Ludington Area Fishing Reports

After the strong winds the last couple days we were finally able to get out today, but not for long. We headed north. The surface temp was 68 degrees and it was 40 degrees 20 feet down. Very strong current from the south made it hard to get a good troll. The waves were approaching 3 feet and after a couple hours fishing our crew had enough of the rough water and opted to cut the trip short and go in. We had 5 bites and got 3 in the boat. Two came on a 10 color core with a Wonder Bread Dreamweaver Captain’s Choice Cut Plug and we hit two on a 175 copper with a Ace High Purple Haze Plug. Our only diver bite came on a low wire out 80 with a 10″ White Crush Spin Doctor/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly. We use Dreamweaver Premium Strips in all our meat rigs and Morgan’s Tackle copper on all our copper rods.

King fishing has been good  yesterday and today. The water is warm all the way down to 120 feet so we are fishing deep to catch them. Our shallowest rigger has been 85 down with a Green Black Ladder Back Captain’s Choice Cut Plug and that has been first thing in the morning. After that we have them anywhere between 120 and 200 feet deep. We’ve been starting our high wire divers out 250 & 270 and our lows 150 & 170 then dropping our highs as far back as 350 and our lows between 220 & 260. A 350 has been our shortest copper and a 550 our longest. It’s been tough trying to keep our divers out of those deep coppers when a big King hits them and takes off.  A lot of our morning bites have been coming on Spin Doctors and flys,11″ DW Paddles and flys and plugs. We did better with meat rigs on our afternoon trip yesterday. We caught a 20 pound King on a 400 copper with a 10″ Chrome Kevorkian Spin Doctor/UV On Ice Big Water Meat Rig and a 10″ Black Slick Spin Doctor/Black UV Big Water Rig took two Kings on a low wire diver back 230 yesterday afternoon. A 11″ White Fish Scale Paddle/Blue Bubble Action Fly Went five times yesterday morning and four times in the afternoon 155 feet down on a rigger. A Green Splatter Back Captain’s Choice Cut Plug on a 350 copper went twice this morning and 2 times yesterday morning. A Green Black Ladder Back Captain’s Choice  Plug took three kings this morning down 150 ft. on an out down. We had plugs on both out downs today. One was set at 85 ft. and the other at 100. Neither one went right away and when First Mate Austin’s high wire out 250 went with a 10″ Glow Blade Crush Spin Doctor/Green Mirage Strong Fly he decided to pull the plug off his out down and put a glow Paddle on it. He chose a 11″ Dream Catcher Paddle/Blue Bubble Action Fly and put it down 120 feet. It was only down there a minute or two when it took a vicious hit. The only female crew member, Lisa, took the rod and landed what turned out to be a 26 lb. 11oz., 39 3/4 ”  Master Angler male King. The plug on the other out down went three times after we lowered it to 155 feet down. The Lake kicked up mid morning and a storm was approaching from the west so we pulled lines around 10 a.m. It was an action packed morning for sure. It looks like tomorrow is going to be a blow day, so we will be back out there Tuesday morning weather permitting. We use Dreamweaver Premium Strips in all our meat rigs and Morgan’s Tackle copper on all our copper rods.