Ludington Fishing Report: One Pike, Zero Salmon & a Perfect Ending!
This morning was one of the least productive fishing trips of 2026, yet one of the most productive at the same time. An interesting, emotional morning for sure.
This is the last weekend for the Tiara. Our fantasy plan after last weekend was to find some steelhead water in the big lake, flood it with 1, 2 and 3 colors of lead, and get our first-ever steelhead limit in my fishing history. A perfect plan to end a beyond-perfect season.
Nope. Mother Nature whacked that plan.
Oh, and I was okay with it. I've been rolling with this warm, fuzzy feeling that I've been so blessed with all the bites, fish, good weather and excellent company this year that I don't need to get greedy. And if I do decide to get greedy, I'd prefer to do so without 3-6 foot waves.
So my crew this morning was me, Logan, Petunia Josh and Honey Bob (PJ's dad).
Logan has been chomping at the bit to show me how to catch a salmon in "the pond," aka Pere Marquette Lake. I've caught exactly one steelhead, one brown trout and one perch trolling inside the pierheads. For you souper fans, you'll recall that I had a salmon on last year in the channel and lost it.
I've obviously accepted that I don't know how to catch fish here. I'm okay with that. But if Logan is going to share his fishy secrets, I'll take it!
The real plan, as I was looking at it, was that I needed to top off the gas for the season and get the shitter pumped out. The municipal gas dock was closed, so I had to take the boat off the dock and drive it to the Harbor View gas dock. Figured I'd take the scenic route.
See, this way, if I got skunked, I could tell you all it was just a boat ride to get gas, right?
We ran a slide diver on starboard, high diver on port, three riggers and a combination and rotation of 1, 2, 3 and 5 colors of lead. We tried plugs, flasher/fly combinations, meat rigs, spoons, Mag Lips (for you, Mark M!) and ThunderSticks.
We started at 7am, ended at 10am and rotated the F out of our spread.
The result? No salmon...but NO SKUNK!
About halfway through our second lap, a 2 color went off in 30 FOW. My side, of course, but somehow Logan snagged the rod and brought in a dandy northern pike. PJ did a wonderful job on the net.
I wasn't going to keep it, but Logan apparently only knows how to hold pike by the eyes. Shake my head. And now it's in my fridge. Three hours. One pike. Zero salmon. And somehow, I was completely happy.
Hot Bites:
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Jordo-looking spoon | Lead Core 2 Colors | 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
For the most part, Logan's program was the same as what I would do. Rotate a bunch of stuff through a bunch of fish marks, vary speeds and cross fingers. Apparently there isn't some super-secret pond program I've been missing all these years. Or maybe Logan just didn't tell me.
I learned Petunia Josh really isn't on the Ludington Petunia Committee. WTF! This should change everything, including his name, but 1) he already has an official logo and 2) this whole thing actually fits him perfectly. So he's still Petunia Josh.
In October, I will not be leaving the dock before 7am moving forward. Surgeon Jenn didn't fish because she was on call in Muskegon until 6am. If we'd thought this through, she could have made it. Bummer!
We didn't deck-load a bunch of fish today, but I truly had a blast. It really was the perfect ending to the Tiara's fantastic year, and I appreciated every moment.
My day continued when Surgeon Jenn met us at the gas dock at 10am. From there, we drove to Manistee to take advantage of the buy 3, get 2 free sale on everything salmon trolling! How that place didn't have deli pull tabs to get your number called to enter the store, I'll never know.
It was like me, Surgeon Jenn and Kingfisher III's Scott. And I'd like to thank Scott for buying up every single fish-catching meat rig in the store. Saved me a ton!
From there, Surgeon Jenn got her first look at the Little Manistee Weir and was absolutely infatuated with seeing the hogs we'd spent so much time chasing all season making their final stand. After about two hours, I had to drag her back to the truck by the ear.
So that's it for the Tiara in 2026. What a freaking year! All those bites. All those hogs. All the ShitShows™, BoatMeals™, After Fishing Mints™, fishing buddies, laughs and memories.
And our final troll produced one northern pike…Perfect. I really mean that.
Now what? Well, I'm planning to bring the other boat up next weekend and fish Ludington for the next three weekends. I'll need some great weather, but we have to try to make that steelhead limit thing happen.
The Tiara may be done, but apparently I'm not. Stay tuned!
PS: Thanks for the boat pics Jason - very thoughtful!
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