Ludington 6-8 am

jdh · June 9, 2019

Was going to stop in Pentwater but cruised right on past and launched at Ludington instead. My fishing buddy was only running on one hour of sleep and wasn't as quick getting ready as normal so we got a later start than I would have liked. But we had lines in the water at 6:30 am starting in 85 fow and trolling west. Not fast fishing, but steady all morning. At 11 am we were sitting 8/12 with 4 kings and a steelhead in the box. Let some 18-inchers go boatside to grow up some more. We decided to run west and ended up about 12+ miles west of port, and a depthfinder unable to find bottom (500 ft +? ). Water temp was 39.9 on the Fishhawk and my graph. Upon deploying 5 short long lines (2 through 5 color, 100 to 150 copper) with orange Superslims we began the troll east at about 4.5 mph. Once the surface temp reached 48 degrees it was game on. Wound up the day going 13/22 or so and finished out the box with 4 kings, 5 steelhead, and a lake trout.

Was wondering if we were going to hit some big fish, and we had 4 chances and got 2 of them in. A 22 lb male and a 17 lb hen. The other two big fish had other plans. Smaller kings were about 6 to 10 lbs. Steelhead ranged from about 3 to 10 lbs. Laker was 5 lbs.

Morning program: Riggers 45-65 ft down, divers back 85-110, 150 copper, 200 copper, 300 copper all took bites at some point. Stingray sized UV tape spoons with green on them worked. Also Pro King UV Taped flashers with green flies worked. Later morning, setting the divers back 215-250 took a couple hits. East and West trolls. 2.5-3.0 mph.

Deep program: Superslims at speeds of 1.5-5.0. I kept changing speeds and directions and did a ton of circling once we found a group of fish.