07/28/2025
Tournament play 2025
Falling behind on posts
The Ludington Offshore Classic was insane! Biggest fishing event Ive ever been a part of. The family made it special. Seen the best fisherman the lake has! Started the event fishing the kids event as pre fishing for the weekend. Little did we know wed set right on the Kings first thing. Aubrey faught more fish than she remembers. Emily and I helped Aubs and Jaxon fight 8 into the boat. That box of fish found us in 2nd!! The lake changed quick, atleast that water we found them in. Starting the AM Tournament the next morning, they were gone. The boat seen 3 fish in the first three hours. On a whim with nothing to lose we made a move that paid off boxing 6 in 2hours mid day. That landed us top mid pack 34th(ish). Huge storms crashed the lake over night, the lake was angry day 2. 2-3’ waves out of the north told us NOT to run to that water 20 miles south. Like EVERYONE else 150ish boats we crashed big point at the shot gun start. Choosing a 7 mile run into the waves and riding them back to port vs possibly breaking 20 miles of 3’ waves there and back. Litte did we (or the weather man) know the lake laid perfectly to the end of fishing period. This move turned out to be the worst day of fishing I can recall since starting. Fishing without the not so trusty fishhawk didnt help. Couldnt even walk the box to the scale. We left Ludington happy the kids have that to remember.
The Muskegon Fishing Tournament was executed again with zero prefishing. Day one the soon to be father in law (Salmon OG) who hasnt been since mid 90s and a buddy jumped in. We ran to some familiar water and behold there were fish there. Smaller than wed have liked. We still managed 10 of them into the cooler. Had 2 heart breaker “teeners” shook the hook within net reach. We landed in 16th. Those misses costing us a top 5 spot. Nonetheless battles were won.
Day two we ran near where we left off only a slight move. My gut was right the big rigs werent far from where we had been. Immediately we had our hands full and the 150qt filled up one by one. Hog after hog we finished with a dinosaur. Landing 13 of our 20 bites. Smallest fish being 13lbs this was a fun box to take to scale. Our 79.25lb 5 brought us to 7th being the second biggest box of the day. Jumping on a last minute box of the day bet over the radio paid off as the crew with the bigger box didnt enter. I wont miss seeing that port at 1pm on a Sunday. What a mess that port is.
Looking forward to The Manistee Monster and Benzie Frenzie. Until then the boat gets a break and Emily gets floors, appliances, and paint throughout. Trying to keep momma happy ❤️🤣
