Captain's Blog

If you want to get your fish, you best leave the dock at five.  The bite has been early and steady, but after 8 it becomes hunt and peck.  The warm water has made for the same deep program, 85 to 120 feet down.  Rotators and Flies, and plugs are still the bait of choice.  A good North Blow would help bring the fish in and the temperature up, but only time will tell, as it as been a very warm water summer. 

Silver Addiction has been very fortunate to have good crews on board the last two weeks, as they have averaged 11 fish per trip.  Since it is the heart of the season I will post a more detailed report with names and pictures later this month. 

Slow and Steady best describes the fishing in Ludington.  With the thermocline down 85 to 100 feet, the fish have been active but need a nudge to bite.  Rotators and Flies have been best along with plugs.  Have taken alot of nice kings in the 12 to 15 pound range, which should make the coming month of August a steller one. 

On July 16th, The Ludington Offshore Classic Ladies Day Tournament took place, and the Ladies team of Silver Addiction took Third Place.  The morning started off a bit bumpy, but turned out to be a great day.  The Ladies team consisted of Stephaine Konkle, Trish Ostroe, Sarah Herbert, Stephanie Herbert, and my wife Sandi Williams.  The Ladies did a great job in catching their seven kings in 38 minutes!  The bumpy seas did not effect them as they landed all seven without a miss. 

Stephaine Konkle had the lucky touch, landing our biggest King, at 18.90 lbs!  It was the first salmon she ever caught, and she made it count.  It was also the second largest king of the day, only 0.3 lbs behind the big fish of the tournament day at 19.20 lbs.  All of the ladies worked well together, as they were not only required to reel the fish in, but also net the fish as well.

Catching the kings so quickly, allowed us to go after our other species to complete our max of five fish.  The rules required that we weigh no more than three of one species, so we needed two others.  Either a Steelhead, Lake Trout or Brown Trout would do.  It would be another 5 hours before we would catch another fish, but it was worth the wait.  A seven color lead core with a Purple Plug screamed, and Sandi took the rod to find a 9 Lbs Steelhead dancing on the end of the line.  It came out of the water three times, once 20 foot behind the boat.  With this chromer in we had 35 minutes to get one more. 

As it came time to pull lines and head in, Stephanie Herbert snapped the corner rigger loose to bring in and found that their was more than just the dodger spin n glo on the line, there was a 22 inch Lake Trout on the end!  The Ladies had filled their five needed fish!

As excited as we all were, there was an interesting side note to this day. The Ladies were wearing Purple Team Shirts with the initials LLM in honor of  a good friend of ours Linda Mitchell, who passed away from cancer last fall.  Linda was a good fisherwoman, and here husband Bob is a good friend and fishing mentor of mine.  When we set up at our final spot to try for trout, Trish and my buddy Ray decided to put out the Purple Plug.  Reason, it was Linda's favorite color, and it was the teams color of the day.  What a great choice! 

This was the first Pro Tournament that the Ladies fished in and they certainly set the bar high!  Good Job Ladies!

Captain Mark   

Went out this past Saturday morning on a research trip with some friends.  Left the dock at 6 am and pulled lines at 11 am.  Went five for seven.  All of the fish came deep, from 95 to 185 down.  Even though fishing was slow, the weather was great, and the size of the fish were good.  All in the 10 to 15 pound range, which should mean some big boys for later this season.  Capt. Mark