EdB

Nice catch Erik!

Fishing can be good all around Ludington. Here's some places we fish. The water south off the project, the consumers pumped storage facility and straight out inside and outside the nets. North to the bank, it's the area between the state park bathouse and north from there can be good but is a heavy fishing pressure location. Straight off the Big Sable light can hold fish too and north of it can be very good some days to get away from boats. The Sable river mouth is a good location in Sept as well as right off the pier heads and in PM lk. The lake was loaded with fish earlier in the week but a really good fisherman I know got blanked in there last night. I think the load of fish in PM Lk shot up the river with the rain. More could reload. Here's a link to the nets. http://www.ludingtoncharterboats.org/netalert.pdf Generally 80 to 150 is best in summer but the fish will come in to really skinny water in Sept so fishing off the beaches can be good some days. I would take a hard look on the inside to start every day now. Can't really say where the best fishing will be next week since we are in the midst of a gale out there now and I'm not sure if we'll get any fishing in this weekend. Good luck!

Wow, nice footage. I would have used a few more RPM's if I was in that boat. I just got up to Ludington tonight and it's raging here. They are some big waves in the harbor, they are rolling right over the pier.

That water has been good to you out of Holland, nice job!

Nice job Water_ratz on the fish. I really like my 150 ft coppers this time of year although there is no reason for boats to cut behind someone very close, even when it's crowded. If I'm running core and need to go in front of someone to get in or out, I crank them in and deal with it on my boat. I never cut behind others. I would rather get away of the pack and there should never be anyone wining about core when offshore but it happens there too sometimes. Oh well, that's late August and Labor Day weekend on Lk Mich. I like the month of July the best.

Be aware of the commercial nets so you can avoid them and not ruin a trip over an entanglement. Here is a link to there locations, good idea to keep a print out on your boat. http://fish-ludington.com/fishingreport/nets.pdf The nets are well marked and if you're near them, you can see them. The fishing can be good on the inside and outside of the nets at times. It's worthwhile to take a look at your graph outside the pier heads this time of year. They can stack up there on the right day but it's hit or miss. Watching the graph like Matt suggested is a great way to start over fish. Hard to tell where the best fishing will be this far in advance, depends on the wind and weather this week. I like to call my buddies up there like Matt and my neighbors who have been fishing mid week for fishing reports when I arrive in town Friday night, that helps getting on the fish too Good luck!

Had a slow pick on Sunday hitting 6 and getting 5 kings for my buddy Milt and I. We fished the bank north, it was real congested. Quite the zoo there but seas were not good again for an offshore run to get away from it. 2 came on a DW lucky charm plug on a 1-1/2 lb out 120 ft, two on a orange crush fish catcher with green glow KRW flys on low mag divers out 80 ft. and one on a mongolian beef moonshine on rigger down 60 ft. Seas got rough again to end the day just like all week. Seas on Saturday weren't to bad way south, we hit 9 fish but only landed 3, 2 coho's and a steelie, they liked spoons, a super slim fireball and a yeck fire fly on full cores. I know we hit some other coho's that we lost over 160 to 180 ft of water. Overall, we had the longest stretch of rough water than I've ever had on a weeks vacation. As I said on a prior post, it was great to see my daughter starting to handle the rods by herself. Here is a nice king she got.

Nice catch Tom

Really been hampered by winds all week. My crew this week was my family and 7 and 9 yrs olds girls. We didn't fish Mon to Thurs-rough seas every morning. I would have been out with my buddies but not with them. Finally got out today. Ripping winds again but enough southeast to make it more fishable on the bank in close. We had an awesome morning flurry with a triple, ended up 5 for 6, all nice kings. Our action died in close at sun up and we normally would take a west troll into late morning, not today with the 20-25 knot SE winds. My oldest girl Olivia landed 3 nice kings and is graduating to handling the rods by herself. One proud dad here:D. It's raging winds and heavy rain right now as storms pass through. Tomorrows forecast....well...pretty much sucks. Hope we get on the water some more this weekend.

Nice catch!

The set up that come with the DR works fine from the probe to the ball. You should use a wire crimping tool to close the crimps.

Run your full core (300 ft) on the outside and 300 ft copper on the inside on the same side of the boat. It's best to stack your boards from the shallowest on the outside to the deepest on the inside. Your cores will be 40 ft down on the outside and coppers 80 ft down on the inside. This will keep them from tangling together. If you had for example, a 1/2 core and full core and a 150 ft copper and a 300 ft copper, then I would run the cores and coppers on the same side, just with the shallowest and deepest per above.

Nice catch!

That's awesome that the kid got a big one, nice job Tom! My 9 yr old daughter caught a nice king today but not that big.

Nice catch Matt and Bob and good seeing you. The wind is ripping right now with gale warning in effect. Hope it changes things up for the better, fishing is tough right now, we only hit 4 and boated 3 today.

Adam, I'm up here all week on vacation till the 22nd, give me shout when your headed up and I'll let you know how the week went.

Fishing hasn't been hot the last few days. We started in 115 ft of water off the project and put it on a west troll, we boxed a couple kings during prime time but it was a slow bite and nothing worth turning around for. We trolled out to the 4000 line and started hitting a few. We boxed 4 more fish out there and lost a few. Got out to the 42's. Fish came on a DW blk and white paddle on a rigger down 70, the best was a high diver out 150 with a yeck fireball with dingle berries, that took a steelie and a laker and lost one. A mag mongolian beef moonshine down 72 on a rigger, a full core with a DW Pete's bait and a 150 copper with a moonshine happy meal. Most of the boats did not do real well today and the last few days. Fishing to the north was poor for a few boats I spoke with. We need a big blow to change up the water. Some storms are supposed to roll through tonight to the morning, hoping there is some wind with it. Good luck!

Boltman, I got here late tonight. Sounds like fishing has been tough the last couple days from speaking with a few different guys who fished today. I'm here and fishing every day till the 22nd, give me a call.

I should add, in the coming weeks, you won't need to go as far as 100 ft to find salmon. 40-80ft of water can be quite good, regarding of water temp as August winds down.

From the pierhead, it's about 2-1/2 to 3 miles to the SW, about 5 miles straight out and about 4-1/2 to the NW. You have about 6-1/2 miles to get to the stick(Big Sable Light) to the north but 100 ft is close to the shoreline when you get there like Boltman said.

I dropped off a reel with a broken line counter on Sunday at noon and Tuna's had it fixed when I left town at 3:00PM. $15 bucks, got to love it. They have worked on a lot of reels for me, great service. If your coming to Ludington, time to fix up some old reels, they do great drag rebuilds. Tuna's number is 231-907-0052 Email [email protected]

Hey Adam, we'll be up this weekend. Let's get together for a burger or a beer around fishing. The Little Point has been great all July but the fish were loading up at Ludington last weekend.

That was me Tony, my boat has the same name, since I got her new back in 1990. We've got a lot of great memories together. I've always hoped to meet Frank up there sometime but we haven't crossed paths yet. Good to meet you. Great pics and great job getting the kids out! Are you going to be back in Ludington this year? We are up there every weekend and at least 3 weeks of vacation days spread out:D Looking forward to a full week up there a week from next and a few more long weekends. Sounds like you had a great vacation up there!

Capt Gary's in N. Muskegon should have it too.