5-24 and 5-25 ludington

[In The Net]

simply put this weekend was an interesting one to say the least. On Saturday morning we got out on the water around 6 am to find that the wind had pushed ALOT of cold water into the skinnier water. We decided to go south by the projects because it usually warmer than the point. It was pretty hard to find any surface temps above 45 degrees. We ended up talking to some people who were inside of 70 foot of water and really struggling to get a bite so we decided to head out to 100-115 FOW. Turns out that was a pretty good decision as we went 5-8 in a couple hours out there. All the fish were kings between 11-15 pounds. 6 of the hits came on coppers between 100-200 copper. we got one hit on a dipsey and one on a downrigger. All hits were on moonshine mag spoons. Green and blue were the hot colors. When we got in we talked to the DNR officer and he told us that the surface temps at the point were from 36-38 degrees and that it was tough day of fishing for everybody unless you ran down to pent water.

Alright this is where it gets more interesting. On our way in Saturday we saw a boat swinging there arms at us to get our attention so we decided to head over and see what the problem was. Their boat was dead in the water. After a good hour of them trying to fix it we ended up having to tow them in to port which usually wouldn't take all that long but considering they were twice the size of our boat, it ended up being quite the slow process. We finally got them to port safe and sound and were excited to head out and fish the next day or at least we thought we were gonna be doing some fishing.

On Sunday morning the winds had changed and brought some warm water back in and the fish had followed. So we were up early and ready to kill them. At about 5:30 am we were headed south to the projects again. But while we were running full speed out to our fishing destination something got in the way. At full speed we wrecked a large piece of wood floating in the water. Wow is that quite the surprise. It is like hitting a brick wall! It stopped our boat dead in its tracks. Probably one of the scariest things I have ever encountered. As you would expect it did some damage. It broke both our graph sonar piece and fishhawk piece on the bottom of our boat. Plus it did quite the job on our motor. It totally busted the hydraulic pump and did some more damage on the motor which is still to be determined. All we know is the motor wasn't running and we could raise or lower the motor but we are still figuring out everything that is wrong. We ended up slowly making our way back into port with our kicker motor to access the damage. Luckily the actually fiberglass of our boat came out unharmed which I like to think is the good karma we got from pulling in the guys from the day before. lol

All in all it wasn't the weekend we were looking for but nobody got hurt and I think everything can be fixed with some handy work and a few new pieces of equipment.

[gmfishon]

bummer to bad the karma did not prevent the whole thing must have been a big piece of wood was it a log or could you tell where it came from ?

[In The Net]

It was a big piece of 2 by 4 with screws on it that someone must have thrown off their boat

[gmfishon]

It was a big piece of 2 by 4 with screws on it that someone must have thrown off their boat

good luck getting back out as quickly as possible:grin:

[Trina Rose]

I was running that same water that day. Glad we didn't hit it. Sorry about your boat. We got skunked in the shallow water in front of the project. I wanted to run out deep cuz there was three boats hanging right in that 100-120 fow area in front of the project.

[In The Net]

Yeah the fish were deeper. We marked more fish and bait out there. Plus there were some hungry ones. We fish up there pretty often and have some friends that are up there all summer so if you are gonna head out of ludington again send me a PM and I'll let you know what we know.

[KnottyGirl]

I'm sure the wood was from the river, I also seen very large dead trees, one coming down the channel Saturday night and one 6 miles out. It's very typical to see debris, picnic tables/trees after the spring floods. Sunday the warm water surged back in with the south blow killed em 140-160 fow four miles south of the harbor. Wire divers and riggers with meat were non stop.

[In The Net]

Yeah I know te wood could have come from anywhere. We've all seen wood floating in the lake before just unlucky to hit it. And yeah that is what I heard. The fishing sounded like it was very good Sunday and hopefully stays that way all summer

[EdB]

That's a bummer with the boat, could have been worse. At least it did not punch a hole in your hull. I'm glad you could get back in safely.