Ludington 9/7 & 9/8

[SeaCatMich]

After 3 blow days finally got back on the lake on Sunday and Monday. I spent the week camping at Thompson Marina & Campground and was really ready to get back on the water after worrying that my tent was going to get blown away with me and the dog in it. Sunday was very nice with 1-2' seas. Monday started out nice with 1' waves but increased to 3 & 4' after noon. Fished both days in the 100 to 150 FOW area off of Ludington State Park.

Sunday had me and my regular buddies Tom and Tim out on the CATtitude Adjustment. Thermocline was pretty deep with 54* down 90 to 95' and 43* at 100 to 110' down. Aside from a couple hits on 300 copper, all fish were 85' or deeper. Went 7 for 10, 6 kings and 1 steelhead. Kings were 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, and 21 pounds and the steelhead was around 7#. Being the nice host that I am, Tom and Tim got to fight the three bigger Kings and the Steelhead :smile:

What worked:

* Ace High purple and blue squiggle back plugs on 300 copper (1 for 2 steelhead), riggers - 95'. 99', 95' rigger (2 for 2 kings)

* Moonshine RV Wonderbread mag size spoon on 300 copper (1 for 1), fixed slider 10' above 105' rigger (0 for 1 king), 105' rigger (2 for 2 king)

* UV BW meat rig w/ DW cut bait on Mag Diver out 200' set on 1 (1 for 2 king)

The 1 king on the moonshine slider managed to get into a wire diver and after some over/under rod mechanics got that undone it headed for the 300 copper board. Unfortunately the Ace high main plug got right on the board and broke the copper. After some boat maneuvering we got to the board and the fish was still on but got off as the boat got close. Didn't loose any tackle other than 25' of copper. Had to switch to a leadcore.

Tim w/ 21# King

Tom w/ Steelhead

Monday it was a solo day. Got a little bit of a late start with lines in around 7:30. Buoy was right and waves were from the south at 1.5' to 2' -- very fishable. Thermocline had moved up to the 65-75' range for the 54* to 43* temps. By noon had 3 hits (all on Ace Highs off riggers) with none to the net. At noon the waves started to grow making trolling north the only viable direction in the 3' seas. Fish also started to feed though and went 8 for 10 (3 smaller kings released) in the next 3 hours for a 8 for 13 final count -- all Kings. Kept 2 ~12#, 1 18#, and 2 23# fish.

Pretty much the same lures as Sunday and I pretty much lost track of the details.

* Ace High blue and green squiggle back plugs at 65', 70', and 75' rigger had (~8 hits)

* RV Moonshine on 300 copper (1 for 2) and fixed slider 10' above rigger ball (~3-4 hits)

Ran a wire diver for a while but with hits coming off the riggers switched to two riggers and one 300 copper. Ran a flasher/fly on one of the riggers for a while but pulled it with as well as the Ace High and RVs were doing. During the noon to 3 pm timeframe the waves had built to solid 3' with lots of 4s and the occasional 5'er. I decided to head in as I had caught plenty and didn't have another pull/run in me for one more trolling pass. Trolling intp those waves solo and trying to fight fish solo isn't much fun.

Sorry no pics from Monday -- my cell battery was dead from searching for signal.

NOAA sure had Monday wrong. It was supposed to be 1-2' seas all day. 2' was forecast for Tuesday too but was 1' or less when I drove by on my way out of town. Oh well, had to go home sooner or later. I'm already looking forward to coming back to Ludington. Glad that I found out that Thompson Marina has camping right next to the boat slips. Not fancy but a great place for a salmon fishing vacation of a few days.

[EdB]

Nice catch Ryan!

[fishy1]

Nice job on the fish Ryan!

[jeffsisson]

Nice job! Nice report thanks Ryan!