Ludington Offshore Classic Am Day 2 – The Muffin Curse

7/20/20253 min read

So here's the deal: after weighing a full 10-fish limit on Day 1, our dream was alive. All we needed to do was weigh 10 more fish on Day 2 and we’re holding up giant Happy Gilmore check. Easy! We had the mojo, the momentum, the meat rigs. We’d caught a bazillion fish during the week and knew what worked. All we had to do was… well, fish like we did yesterday. No big deal.

Same start as always: up at 3:33am (because 3:34am is for quitters), did the run, ate the breakfast, met the crew at the dock. Forecast said it’d be “a little breezy” from the northeast. What they meant was “no sips of coffee on the way out.” The further north we motored, the nastier it got. That weather buoy claiming 1.3-footers? Liar. We saw 3-4 footers…probably five if you ask Nick.

We got to our Day 1 hot zone—120 FOW just south of the bathhouse—and started to set lines. Then, ahh…14 lb Yeck cannonball gone. Just…gone. The eyelet pulled out of the lead and that sucker went to cannonball heaven. So now our chute rigger was dead!

But we got our spread set, and the Ludington fish gods didn’t toy with us—they let us get all 9 rods out before our first bite. Small victory…right!

And now the part where we watch fish jump everywhere except into our boat.

Morgan sees a steelie jump 25 feet back. Tim does a double take. The same fish jumps directly in front of him—like, right there—and yet…no one is running for the port rigger rod that was clearly released…rookie move! We saw something similar yesterday…didn’t we?!

The whole lake was catching fish. Boats to our left, boats to our right. The mail boat probably landed a king. But us? We were a damn fish magnet—but with reverse polarity.

By 7:50am we had 5 fish on 8 bites. Cool, cool—we’ve got seven hours to get five more. Easy peasy.

What followed was a full-blown bite drought of biblical proportions. We fished in every direction known to compass and even invented a couple new ones. We had the good stuff in the water. We knew fish were there. We were marking them! But they just swam by flipping us the dorsal fin on their way to every other boat in sight. The whole lake was catching fish. Boats to our left, boats to our right. The sail boats out there probably landed a king or 2. But us? We were a damn fish magnet—but with reverse polarity.

Finally, hours later, we got 2 more bites and landed 1 of them. That's it. No miracle rally. Just a slow slide from hopeful glory into “meh, good try.”

Final Tally: 4 kings, 2 steelhead, 10 bites, 6 fish, A full serving of heartbreak

Hot-ish Bites:

Red Tail SD mystery meat rig, small high diver 150 back (El Rancho Toothpicks™): 3 bites
Yeck fireball on 5 color: 1 bite
DW Soda, 50 down: 1 bite
Showtime meat rig, high diver 150 back: 1 bite
ITO meat rig, 120 back on mag diver: 1 bite
Black slick/red meat, mag diver 100 back: 1 bite
Black slick/green tape/red head meat on 300 copper: 1 bite
Chubster 3 color: 1 bite

Things We Learned (So You Don’t Have To):

Nick brought muffins instead of donuts. Let’s be honest, that might’ve ruined everything. (They were good muffins though. Just… wrong day.)
Morgan doesn’t miss fish. She’s a certified rod ninja.
Me and Nick also batted 1.000 on hooksets. Take that, Day 1.
The team stayed cool during a 5-hour skunking. That’s the kind of mental toughness they write books about.
Fish are rude. And dramatic. And probably hang out in groups just to taunt us.

We ended up finishing somewhere out of the money but not out of love for this sport. Ludington humbled us, like it always does. One day you’re high-fiving and making trophy room space, next day you’re second-guessing your spread and stress-eating gazpacho. Congrats to all of the local Ludington boats who did well: Outcast, O Fish'l Business, Get Some, Sorry Kids, & Silver Addiction! Maybe someday you can teach me how to fish!

Now it’s time to pack up, get some non-smelly clothes back on, and go pretend we’re normal humans with jobs and responsibilities. But don’t worry—next weekend, the tiki bar gets taken over by Davey and the Band of Midlife Mayhem.

Back soon...hopefully with donuts.