Ludington Fishing Report: Surgeon Jenn's First Boat Rescue...Then Bob Took Over!
Fair warning...this one has a legitimate shot at winning the "Longest Pull Hard Blog Ever" award. Mark, you may just want to skip straight to the lure picture, buddy.
Yesterday Sister Jenn, Euge and Tim headed home, leaving Surgeon Jenn and me with an entire day to finally catch up on all those little things we'd been putting off. We threw salmon on the smoker, started dressing up the rhubarb/cherry soup for Soup Club and divided responsibilities accordingly. I chopped stuff. Surgeon Jenn pitted cherries. Teamwork.
Then...whoa...almost parade time…
We headed over to Logan's Ludington Avenue penthouse for some light hors d'oeuvres. (Josh, that's pronounced "or-derves," not "whores-do-you-vrees.") As expected, Logan had quite the spread. The gourmet cheesecakes stole the show. We wandered down to street level for a selfie with Petunia Josh, followed the Scotville Clown Band around for a bit, then made our way back to the condo.
Soup looked good. Smoker looked good…Perfect.
Next stop...Meijer for a bag of stuff. Then Kilwins for what every soup needs as a side dish...chocolate-covered cherries. Then Wesco for ice. Then down to the boat for the opening lineup.
Man...we were rolling. Way ahead of schedule…I had literally taken one step off the dock when my phone rang…Petunia Josh.
I turned to Surgeon Jenn and said, "Well...this isn't gonna be good." Honestly, I thought he was calling because he wasn't thrilled about the 4:45am departure. Nope.
Jeff: "Hey Josh."
Josh: "We're dead in the water between the pierheads. Can you come tow us in?"
Jeff: "Yep."
Always happy to burn soup and overcook salmon to help a buddy. So Surgeon Jenn and I fired up the Tiara and headed for the pierheads.
Josh was floating about a third of a mile south of the pierheads in one- to two-foot waves with a boat full of people. No life jackets on. No drift sock keeping the bow into the waves. Police boats cruising around paying absolutely no attention.
Of course...The Badger was on its way in.
I never asked, and technically still don't know, but I'm pretty sure this was Surgeon Jenn's first official boat rescue. She absolutely crushed it. She calmly moved rods out of the way, somehow caught Josh's wind-knotted, spliced-together tow rope on the very first try, tied everything together, gave me the thumbs up and off we went.
We actually should've beaten the Badger into the harbor, but she was moving a whole lot faster than the three miles per hour I was comfortable towing. Then the police boat stopped us anyway and had us wait inside the harbor until the Badger passed...which honestly seemed more dangerous than simply finishing the tow.
Once we got to Loomis Street, we executed what I can only describe as a perfect landing…Seriously…Perfect.
One small problem...Josh forgot to get off the boat. He waited just a little too long, and without power there wasn't much he could do. So, being Josh, he simply jumped into the water, grabbed the rope and manually docked the King Fisher. Problem solved.
Everyone was safe…Soup was excellent…Smoked salmon turned out perfect…Life returned to normal.
Now for this morning...Surgeon Jenn and I got to the boat at 4:35am. The plan was simple. Warm the engines. Get meat loaded into the meat heads. Have everything completely ready so when Josh, Kate and Bob showed up at 5:00am, we'd simply shove off.
At 4:50am, "Should I start the engines Surgeon Jenn? Remember the last time Josh forgot to wake up..." Better wait!
Who's that? They're early! They're smiling! They brought donuts! Bob...we will forever appreciate you. We cleared the pierheads at 5:05am, our earliest departure yet, headed north to the same bathhouse area and set up in 160 FOW. The Lowrance was absolutely lit up. Fish from top to bottom. Excitement level was high.
Bob grabbed the first rod and absolutely whooped a hammer, setting the tone for the morning.
We trolled north almost two miles past the point before turning around and working our way south until 9:00am. Final tally was nine fish on seventeen bites.Not exactly a Hall of Fame landing percentage, but considering Josh was involved in a few of those bites, we'll happily take it. More importantly, the quality of the bites was excellent. Maybe we're finally shaking this "mini king boat" reputation.
Hot Bites:
Dreamweaver 11" White Crush paddle paired with a KRW Riverside fly on the chute rigger 100 down – 6 bites
Moonshine Mini Green Slice (non-glow) on a slider 75 down – 4 bites
Bechold 8" Lure Jensen Blue flasher on a high diver 150 back – 3 bites
Dreamweaver 8" ITO Green Ladder Spindoctor on a low diver 150 back – 2 bites
Moonshine Mini Green Slice (non-glow) on the out-down rigger 75 down – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 8" Blue Bubble Spindoctor paired with a Dreamweaver Blue Bubble fly on a high diver 200 back – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Josh likes throwing the thumb-and-pinky "hang loose" sign in pictures. Surgeon Jenn informed me that's called "Hang Ten." I think Josh needs his own hand signal called "Lose Five."
If you ever invite Josh fishing, and I highly recommend that you do, make sure Bob comes too. Bob guarantees an on-time departure every single time.
Bob is steady on the rod. Calm. Smooth. Doesn't overthink anything. Josh should probably spend an entire season copying everything Bob does. Of course...that'll never happen. Josh still enjoys pumping the rod, checking the drag every thirty seconds and occasionally forgetting to reel. He is pretty good at landing medium-sized fish though.
It was fun watching Surgeon Jenn teach Bob her lightning-fast, super-organized fish cleaning system. Halfway through Bob finally stopped and asked, "Wait...are you actually a real surgeon?"
I am officially not impressed with the Masterbuilt smoker. Hopefully Cabela's lets me return it even without the box. Too many things wrong to list. Stay away.
Sigh...Now it's time to finish packing the condo, drop Surgeon Jenn off in Norton Shores (which is definitely different than Muskegon), make a quick stop at Cabela's and hopefully get home in time to start next week's UWGB project. I need to get school and work work knocked out in a hurry this week.
We'll be back Friday with plans to fish for nine straight days. Well...Hopefully not nine straight days. That's a lot. But if the weather cooperates...We probably will. I think.
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