Ludington Fishing Report: Never Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch!
Yesterday marked the halfway point of my six-month Tiara season. Looking back, it's easily been the best three months I've ever had on a boat. I've now fished with 51 different people in 2026, and every single trip has left me with a great memory. Didn't matter whether we got skunked or had one of those crazy fifty-bite mornings. They've all been fun.
Now it's time for the second half...Starting with the Ludington Legends Tournament today. The tournament itself is pretty simple. Run as many lines as the DNR allows and weigh your best five fish. Easy enough.
My real tournament, however, was the side bet with Logan. He's fishing on one of those big fancy boats where they practically have one guy assigned to each rod. We had five bucks riding on the biggest five-fish box and another two bucks on biggest fish. Seven whole dollars. Retirement money.
Yesterday was intentionally a day off the water. Yes...I know…The weather was absolutely perfect…The kind of day every Lake Michigan fisherman dreams about…But sometimes you've got to work on the juju. Without good juju...boats sink. Or at least that's what I tell myself.
I slept until my eyes naturally opened around 6:30 and somehow managed an 82 sleep score.
Then came a 3.1-mile run. It was awful. I'm used to running at 4:00am in the morning when nobody can see me. Running at 7:30am with a dead-calm Lake Michigan beside me while every fisherman in town was catching salmon? That was a mental workout. Probably similar to asking my daughters to give up their phones for a day. I survived and really kind of needed it.
After that I knocked out over an hour of work work followed by some UWGB homework. No birdies flying around my head. Perfect.
Then it was time for fish…Surgeon Jenn and I smoked several batches of salmon bites and tried a new idea...Everything Bagel seasoning before they went into the smoker. Some of you are getting samples.
Then came the pedicure. Thank goodness Surgeon Jenn is pedicure friendly. It's always nice having somebody sitting next to you while you're secretly texting things like, "How much longer are they going to rub my feet?" Answer...Forever.
Then came pulled chicken prep for what officially became our boat taco bar…chef's kiss.
Boat chores followed. New diver leaders. New flies tied…Surgeon Jenn tied several flies and, just to make me feel inadequate, casually tied perfect Palomar knots with either hand and wasted absolutely zero line.
I also found a few old spoons that may have earned themselves another chance at glory.
By morning we were ready…Our crew consisted of me, Surgeon Jenn, Elise, Sister Jenn, FSU Steve and Euge.
We headed north past the bathhouse and made sure we were the deepest boat setting up…like 165 FOW and pointed deeper. The opening bite wasn't quite as good as Tuesday...And our landing percentage? Let's just say...It sucked. We started the morning 4 fish on 12 bites…Ouch.
We stayed committed, working the same two- to three-mile stretch north of the point between 160 and 250 FOW.
By the end of the morning we'd scratched our way to twelve kings on twenty bites. Not terrible. Just eight fish short of perfection and 18 short of our usual 6 man limit.
We wrapped it up and finished with 76.85 lbs on our best 5 fish with our biggest being 16.00 lbs. Good enough for 17th place out of 83 boats.
Hot Bites:
Prototype 8" flasher with Howie White fly on a low diver 90 back – 4 bites
Dreamweaver 8" Charlie Special paddle with Rapture Sweet Pea fly on the chute rigger 139 down – 3 bites
Dreamweaver 8" Blue Bubble paddle with Rapture Blue Bubble fly on a high diver 150 back – 3 bites
Prototype 8" flasher with Howie Green & Gold fly on a high diver 125 back – 3 bites
Mr. Chrome 8" Green Hulk flasher with KRW Money Shot fly on a low diver 100 back – 3 bites
ITO 12" White Dotted paddle on the chute rigger 139 down – 2 bites
Michigan Stinger Magnum Modified Carmel Dolphin on 200 copper – 1 bite
Dreamweaver Mini Hot Tamale on 200 copper – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Elise brought a cordless fan. Not for the cabin...for whoever was fighting fish. Genius.
Nothing beats a taco bar in a fishing boat. Well...except a taco bar with Habanero Harmon's hot sauce…an ice-cold NA beer. Yum!
FSU Steve's sophomore trip and he fit right in. I bet he was expecting me to boat one fish, then spend the next four hours talking BoatMeal™, Soup Club recipes and hot sauce. Sorry Steve...today there were 7 whole dollars on the line. We were all business...well, mostly…well, kind of a little bit.
Mojo is real, people. Surgeon Jenn had a fish screaming line off a 200 copper when Euge calmly said, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." About thirty seconds later...snap. Board, copper, lure and fish all gone. Bad mojo!
We immediately switched back to positive mojo. Taco bar. Music. Good vibes. A few minutes later I got a text from a buddy with a picture of my board, my copper, my spoon...and apparently my fish. Incredible. Good mojo!
We started the morning 4 for 12. Then from noon to 1pm we went 5 mature bites...5 mature kings. That's more like it.
Speaking of not counting chickens before they hatch...Tournament fishermen have an unbelievable ability to humble you. We thought our best five fish, looked pretty respectable. Turns out it just wasn’t good enough…Congratulations to the sixteen boats that kicked our butts.
The best part of the day? We beat Logan's boat on our 5 fish box. They had the biggest individual fish, so I owed him 2 bucks. He owes me 5. So I made 3 dollars today! Euge was right…never count your chickens before they hatch, Logan. (that really wasn't the best part of the day - I just want Logan to think it was!)
Tomorrow is the Ladies Tournament…We'll have me, Surgeon Jenn, Elise, Sister Jenn...and bringing in the closers...Ludington's own Alison and Jesse. Those two were absolutely flawless on the boat last year.
The plan? Start in the same spot. Catch three hogs. Then monkey around for 6 hours looking for trout. See you out there.
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