101 Reasons to Love Fishing on Lake Michigan
Logan
5/25/20263 min read
Backed by popular request, yours truly is going to start writing about his fishing outings on Lake Michigan
Woah, I get it, this is big news and I'm not sure if you are ready for it! Which is quite understandable as I am not sure if I am ready for it either
But first, I need to back up a little bit and add some context. Jeff Spurgess gave me a computer to type stuff out. Which is key, because in the past, all of my fancy monologues would have to be written out on my Iphone. And folks, my Iphone is quite tired. Which means that it would frequently zone out or just not do things I want it to like upload pictures after I clicked the magic button and stuff like that...
So, anyway, I get the fancy computer and now I can actually type stuff without feeling like I'm in a dysfunctional relationship with technology, which is awesome
Anyway, I digress, back to fishing. I have been pretty much abusing a specific pocket of fish in 50-60 FOW down by the Projects which is no longer there (sigh) with Jeff and his guests for nearly a month. We stumbled upon these Kings accidentally while Lake Trout fishing. About a month ago, it was 2-4 Kings a trip, then 3 weeks ago, 3-6 fish a trip, then 2 weeks ago, 5-8 Kings a trip, then it slowly got to the point where it was like, why trout fish when we are catching just about as many Kings as we are Trout, while we are Trout fishing. We started running a full King spread lately, and things started to get stupid good, even by May Standards for Ludington.
Not sure if it was a pile of super gobies and alewives, a little bit of warmer water from Consumers, or a combination of both, but those Kings were there for awhile!
Earlier in the week, Jeff had decided to take Friday morning off to fish and invited yours truly along (had to twist my arm a bit, lol)
My buddy Austin and I, along with one of his work friends went out on Thursday morning on a scouting mission. By 6:30 AM on Thursday, I sent Jeff a 4 word text. THEY ARE STILL HERE!!
I had told Austin on Wednesday night that I thought we would have our 15 fish by 10:00. We rolled off number 16 pulling lines at 9:52! Catching 13 Kings (keeping 12) and 3 Trout.
On Friday morning our crew said, you know what is better than a 3 man limit by 9:52? A 6 man limit (30 fish) by 10. And then on Saturday morning we decided to catch a 6 man limit by 9:50!
The final 3 day tally included 79 fish (64 Kings and 15 trout) in roughly 14 hours of fishing time. Which is good. Like, really good.
On Sunday night and Monday morning, I had committed to fishing with an old friend from the past. Andy fished with Uncle Doug and I in the Pentwater Memorial Weekend derby in 2019. The 3 of us won Big KIng, 3rd Place Lake Trout, and the 3 fish side bet, so naturally we had to play it again, just for old times sake
The biggest steelhead on the leaderboard was only 4.40 Pounds, and the Lake Trout and King leaderboard were playable, so Andy and I decided to concentrate on a big laker and a steelhead on Sunday evening and then try for Kings once Uncle Doug joins us for Monday Morning. We went out to the Trout grounds and within 2 hours we had a 13 pounder. good enough for 6th place. Mission accomplished! We then proceeded to pick up the speed and target Silvers, and at 8:15 we took a 5 Pound steelhead on a 7 color. Even though an 8 Pound one was weighed, by the end of business hours on Sunday we sat in second place in that category
Monday morning began bright and early, with calm seas and moderate South winds. By the time the fishing period ended at noon, it was 20 mph sustained wind and 3-5 foot waves
In spite of all of that, we landed 22 trout and salmon over two fishing trips, and our Lake Trout held on to 6th Place! Our 5 Pound Steelhead ended up winning third!!
While all of this happened, Jeff Spurgess and the Pull Hard Crew casually boated an almost 24 Pound Lake Trout to knock my 21.55 Pound fish off the board in the Big King Bonanza (rude)
When it was all said and done for me however,
1 Big Coho
1 Steelhead
18 Lake Trout
and 81 Kings!!
Over 5 days of fishing
Add up to 101 reasons to LOVE fishing in Lake Michigan!!
And for those of you wondering, I finally upgraded to water proof fishing boots so those of you working with me at Dreamweaver will no longer have to smell by wet stinky tennis shoes!! Your welcome Tamarra D Parker
