Ludington Fishing Report: Yacht Rock Started It...Willy Wonka Saved It!
Oh my gosh, this season is ending so fast! Part of me is totally ready to take a break, and part of me just doesn’t want this to end!
We headed into today thinking we were going to get to fish today and not tomorrow, so we needed to leave it all out there. I’m not quite sure that happened!
Yesterday’s pre-fish prep was slightly different. No El Rancho. Oh, fun fact, there’s an El Rancho in The Godfather. No El Lago either. We met Nick and Alison at The Sportsman, well, The Mitten, to discuss some UWGB grad class stuff. A very intellectual conversation. I’m going to start thinking about running in the Halloween Day 5K, maybe even the 10K, so I had my favorite rice bowl with no rice…yum! We then got a bonus homecoming parade before heading to the boat for the opening lineup.
Logan met us to pick out the spread. We decided to start with a salmon program in the dark, then once the sun came up, start switching over to steelhead. We had 12 dandies picked out.
Our fourth was Big Fish Brad, BFB. If you recall, BFB was supposed to be on our Sunday Pro/Am tournament crew but forgot to wake up. Logan made a great point. Text BFB and tell him we’ll be picking him up in the morning. We did…It worked.
So our crew was me, Surgeon Jenn, Logan and BFB. We set sail at 5:50am and buzzed north, setting up about four miles south of Big Point in 80 FOW.
I should probably just start copying and pasting this next part from previous blogs…Marks everywhere…Thick marks…Dense marks…Logan and Surgeon Jenn set our long lines while I waited to set the inside lines. Remember, we don’t want to get too many bites too fast.
Okay, all 12 lines set with 14 hot, hot, hot lures and…Nothing. Really, like nothing. It started getting brighter…Nothing. We did some zigzagging…Nothing. We made a move to head deeper…Nothing.
Then Brad asked if we could put Yacht Rock Radio on. We normally don’t even think about turning on the radio until after 9am, but it was 7:18am. Give her a go! 7:19am…BITE! Right on cue! Then another bite. Way to go, BFB!
We eventually made it out to 250 FOW and were sitting at something like 2 for 4 before turning to a southeast troll and finding a whole lot more nothing.
Don’t worry, though…BFB had an ace in the hole. He snuck down below and donned a Willy Wonka costume. If you recall from my 6/6/26 post, I requested Shane from Dreamweaver dress up as Willy Wonka for Halloween with Logan as an Oompa Loompa. At the very least, today we were finally going to get to eyeball what Logan would look like standing next to Wonka.
No sooner did BFB hit the fishing deck dressed as Willy Wonka than the rods started popping! WONKA SAVED THE DAY!
Our few-bite morning suddenly turned into 17 bites! We ended up with 1 pink salmon, 1 coho, 4 steelhead and 4 kings on 17 bites.
Thank you, Big Fish Brad…Without your Yacht Rock and Willy Wonka, we likely would have ended up with our first skunk of the 2026 salmon fishing season. Much praise!
Hot Bites:
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Standard Copper Shrimp | Lead Core 1 Color | 4 bites
Flasher/Fly | Prototype 8 Inch Chrome Howie Bank Frog | High Diver 175 back | 3 bites
Meat Rig | Yeck 8 Inch Diabolical Producer | High Diver 200 back | 2 bites
Flasher/Fly | Bechold 11 Inch White Slick KRW Rapture | Chute Rigger 139 down | 2 bites
Spoon | Yeck Standard Dingle Rasta Goose | Lead Core 2 Color | 2 bites
Spoon | Michigan Stinger Magnum Jordo (Kinda) | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Flasher/Fly | Bechold 11 Inch Kevin's Girlfriend Rapture Sweet Pea | Out Down 139 down | 1 bite
Spoon | Yeck Standard Fire Frog | Lead Core 3 Colors | 1 bite
Spoon | Silver Streak Mini Copper Pink Panties | Out Down 21 SWR down | 1 bite
What I Learned Today:
Logan had shorts on. Somehow this has become a question people ask. BUT…he had them under some sort of janky snow pants that drove him nuts. Once we saw what he was dealing with, it drove all of us nuts. Shorts only from now on.
At 9:13am, Logan was flustered because we weren’t producing bites. He started blaming BFB for simply being on the boat, apparently forgetting about the earlier Yacht Rock Radio move. BFB, being a man of character, didn’t start in on Logan about his lure selection or any of the usual stuff. Instead, he made the Wonka move and saved the day. Logan and BFB hugged. All was normal again.
Everyone loves a bird in the boat, especially when the fish aren’t biting. Well, we have now determined that birds in the boat are bad luck. This was not a good fish-biting troll for us. We had a bird in the boat for most of the morning. At times, we had three. When they split, we got bit. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
For the first time since I dropped my phone while ice fishing on Hamlin, I lost my phone. Legitimate loss. I had to use my watch to ping it. We could hear it, but still couldn’t find it. Ping…Nothing. Another ping…Nothing. BFB could hear it, but couldn’t find it. He was like looking in circles…WTF! Somehow it ended up in BFB’s pocket. Hmm…Man of character?
Logan is having a big year health-wise and has lost in excess of 70 pounds. That’s a big deal. We all learned today that his goal all along has apparently been 100 pounds, so 30 more, because he wants to fit into the Willy Wonka suit. Dude! YOU ARE THE OOMPA LOOMPA! I’m 100% sure we can make that suit happen right now!
BFB went into a stretching session this morning expecting a flurry. Yeah, we do that sometimes. We don’t want to pull or tear any muscles when the ShitShow™ starts. Well, BFB can literally touch the floor without bending his knees. WTF! Then when I dropped him off with a bucket of fish, he said he was going to make some fish, watch some football and do yoga for an hour. Huh?
That’s a wrap for this weekend. Surgeon Jenn and I have lots of cool options for tomorrow, and fishing isn’t one of them. Oh, wait…Maybe it is? We don’t have to fish Lake Michigan. We have lots of other options. Now I have to think about this.
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