Ludington Fishing Report: The Petunia Josh Alarm Clock Collapse

5/17/20263 min read

Wrapped up another perfect fishing day yesterday the only proper way possible…Sourdough pizza. Firmed up plans with Petunia Josh. Missed the sunset because we were busy talking fishing. And made the responsible adult decision to get to bed early. This is my one-year anniversary of the start of this blog! Kinda a big day!

The plan was simple today…Meet PJ and Zac at the boat at 5:15am. Which of course meant me and Surgeon Jenn showed up at 4:50am because we enjoy operating in a constant state of unnecessary preparedness. The idea was to have the boat warmed up, rods organized, coffee flowing, and everything ready so the second they arrived we could shove off and immediately go pound hammers.

Me and Surgeon Jenn were talking on the ride down about how Petunia Josh has always respected fishing. Never late. Always positive. Always brings good energy.

Then the following text messages happened:

5:17am from PJ: “Totally missed my alarm…will be about 30 minutes late. If you can’t wait totally understand…”
5:19am from me: “If it was yesterday I would totally wait, want to get an early start back…All is good.”
5:20am from PJ: “…See you next weekend…”
5:20am from me: “This will be good for the blog though! Thanks!”

And just like that, it became a two-person operation. Which immediately raises an important question...How do people fish with only six lines? Yesterday we had 15 rods out and 26 bites. Now we’re staring at six rods trying to decide who gets cut from the lineup. It felt like assembling an all-star team and then being told only six players can dress.

We kept the game plan simple. Run south. Set up just north of the projects in 50 to 55 feet of water. Work the same water from yesterday.

The setup looked like this: 2 riggers with spoons and sliders. 2 divers pulling meat and flies. 2 leadcores. (Ended with 4 leadcores and 2 riggers).

Everything was in the water by 5:45am…and naturally nothing happened immediately...For a little while it felt like one of those mornings where you start questioning every decision – maybe we should have ran that 5k?

Then things started clicking…We found a one-mile stretch in 55 feet of water right around the 53.5 north-south line that just kept giving up bites. Every time we slid through there something would fire.

By the end of the morning we ended up with: 9 kings (3 mini kings. 2 released.) on16 bites. We had several absolutely wild fish that never made it to the boat. 6 rods, 16 bites vs. 15 rods, 26 bites - I'm feeling like today was better?

Hot bites were:

Gold Fireball on a 5 color – 3 bites
Mr. Chrome Mini Yeah Mon on a slider – 4 bites
Yeck Starburst on the out down – 2 bites
Yeck mixed veggie spoon on a 3 color – 1 bite
Yeck Double Orange Crush gold blank on a 5 color – 2 bites
Mr. Chrome Wild Fire mini on a 7 color – 3 bites
New Silver Streak standard size on the out down – 1 bite

A few lessons from the day.

First, metacognition is apparently happening in real time. I was totally cool with PJ sleeping in. Old Jeff would have probably handled this slightly differently.
Me and Surgeon Jenn actually make a pretty solid salmon team. We definitely lost a few too many fish, but we also hooked our share and kept things moving pretty smoothly.
I still have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to picking lures. I literally started this blog last year so I could track productive setups and use them this season. Have I referenced any of it? Absolutely not. I don’t even think I’ve run the same stuff more than once this year except Chubster, and honestly Chubster has been ice cold. Basically I’m operating entirely on vibes and random confidence.
Also still not sure what’s going on with those tribal nets. The marker is still there. Assume all my stuff is still hanging in there somewhere. Yet we continue watching boats troll straight through the area like nothing exists. Very confusing behavior. UPDATE: Right before I was going to save this post, got a text from Logan: "Adam Howell got that net on his set this morning, so it's still a problem."

That wraps up another absolutely perfect fishing weekend in Ludington. Now it’s back down to Howell for a few days of actual work before heading back north Thursday. Next weekend sounds like it could get interesting. Current plan includes Sister Jenn, Tim, and Euge at the condo and hopefully in the boat. There’s also a strong possibility we’ll be joined by bass legend wannabe Kaedin and Charlie Daniels. Which means there’s almost zero chance anything stays calm, organized, or normal. Exactly how fishing weekends should be.

Ludington Fishing Report: The Petunia Josh Alarm Clock Collapse

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