Ludington Fishing Report: Surgeon Jenn’s Family vs Lake Michigan
What a week. Blah blah…work. Blah blah…school. Finally back to Ludington fantasy fishing land for a bit. Before we get into today’s report, there’s a few housekeeping items.
First, throwing up a picture of the back of the Rockford Bass Fishing jersey with Pull Hard Fishing sponsoring. Yeah, I don’t charter. This isn’t really a business. And apparently I don’t make very good financial decisions. But I may be a little biased here…our logo definitely looks better than most of those logos. That’s gotta be worth something. Maybe.
Second, I dropped off the giant hammer lake trout from last weekend at Dale the Newaygo taxidermist. Walleye Mark, who basically skims these reports strictly looking for fishing data and avoiding all the nonsense, stumbled across him years ago. This is now fish number four I’m having him mount. Cool dude. Charges by species instead of inch. Longest turnaround I’ve seen was just under three months. Hit me up if you want his info.
Third, Logan did a Facebook post about his new Grundéns fishing boots. I will personally confirm how important those boots were last weekend. When Logan occupies the back of the boat 98% of the time, fish are constantly hitting the deck, and Charlie Daniels starts spraying down the boat before the fish box is even shut…things get wet quickly. Those boots were a wise investment.
Finally, thank you to whoever slapped a PH sticker on the Jamesport Brewery door. And thank you to the Jamesport crew for leaving it there. Smart move. You see what happened to El Rancho. Speaking of which…yes, we went there again last night.
Okay enough nonsense. On to today’s report…
Today’s plan was simple – Me, Surgeon Jenn, Surgeon Jenn’s parents (Jeanette and Louis (pronounced Lou-E)), Brother Brent, & Logan. Run north. Box 30 hogs by 10am. Easy peasy.
Immediately we had a few issues with this plan…Problem number one…Logan called off again. Apparently the man needed sleep. Totally understandable because the speed his fishy brain operates at would probably wear most humans out just thinking. Problem number two…Rumor had it one member of the crew may potentially experience motion sickness. And that definitely needed to be respected.
Sooooo…We went Logan-less™ and set up a half mile straight out just in case we needed a quick dock drop. 11 lines set. West troll. No bites. Barely any marks. Finally a rigger fired and first fish hit the box at 5:44am. Which technically gave us 16 minutes to get the other five for a “six by six.”
Nope…Instead we immediately activated the one-hour emergency dock drop program. Also the wind absolutely sucked. At least it was straight east. But the farther offshore we pushed, the uglier the waves got and we were only fishing 65 FOW. Pull the lines! Whoa wait…A couple fish showed up. Jeanette reeled in what ended up becoming the biggest fish of the morning literally during line pull…Then off we went.
Anybody who saw us crossing the pierheads at 6am probably assumed we already had 25 fish in the box. Nope…Not this time.
Also worth mentioning: How’s my docking during a normal fishing trip? Perfect. How’s my docking at 6am after emergency motion sickness procedures? Somewhere between piss poor and really bad. So just a heads up there.
We headed back out and ran north toward the bank, setting up around the bathhouse in 60 FOW on a northwest troll getting deeper. Had a few bites pretty quickly but could never really get a straight troll because of the monsoon east wind. Eventually worked about two miles north of the point before turning around and just kind of picking away.
Water north of the point was 48 on top and 39 down 60. South of the point was 51 surface and 42 down 60. Way more marks south of Big Point. Way more bites too.
We ended up with 10 kings on 14 bites. And I need to remind myself that’s still a fantastic fishy morning. The 30-plus fish on 40 bites nonsense is not sustainable. At least I don’t think it is. All in all though, another well-planned successful trip…and, 10 fish without Logan is respectable. Logan probably would’ve been good for another 15 though…There’s the limit right there.
Hot Bites:
White crushed 11” paddle with Riverside fly on chute – 3 bites
Blue Bubble Spin Doctor with Blue Bubble fly on high diver back 100 – 2 bites
Moonshine standard JJ Mac RV ever on 3 color – 1 bite
Mr. Chrome Yeah Mon standard on 3 color – 1 bite
Fuzzy Bear Soda mag on out down – 1 bite
Yeck Gold Fireball on 5 color – 1 bite (Not pictured - currently riding around inside some random 25 pound salmon with 120 feet of lead core dragging)
Stinger Mod Coyote on 5 color – 1 bite
Yeck Golden Goat on 5 color – 1 bite
Yeck Double Orange Crush Gold on 5 color – 1 bite
Warrior Fludder on free slider – 1 bite
Blue Stud with Blue Bubble fly on high diver back 75 – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
One hour to pull lines and complete a dock drop doesn’t sound terrible. Probably would’ve been 45 minutes if I was a competent early-morning docker.
I need to tighten up my equipment game. Lost a Yeck Fireball on a 5 color because the lead broke between colors 4 and 5. Weird. Then lost our heaviest bite of the morning when a 25 pound fly leader snapped after the initial whack. Two of the four misses were completely on me.
Logan…look at the fish finder picture and appreciate how well Surgeon Jenn followed your instructions to keep the chute 10 feet off bottom.
Good thing we squeaked out fish number 10. I told Wayne Brown at the dock I was selling the boat if I couldn’t catch 10 fish. Whew.
I also learned I have absolutely no clue what “warm” and “cold” water means anymore. There…I said it…Again. Every time somebody explains it to me, the definition changes again two weeks later. I’m officially choosing not to think about it anymore.
Two diver bites on 25 foot 50-pound leader. Zero bites on 25 foot 25-pound leader. Does this mean the hot Blue Bubble rig would’ve fired eight times on lighter leader? No clue…But I’m watching.
Tomorrow is supposed to be much nicer weather. I think it’ll be Me, Jenn, Louis, Brent, &
Logan (He apparently slept until 11am and now feels brand new!) I believe the current evening plan is state park, sourdough pizza, then bed. Stay tuned.
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