Ludington Fishing Report: Riley Got Us There...Todd Got Us to 15! Jackpot!
What a great day yesterday. Caught some fish, cleaned some fish, ate some fish, bought blueberries, bought some Northeast Troller spoons thanks to Surgeon Jenn, then headed to a fancy hot dog bar party with a band. It was kind of like a very mini Jobbie Nooner, except I was in bed by 10pm. Perfect!
It looked like we'd have a decent weather window this morning, so we made the call to leave the condo a little earlier than yesterday. A 4:45am departure had us off the dock by 5:05am.
I was still a little anxious about the waves and the 400 or 500 weekend warriors I assumed would be piled onto the bank north.
Our crew was the same as yesterday: me, Surgeon Jenn, Riley, Jordan, Brendan and Dani. Jordan was on a slow drip of Dramamine and Fireball, so all was good.
Daughter Riley asked if we could go south. I'm pretty sure this was based on absolutely nothing other than the fact that I was planning to go north. For once, we agreed.
My definition of a successful fishing trip is pretty simple anyway: catch one fish to avoid the skunk and eat BoatMeal™ around 8am. I'm pretty confident I can accomplish those two things in either direction. South it is! Apparently four other boats had the same brilliant idea.
We set up in 70 FOW just south of the projects and pointed southwest. Getting every line set without a bite has now officially become the norm. I don't like this new tradition.
We never really had a morning feeding frenzy. At least not by our new ridiculously spoiled definition of a feeding frenzy. It was more of a bite here, bite there, occasional double kind of morning.
We got off to an absolutely stellar start by boating one fish on our first six bites. Perfect! Fortunately, we rebounded nicely.
All of our action came between about 95 and 135 FOW. We just kept picking away, and what started as a pretty crappy landing percentage slowly turned into a respectable morning. We ended up with 12 kings and 3 coho for 15 fish on 24 bites. I'll take it!
Hot Bites
Prototype 8 Inch White / Dreamweaver Little Boy Blue | Low Diver 100 back | 6 bites
Yeck Standard Fireball | Lead Core 5 Colors | 4 bites
ITO 12 Inch Diabolical Black War Frog Meat Rig | Chute Rigger 100 down | 2 bites
Dreamweaver Spin Doctor 8 Inch Dreamweaver Isotope Meat Rig | High Diver 120 back | 2 bites
Northeast Troller Standard Black Eyed Peas | Slider 60 down | 2 bites
Moonshine 4 Inch Orange Black Ladder Back | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Dreamweaver Magnum Rhinestone Cowboy | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Northeast Troller Standard Glow Alewife | Out Down 65 down | 1 bite
Unknown Standard Budweiser | Lead Core 5 Colors | 1 bite
Moonshine Mini Green Slice Non Glow | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Prototype 8 Inch Chrome / Howie Green Crinkle | High Diver 100 back | 1 bite
Dreamweaver Mini SS Blue Slice | Lead Core 7 Colors | 1 bite
Mr. Chrome Magnum Radioactive | Copper 200 | 1 bite
What I Learned Today
Sometimes it's a difficult balance between fishing for fun and being competitive. At 10:30am we had a happy crew, 12 fish in the box and were talking about pulling lines. Then Todd texted me: "Think we ended with maybe 13/20..." Son of a bitch…we immediately got another bite, and suddenly twelve fish wasn't enough anymore. Now we needed to beat "maybe 13." So we stayed out until we hit 15. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to say "Sorry, Todd," "Thank you, Todd," or both.
More good mojo at the cleaning cage. We gave a nice fillet to a couple from Saugatuck, because giving fish away is always good juju. Then a Pull Hard souper fan stopped by and thanked us for the reports. Very satisfying. I think we're officially up to eight or nine readers now!
Thanks for picking out the Northeast Troller spoons, Surgeon Jenn! Three bites on their maiden Pull Hard voyage. Now what? Does this mean I need to dust off an extra Special Mate box and start filling her up? This is how tackle problems start.
For those of you who continue to question fishing mojo, explain this one...I haven't run the OG Fireball spoon in a while. Yesterday around 4pm I randomly put it on old #5 while setting today's opening lineup. Then the band at the party played Fireball. Today? Fireball spoon goes four times. Need I say more?
And finally, you simply cannot put a price on peace of mind. There were probably five boats we could see all morning and maybe two showing within the 1¼-mile range on the radar. Yes, please.
Tomorrow is an extra-special bonus day. I'm staying in Ludington and taking Andy and Justy, along with the CROs, out for the morning. They fished a short afternoon trip with us last year. You probably remember Justy kinda peeing her pants when a hog king came over the back of the boat.
Now I'm a little nervous because I've already assured everyone we're going to have a nice morning feeding frenzy. So apparently I have to deliver.
Surgeon Jenn and I will spend the rest of today working every good-vibe, good-mojo, good-juju angle we can think of. Check back tomorrow to see if any of it worked.
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400 W. Filer St., C1, Ludington, MI 49431 | Phone: 248-534-9202 | PullHardFishing@outlook.com
