Ludington, 9/1 mid-day, 3 for 4 (solo)

[Mega Byte]

Decided to move my remote office onto the boat for the day.  I talked to a poor fella at the dock who hasn't had a bite in his last 5 trips to Ludington, including that AM when he fished North off the point.  I saw a charter captain had an almost-skunk this morning so I wasn't really expecting to do much, but figured it was better than working indoors at a desk.

Got lines set at 11:25 just in time for an 11:30 meeting.    I started setting lines as soon as I cleared the pier heads.  I had some nice marks in the upper 40s FOW so decided to work 50-ish FOW.  I ran two braid slide divers and one rigger.  I didn't run long lines because of the boat congestion.  I started with a plug and spoon on the divers and a KGF spindoctor and meat rig on the rigger.  I got lines set and put it on a S troll to work out of the boats.  I took it all the way to the project and then spun it around and headed back North.  During the trip South, I had several fish come up and inspect the rigger ball.  It was down about 45 feet.  Then they would slip back down and lay on bottom and disappear.  I think there were a lot of fish we aren't marking that were just laying on bottom.

I tried switching baits to see if I could turn those follows into biters.  I tried different colors, sizes, flasher-flies, and a plug.  I tried different colors and presentations on the divers too.  Finally at 2:54 PM I had my first hit..  That 20.5 pound King made it into the box.  It hit a blue and white spindoctor and Howie's double-aquafly.  The diver was on a 3 setting 150 feet out which would have put it around 45 feet down.  I had just put that bait on about 10 minutes prior so I was thinking Blue might be the way to go since it was the first time I had run Blue all day.  I switched out the other high diver for a Blue J-plug.  One the rigger I put an all white Ghostbuster paddle and meatrig.  

The Blue J-plug was the next to fire at about 4:35 PM.  It was on a diver, #3 setting out 130 which should put it around 40 feet down.  That was a 17# king.

As that king was laying the next, the Blue/White spindoctor and fly went off again.  (So, 4:45 PM-ish.)  This one was set with 150' of line out to the slide-diver.  This fish ended up getting off because my king that was in the net managed to get the J-plug hooks embedded in the fabric of the net and fish was hooked really with with both hooks.  The fish I was fighting ended up getting off about 40' from the back of the boat.  Because I was working to get the net available, i wasn't able to keep enough pressure on the fish.

At 5:45 the rigger starts bouncing and then a big King gets airborne at the back of the boat.  This one took a while to get it.  There were many times I was sure it was going to get into one of the divers.  I turned the boat to try to keep the fish centered in the back and that worked.  I did a lot of circles, avoided other boats and managed to not tangle the other two lines.  The 23# king made it into the boat.  I also saw two more kings rolling on the surface when I was out there.

I reset the lines and fished for another half hour without any more bites.  It was starting to get really crowded out front and since I was by myself, so I decided to call it a day.  I didn't want to get a fish on solo, get a tangle and manage that with so much boat traffic.

All hits came in 54 to 62 FOW.  Speed was 2.2 to 2.4.  Enjoy the pictures.

 

Here are the baits that took fish.  The spin-doctor and fly took two hits.

Rain started to move in to our North.  I managed to stay dry the entire trip.

 

235# King:

 

Not a bad box for a mid-day solo trip:

 

Just beat this big boy back into port:

 

[Fin scout]

Nice job!
What was your temperature at 50 fow?
Cool pictures!

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[Cadilac Grills]

Nice job!
What was your temperature at 50 fow?
Cool pictures!

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Great report!!!


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[Mega Byte]

1 hour ago, Fin scout said:

What was your temperature at 50 fow?

It was 47 - 48 degrees 48 feet feet down, which is where I ran my rigger.  Actually...it could have been a couple degrees warmer in 50 FOW.  I spent most of my time in 54 - 65 FOW.  I think I remember seeing 50 degrees on the probe when I was in 47 - 50 FOW.

[Reel-Deal]

Good job at the office!

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[Mega Byte]

27 minutes ago, Reel-Deal said:

Good job at the office!

Yeah...but I think I owe my boss a few makeup hours...  

[Reel-Deal]

I would show him your report and insist on a raise!

Yeah...but I think I owe my boss a few makeup hours...  

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[FBD]

Need an intern?

[Mega Byte]

3 minutes ago, FBD said:

Need an intern?

LOL.     My daughters said, "Dad, we could do school from the boat!  All we do is work on our Chromebooks anyway."  I was actually trying to get some work done...just needed to get on the water, drop some lines and try and stay out of everyone's way.  It was a pretty relaxing day.  The original thought was any inefficiencies caused during the normal working day would be made up for by extending the working day until 9 PM, but I didn't stay that long.  Yeah, and intern would have been helpful.  The big King that hit on the rigger almost got into my diver lines twice.  He stayed deep and tried running to the side.  At that point I thought, yeah, maybe I should have invited someone to the office today to pull one of those dipsys up.

[WolfPack323]

Great report as always! Sounds like a tough day at the office


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[Wheres Joe]

NIce!   I went up to Manistee 1 day later  (the 2nd)  Wave report when I left GR was 2 to 4    two hours later when we got to the launch it turned into Small Craft Adv and 3 to 5's    Told my buddy no way we were going out, then spotted a guy trolling the channel and said we can do that!  Did that AM and PM with a stop at North Chanel Brewery in between.  Also spent some time out on Manistee Lake , where there were a few people out there jigging.  We did see a couple fished hooked by the folks doing the jigging thing.  Of course all my spinning gear was home!   So best we could do was drag our DR deals trough the middle of the pack.   Had a couple of releases that I would like to think were hits....  but that was all we could muster up.  Planned on fishing Thursday but based on our previous days results, went to breakfast, the tackle store and then home.   As your report highlighted we "should have been there yesterday"    

[Rockin' Randy]

Great report. Had to laugh at beginning as I have done remote meetings from the boat here in Frankfort. Thanks for the detailed information.

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