Ludington Ladies AM Tournament: Tacos Straight Out with a Little Fireball

7/18/20253 min read

Today was the Ludington Ladies AM Tournament and Pull Hard was riding high on pre-tourney mojo – we’re talkin’ fresh haircuts, El Rancho toothpicks, witchcraft, and sourdough sandwiches with salmon tails. The stars were aligned… mostly. Except for that one minor hiccup: we had zero clue where to fish. But let’s back up, because this wasn’t just a fishing morning. This was a whole vibe that started the day before:

Legends tourney got canceled → $200 refund. Yes please.
Morgan and I went for a run. She’s a college athlete. I’m a 55-year-old ex-smoker. And guess who kept up just fine?
Grocery run for pulled chicken taco supplies – great idea Morgan!
Picked up a $500 big fish check at Captain Chuck’s. So now we’re +$700 and climbing.
Bought a new bike, just ‘cause when you're $1,700 ahead (counting not entering Big Boys), why not live a little?
Washed condo windows. Not relevant, just feeling domestic.
Ate a sourdough/salmon tail sandwich that may or may not have changed my life.
Peter Pan Land scouting mission: Riley and Morgan got all Blair Witchy in a hut and “saw fish” in every direction from the bluff. (Pretty sure this was just a bonding moment + scenic overlook, but hey, we believed.)
Then came Tim’s brilliant idea: go to El Rancho not just for the food and great service, but for the toothpicks to use in our meat rigs! Why haven’t we been doing this for years?

The tournament crew was Riley, Morgan, Alison, and Jesse. Add Tim and Nick as sideline beer-chugging hype men and we were cookin'. Left the dock at 5:35am for the shotgun start, still not 100% sure where we were going. So we let fate decide — aka Nick picked “straight out” because he’s lucky or psychic or just likes simplicity. Either way, it worked.

Set up in 65 FOW, trolled out to 125 and did some zigzagy stuff. Bite was slow and steady early, going 7 for 7, then dead for a couple hours. Pulled lines and made a run north for a late flurry. Final count: 5 kings, 1 steelhead, 1 lake trout, 1 coho…so 8 fish on 10 bites.

Tournament rules: Best 5 fish, max 3 of one species. So we weighed 3 kings, a steelhead, and one lonely, dink lake trout. Still, it landed us 6th place out of 45 boats and a $500 check. Which puts us $2,200 ahead on the week. Should I buy another bike?

Hot Bites:

Red Tail SD mystery meat rig, 150 back – 4 bites (EL RANCHO TOOTHPICK FTW)
Yeck Fireball on 5-color – 2 bites
DW Mag Soda, 50 down
ITO Meat Rig, 50 down
Yeck Mag Blue Dolphin, 48 down
DW SS Golden Goose free slider, 52 down

Today I Learned:

Everyone loves a taco bar. That’s just science.
Jesse reels fish like she’s in the Salmon Olympics. Two fish, 36 seconds of rod time.
Tim and Nick dumping beer off the stern = morale boost. Fish didn’t care, but we did.
El Rancho toothpicks = real tournament tackle.
I didn’t really learn this today, but worth re-iterating…Everyone loves when a fish is caught on the Fireball – Yeck Yeah!
Alex Cooper IS NOT Alice Cooper. Found that out the hard way. Boat music was tragic, but Riley swears our fish box came from the horrible tunes!
Riley and Morgan’s Peter Pan voodoo may be real. Straight out ended up being a solid call, and we didn’t have to burn 30 gallons of gas getting there.

Up Next is the Pro/Am (we are Am)..Two-day tournament starts tomorrow. Do we know where we’re going? Nope. Do we care? Meh. We’ll figure it out. The forecast looks beautiful and crew’s full of weird magic, cold beer, and aggressive optimism (they're all sleeping right now though!)