Ludington Fishing Report: The Temple Takeover

Jeff

7/12/20253 min read

We flipped the crew 180 this morning…Yesterday it was the local Ludington dudes on Pull Hard. Today…The Temple crew rolled in from Highland ready to take the helm.

To set the stage, I went to Milford High School with Scott Temple and we’ve been tight ever since. This dude logged more hours with me and my dad trolling at 2.2 MPH across Lake Michigan and Huron than most. Scott’s back this weekend with his squad—Lil, Duncan, Meagan, and Grayson.

We kicked things off yesterday properly at Stearns Beach, where I personally waded in up to my belly button. It was 65 degrees and I instantly knew what a frozen bag of peas feels like. Then it was over to El Rancho, where the staff continue to work the floor like fine tuned army ants. Then, like the true professionals we are, we made a Wesco pit stop—ice, and a fifth of Fireball, because you just never know. Down to the boat for lineup decisions, then off to the condo for some quality beddie bye.

4am wakeup—and for the third day in a row: no run. It’s becoming a tradition at this point.

By 5am we were rolling northwest, back to the same water north of the deep nets. On deck: Scott, his youngest Grayson, and a solid helping of enthusiasm. And Grayson? This kid jumped right in helping set lines, keeping pace with me and Scott. The Ludington crowd would call him “fishy”—as in, “That kid might know what the hell he’s doing.” Not Parker-level fishy (yesterday’s 20-pound slayer), but Grayson’s got the juice. Give it time.

Last year, Meagan and I was riding the high of XM Channel 13’s Taylor Swift Takeover, which made the fish mojo easy. This year? We were rudderless on the XM dial. We tried: The Highway, Lithium, Classic Vinyl, Red White and Booze…nothing…The only station left was Bob Marley Radio, and I regret deeply not trying a full spread of Yeah Mons and Rasta Geese. (Or is it Geeses? Gooses?) Either way, missed opportunity.

Around 9:30am, the universe lined some stuff up weird:

We hooked a king salmon on a chute rigger down 69 feet.
Scott glanced at the autopilot—heading: 69°.
Water temp? 69.9°.
I reset a diver to—yep—69 feet.
My Apple Watch popped up: air temp 69°.

We all looked at each other like…WTF? Something had to happen… right? Wrong. Dead silence. Not a single bite. What this did mean was by 10am, the southwest wind showed up and it was pissed off, and it got rough fast. We did something very rare: we actually pulled lines and left before the lake kicked our ass. For once, a wise choice. We ended the day with: 3 king salmon, 1 coho, 1 steelhead on 9 bites

Hot Bites of the Day:

Yeck Chubster on 3 color – 3 bites
Showtime 10” Spindoctor Meat Rig – mag diver 125 back – 3 bites
Moonshine Half Moon JJ Mac – 10 color – 1 bite
ITO Meat Rig – chute rigger, 69 down – 1 bite
Silver Streak Pink Panties type Spoon – 7 color – 1 bite
(Yes, that’s a spoon name. Yes, we still run it. Yes, it works. This one was close, but not the original)

What I Learned Today:

Scott still packs a cooler like it’s 2005. The Temples showed up with 74 drinks across 3 coolers—a true masterpiece of redundancy. Honestly proud…took 71 off the boat!
Pulling lines early is underrated. We always stay out too long, get zero bites, and go home dreading it. Today? We pulled at the perfect time. And it felt good.
Old stories hit different on the water. Me and Scott traded tales of Blue Water Classics, early Ludington runs, and boat trips with Euge. No one else may’ve listened, but we did, and it was awesome.
Peter Pan Land is next. Scott’s already questioning what he signed up for. Riley’s explaining it like it’s Narnia. Meanwhile, Scott’s just hoping it’s not another “Ducking” debacle from last year.

Same crew is scheduled to fish tomorrow morning—Grayson’s confidence is growing, Meagan might start a new XM campaign for Taylor Swift, and I’ve got a strong feeling the Rasta Goose bite is heating up.