Ludington Soup Turned Brighton Bluegill

Someone in Ludington absolutely jacked up Soup Weekend and somehow that resulted in me catching 30 more bluegill. Let me explain.

Ludington has had this soup thing going on for a while. I think it’s tied to the Super Bowl or sorry the “big game” which then turns into “Souper Bowl” because soup people cannot help themselves. I don’t fully understand it and I don’t need to. All I know is soup is involved and historically that has been enough for me to participate without asking questions.

This year though, questions started flying. Why is it ten dollars when it used to be free. Who is actually participating. Where is the ten dollars going. Reasonable questions. Legitimate adult questions. Unfortunately, when those questions do not get answered, people get weird. Squirrely even. The end result…Event cancelled!

At roughly the same time, Surgeon Jenn learned she was attending a mom daughter event in East Lansing. So instead of winning the Ludington soup event, which we clearly would have dominated, we pivoted. Hard. New objective. Winning the Morgan Lake Bluegill Invitational which exists entirely in my head but feels just as important.

Hangry Brand Mike and Jenn once again let me park at their place and access Morgan Lake. Big thanks to the Hillers for enabling this behavior. Last weekend was slow and steady. This weekend was the opposite. It was as good as it gets.

We set up in 29.5 feet of water just west of the old Morgan house. Before we even got set up, some kids had drawn a massive message in the snow on the ice that you could see from the high bank. At the end of the message was a giant heart. Like fifty feet tall. Naturally, I set up right at the top of the heart. Obvious Taylor Swift hand heart vibes. Elite juju.

We drilled four holes total. One livewell hole and three fishing holes. We only needed two rods. That should tell you everything. In about an hour and a half, we put roughly 50 fish on the ice and kept 30. Normally in 30 feet of water I am fishing the bottom two feet. Not this time. These fish were watching the jig drop and swimming up to intercept it as high as 12 to 15 feet down. Absolute chaos in the best way.

At one point I got stuck in a full-on fish processing loop. Take Jenn’s fish off. Clip the gills. Drop it in the livewell. Another fish comes up. Repeat. Again. Again. Again. There was no time to even think about fishing myself. My rod basically became decorative.

It was fast, furious, and deeply satisfying. On and off the ice. End result was great memories and 60 prime bluegill fillets. Kicked some up to Euge and the rest are headed to the Yavello Crows who I assume are already planning something excessive.

Bonus learning moment. According to my Apple Watch, my heart rate hit 130 beats per minute while pulling the shanty. Apparently ice fishing counts as cardio now. Who knew.

So yeah. Soup got cancelled. Phones stayed dry. Bluegill got wrecked. Morgan Lake remains undefeated. I would call that a successful pivot.