Ludington Fishing Report: Yet Another Logan-less™ Limit
We pretty much had a perfect day yesterday. No limits, but lots of fun on the water, state park trip, sourdough pizza that turned out perfect and a nice little crew plan for the morning that included Logan. Oh wait…Logan was going on another boat…Maybe? Yes. Now what?
This whole Surgeon Jenn family thing has been pretty awesome. Two mornings in a row we’ve left the condo earlier than planned. We were supposed to leave the condo at 4:45am and left the dock at 4:50am. No clue where we were going, but we got an early start.
At the pierheads we could see one boat straight out, two boats fishing north and one running south. Based on that, plus the pile of salmon we marked north in 100-120 FOW yesterday at the end of our troll, we decided to head north. That’s basically how fishing decisions get made around here. Total guess.
We started in 50 FOW in the double zeros on a northwest troll heading toward the bank. I figured if there were any hogs shallow we’d intercept them. Nope. 12 lines set. 14 lures out. Nothing.
5:40am rolls around and I call Logan to see what he thinks…Out down immediately fires. Hmm…Apparently all I need to do is physically call the man and fish bite.
I looked down and realized we had slid into 90 FOW. Then the exact flurry every salmon fisherman dreams about while drifting off to sleep hit. Not the full psychotic six-fish-on-at-once stuff from Memorial Day weekend. More like fast and steady chaos.
We were trying to turn around and literally couldn’t because the rods just kept firing…not because of boat traffic this time. Eventually we made it north of the point and successfully turned around. We ended up releasing five mini kings successfully but had to keep a few because of bloody gills. Very eventful morning. Keeper fish number 20 hit the deck at 8:40am.
We ended the morning with 24 kings and 1 steelhead. 25 fish on 32 bites.
For the weekend we ended up 35 fish on 46 bites in 8 total trolling hours. Which means 5.75, well, lets call is 6.0 BPH (Bites Per Hour)…And 4.375, hmm, call it 5 FPH (Fish Per Hour)
Fish math is exhausting to get it right!
Hot Bites:
White crushed 11” paddle with Riverside fly on chute – 1 bite
Blue Bubble Spin Doctor with Blue Bubble fly on high diver back 130 – 2 bites
Moonshine standard JJ Mac ever on 5 color – 3 bites
Mr. Chrome Yeah Mon standard on 3 color – 2 bites
Fuzzy Bear Soda mag on out down – 1 bite
Stinger Mod Coyote on 3 color – 2 bites
Yeck Golden Goat on 5 color – 5 bites
Warrior Flutter on free slider – 3 bites
Moonshine half moon mini on free slider – 2 bites
Green Stud with some mystery fly on high diver back 80 – 3 bites
Moonshine Blue Knight standard RV on 7 color – 1 bite
Moonshine chewed-up Green Flounder standard RV on 7 color – 2 bites
Rhinestone Cowboy Mag on out down 65 down – 3 bites
Dreamweaver Super Slim Hot Tamale on 3 color – 2 bites
What I Learned:
We lollygagged around putting rods and lures away while pulling lines and somehow ended up exactly one mile from the pierheads at the same time as the Badger was exiting the pier heads. Now I’m getting cocky…New goal: Beat the Badger into the pierheads with a limit!
Timed fish cleaning again. Just me and Surgeon Jenn in the cage. 20 fish. 7 sided and ribbed. 13 skinned and de-boned. All fish bagged and tables cleaned in 38 minutes flat. 1 minute 50 seconds per fish average (more fish math). Wouldn’t have won any old Fred Trost fish cleaning competitions, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.
Also learned my new oven takes over 40 minutes to preheat to 500 degrees. I don’t have a solid reference point here. But that feels terrible. Especially when you’re hungry and tired.
Another important discovery…When you have a true hog on, dragging them through the tuna door might actually be the move. Still researching this.
Not sure what to think about another Logan-less™ limit. On one hand, I’m proud I can do it. On the other hand… Miss you buddy.
Also learned some important things at the fish cleaning station:
Got handed a hot honey recipe and advice…Surgeon Jenn is on it now.
Surgeon Jenn is apparently already working on that. Then I walked over to start bagging fish and noticed Surgeon Jenn had organized all the meat into categories. Tails. Minis. Above-the-bone-line sides. Below-the-bone-line sides. Then sorted by size. Large tails to small tails. At this point I’m beginning to think she may actually be a robotic salmon processor!
Also really nice hanging out and fishing with Surgeon Jenn’s family. Officially received my first handwritten thank-you card for fishing. Totally made my day. This has now created expectations for future guests.
Back to the grind people...need to post this, need to scrub the boat, need to drive home, need to cut grass, need to do school work, need to do work work, and need to party-on at Delaney’s birthday dinner.
Then Wednesday I’ll be driving back to Ludington with Euge riding shotgun. If Ludington has the ability to order calm seas, we need that for Friday. It’s Fish On For Freedom weekend and we’re taking veterans out. And if everybody remembers correctly… We won the thing two years ago. Then completely shit the bed last year. But right now? Feels like we may have more mojo than ever.
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