Ludington 5/17 am

[jdh]

Saturday afternoon I was looking at the forecast up and down the coast.  Didn't really like what I was seeing most places but settled on giving Ludington a try.  Got a camping site at the State Park and drove up.  Woke up around 4:30 am and decided it sounded too windy.  Woke up again at 6:30 and decided to give it a shot - since I was already in town.  

Well, motores out past the pier heads and about 2 miles out started getting some pretty big swells out of the NW.  I'd say mostly 1.5-2 feet but some definitely felt like over 3 feet.  I got a smaller king setting lines and after netting it decided to turn around and troll back to port.  Picked up 5 lb king in 50 fow.  Then nothing until I crossed between the pier heads.  I was in the process of rigging a few lines for some pike when the down rigger goes.  Nice 7 something lb king.  Started doing loops between the pier heads and picked up 2 more.  Down rigger hits came with the spoon 5 feet back or so.  Wouldn't touch it with a longer lead.  LiveScope was showing a decent concentration of fish.  

With a surprise limit went back to the launch and loaded up and drove home.  Got home before 2 pm.

Fish hit the following:

Stingray Jager Bomb - 100 Copper - king

Stingray Orange Edge - 150 Copper - king

Silver Streak Mag Chilly Willy - Downrigger 19 down - king

Moonshine Mag Mongolian Beef - 3 Color Lead core - miss on a nice fish.

Silver Streak Mag Ludington Hulk - missed another nice one

Moonshine Custom Mag RV Double Trouble - Downrigger at 21 - king

Moonshine Standard RV Bad Toad - 3 Color Lead Core - king.

Speed everywhere from 2.0 to 3.5.

Some people may complain about leaking that fish are at the pier heads.  However I only saw one other boat do a couple loops.  Plus fishing offshore is really hot right now.  And it's where I would have wanted to fish had the waves let me.

 

[Reel-y-hooked]

Great outing, nice job dialing in on them. 

[littleboat]

Good play at the piers!

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