.
We've looked everywhere…Estate sales. eBay. Antique stuff. Random sales. Garbage picking. You name it, we've probably tried it. Now, if I've had one critique of Logan during this six-month treasure hunt, it's that the dude simply refuses to ask anyone: "Hey, I'm looking for a Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin. Do you have one?"
He'll look around…He'll inspect stuff…Perhaps a sniff or two…He'll leave. JUST ASK!
We were breaking this whole thing down at El Lago Friday night when Logan finally got a little testy. "That's it. I'm texting Ed."
He whips out his phone and sends Ed a text.
I'm sitting there thinking...if this works, why the hell didn't we do this six months ago?
Friday night I woke up at 10:12pm. Well, technically I don't think I ever really fell asleep. I was still tossing and turning over the whole El Rancho/El Lago fishing mojo controversy.
Then Surgeon Jenn and I get a text from Logan: "A deal has been made!! Ed is a tough negotiator...you are costing me a fortune..." Attached to the text was a picture…THE COIN!
Holy shit.
Logan showed up at the condo Saturday afternoon with the Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin in hand and graciously handed it over.
He refuses to tell me exactly what this transaction cost him. What I do know is that two Dreamweaver plugs were involved, along with an undisclosed amount of something.
Cash? Other fishing tackle? Future considerations? Draft picks? Nobody knows.
Logan did say he was at Ed's for quite a while and that this coin meant a lot to him.
Ed, if you're reading this, and Logan thinks you do, that could officially bring us up to eight or nine readers, thank you for reading and for parting with the coin! I'll add it to the Pull Hard boat mojo inventory and treasure it until I eventually pass it along to another worthy fisherman in about 44 years when I finally quit all of this.
So now we don't have to worry about Mexican restaurant fishing mojo anymore. We have THE COIN! Well...that's probably not true…I'll always worry about Mexican restaurant fishing mojo. It's just considerably less important now.
The coin should work north. It should work south. It should work straight out. Right? Ugh. Another piece of the puzzle.
Then another thought crossed my mind…Should I even post this? Am I going to show up next Friday and find somebody pillaging through the Tiara looking for the Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin?
Let me make something very clear: A stolen Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin is EXTREMELY bad luck. I'm talking 30 years of Schleprock-level shit following you around. Don't do it.
Anyway...Up at 3:30am this morning. No run. No time for that nonsense today. The crew was up and moving, and we left the condo before 4:30am. Perfect. Ice. Boat. Ready to roll.
Oh wait…The marina men's bathroom wasn't working…You see, most salmon fishermen have their morning bathroom break timed with military precision. You start messing with that schedule and the entire Ludington salmon fleet can collapse.
Fortunately, the condo is right across the street…Total delay: approximately 6.5 minutes. Crisis averted.
We ran north toward the bathhouse, crossed through the line of boats working the bank and set up outside everybody in 165 FOW. Take a look at the Lowrance picture. For about the first two hours, there were hogs stacked underneath the Tiara. Lots of them. The screen looked fantastic.
There was just one minor problem…They didn't give a shit about any of our plastic and metal offerings.
I talked with a couple other boats and they weren't experiencing the feeding frenzy those marks seemed to warrant either. WTF?
We stayed outside the fleet, which has pretty much become our normal program. Did it pay off? Kind of. Not really. Maybe?
We had 11 bites and ended up boating 6 kings and...wait for it...ONE BROWN TROUT!
Yep! Our first and only brown trout of the entire 2026 season. We've been looking for that stupid thing all year.
Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin comes aboard...BAM…Brown trout. Coincidence? Please. Apparently this thing has exactly the souper powers we've been expecting.
Hot Bites
Northeast Troller Standard Black Eye Pea | Out Down 54 down | 2 bites
Prototype 8 Inch Chrome / Howie Green Crinkle | High Diver 144 back | 2 bites
Prototype 8 Inch White / Dreamweaver Little Boy Blue | Low Diver 111 back | 2 bites
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch / Dreamweaver Isotope | High Diver 150 back | 1 bite
ITO 12 Inch Diabolical Black War Frog | Chute Rigger 101 down | 1 bite
Dreamweaver Mini SS Hot Tamale | Slider 60 down | 1 bite
Moonshine Mini Green Slice Non Glow | Slider 54 down | 1 bite
Bechold 11 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend / Rapture Sweet Pea | Chute Rigger 139 down | 1 bite
What I Learned Today
The Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin apparently will not cause hog salmon to start jumping through the tuna door. We're still going to have to run a solid program, put the right stuff in the right places and convince these stupid fish to bite. But that brown trout we've been missing all season? First trip with THE COIN…Brown trout…That's all the scientific evidence I need.
Jeff (not me) was a fantastic boat driver today and very much appreciated both mornings. Great sense of direction, excellent with the radar in the fog and always willing to take over. He was rewarded at the end of the morning with our final fish, a hog that crushed Big Becky on the chute down 139.
Matt Brown also completely redeemed himself with the net this morning. Yesterday we established that Matt apparently had 5 feet of net handle behind him during his net jobs. Not today! Apparently Matt spent yesterday afternoon not drinking beer and whiskey while chain-smoking giant stogies. Instead, he sat down and carefully studied yesterday's netting video over and over again. Film study, people. Today he used all nine feet of that handle. Beautiful. The moratorium has officially been lifted.
And really, the entire crew deserves some credit. Jeff, Scotty, Rusty, Geoff, Matt...everybody is constantly asking what they can do and where they can help. Always on the ready. That makes running the boat a whole lot easier and is very much appreciated. (Never as helpful as Surgeon Jenn though, never!)
So that's a wrap on the Matt Brown weekend and, the maiden voyage of the Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin.
Seven fish isn't exactly the feeding frenzy I envisioned when this magical piece of metal finally landed in my hands. But...First brown trout of the year. I'm calling that a successful first test.
Now it's time for the weekend wind-down. Get this posted, head south to Muskegon for some Surgeon Jenn time. Yep, she's still on call saving and fixing everybody. Then Cabela's to return some stuff and hopefully make it home before 8:00pm.
I've got some work work this week, no school for a few weeks, some dentist stuff and then we'll reload for another big weekend.
And next weekend is going to be hot. Literally. Habanero Harman himself is coming aboard! Surgeon Jenn will also be back in business on the back deck working the program.
And…The Lucky Ludington Fishing Coin will be aboard for Trip #2.
Now that we've used it to find the brown trout, I think it's pretty obvious what comes next...Send us a hammer!
Wait, should I be taking this with me and sleeping with it under my pillow? Are there instructions? LOGAN!
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