Ludington Fishing Report: The Fish Humbled Us...Then Sent a Lamprey to Rub It In!
Happy Fourth of July from Ludington! Two hundred and fifty years of American goodness. Our favorite historic event, however, was the introduction of salmon into the Great Lakes. That's what we're celebrating on this wonderful holiday.
Before we get into today's report...Where do all these people come from? I like my Ludington with a handful of people, no roads closed down and cell phone signals that actually work. Apparently that's not how Fourth of July weekend operates. Thank goodness there were only a handful of boats on the lake this morning.
Our crew was the same as yesterday: me, Surgeon Jenn, Euge, Sister Jenn and Tim. We did everything exactly the same as yesterday. Literally. Headed north on the exact same line. Set up in the exact same place, just north of the bathhouse in 140 FOW. Ran the exact same stuff that got bit yesterday. Rise. Wash. Repeat.
The fish apparently had other plans…We still had decent marks, just nothing like yesterday. We trolled north and picked away at a few bites, nothing fancy. Once we got southeast of the deeper water where we'd caught fish yesterday, I pointed the boat west figuring we'd cut right to the chase.
Ugh…Nothing out there today…Lots of trolling…Not much catching.
We sat on three fish and nine bites for what felt like forever before finally boating number four while pulling lines.
The last few trips have been nothing but peaks and valleys. Today...Definitely a valley.
Final tally: four kings on ten bites. (Logan says I'm spoiled.)
Hot Bites:
Moonshine Mini Green Slice (non-glow) on a slider 90 down – 3 bites
Bechold 8" Lure Jensen Blue flasher on a high diver 150 back – 2 bites
Dreamweaver 8" Blue Bubble Spindoctor paired with a Dreamweaver Blue Bubble fly on a high diver 200 back – 2 bites
Warrior Standard Coyote-Like Fludder on a slider 90 down – 1 bite
Dreamweaver 11" White Crush paddle paired with a KRW Riverside fly on the chute rigger 120 down – 1 bite
Moonshine Magnum Happy Meal on copper – 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Just when you think you're finally starting to figure these fish out, they humble you again. That's exactly what keeps this whole thing interesting for me.
Ged hit me up and has some Yeck cannonballs ready for me. Running those on all three riggers has to produce more bites...right? We'll find out soon enough.
We got a bonus lamprey on the last fish. Pretty sure nobody ordered that.
I don't know what else...I'm in a hurry and my brain is complete mush.
Tomorrow should be a fun one…We'll have Petunia Josh, Kate and maybe PJ's dad Bob. No clue where we're going yet. I do know we're about to head over for a long, hot parade on Ludington Avenue. Logan invited us to watch all the antics from his penthouse.
We've also got yesterday's salmon to smoke, a batch of rhubarb/cherry soup to make for Soup Club on Tuesday, approximately 342 salmon plugs to tie hooks on, a downrigger to respool and tomorrow's opening lineup to pick.
Oh...and somewhere in there we're supposed to hit the art fair and watch the fireworks.
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