Ludington Area Fishing Reports

Tough fishing today up north of Ludington. The north wind cooled the water down. It was 47 on the surface and 43 down 40 feet on our Fish Hawk. We set up off the bank and trolled toward the point. We had all 12 rods set and no bites. The water warmed closer to the point. We finally hit a fish on a 7.5 color core with an orange glow spoon and it was a good one. After a long fight our biggest fish so far this season, 22.65 lbs. hit the deck. Our next fish was a Lake Trout on the chute rigger down 100 with an 11″ White Slick Paddle/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly. We weren’t seeing much on our graph, so we headed out to deeper water. We hit a pretty good fish on the turn on a 250 copper/8″ White Crush Paddle/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly. It ran into one of our other boards and got away. We took 2 small Kings on the out troll, both on 7.5 color cores. We use Morgan’s Tackle copper and wire and pull our lead cores and coppers with Dreamweaver Ninja Boards.

We fished north of Ludington this morning. No boat traffic. There was a strong north wind, and it was hard to get our speed right on the north troll. We were off the bank and our graph was clean. The surface temp was 55.3 degrees, and it was 47.6 at 50 feet on our Fish Hawk. First fish was a small King that hit on our port out down set a 75 with a pair of SS Half Green Jeans. It took the rubber band stack 15 ft. above the main bait. Our next bite was a mature King on the chute rigger down 90ft. with an 11″ White Slick Paddle/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly. We took a Lake Trout on the same rig out in deeper water 180 feet down. Port high wire diver out 150 with an 8″ Green Bam Flip Fin Paddle/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly took a hit. Starboard high wire diver out 165 with an 8″ Chrome Green Dot Flip Fin Paddle/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly took a small King. We took today’s biggest King on our port 250 copper with a Super Slim Soda spoon. We took a smaller King on a 300 copper with an SS Soda too. Our starboard 300 copper took a smaller King on a SS Half Blue Jeans and our starboard 250 copper took a King on a SS Shelly Snack. We lost a fish on a 6 color core with a SS Half Wonder Bread.

Our last big King hit an 8″ White Paddle/Pickled Sunshine Action Fly. All our Flip Fin Paddles had the fin deployed. The surface temp stayed the same throughout the trip but when we pulled lines our down temp at 50 feet had dropped to 43 degrees. There are more pictures from today’s trip on Free Style Charters Facebook page. We use Morgan’s tackle copper and wire, and pull our lead cores and coppers with Dreamweaver Ninja Boards.