Ludington's Offshore Classic

The Ludington Offshore Classic is one of the premier Great Lakes sports fishing tournaments.  Ludington is considered one of, if not the best port on the Great Lakes for trout and salmon fishing, with tremendous facilities and a downtown within blocks of our marinas.

Living the Dream repeats in Ludington

More big kings caught in 2009

 

By BRIAN MULHERIN

Ludington Daily News Staff Writer

Team Living the Dream had to be reminded prior to the 2009 Ludington Offshore Classic to bring back the Pete Ruboyianes traveling trophy on its way event.

The trophy sponsored by the Ludington Area Charterboat Association goes home with the team that wins the pro division each year.

It turns out Captain Tony Salerno didn’t need to get stressed out about the trophy, because it went home with him again.

Team LTD continued its domination of the port of Ludington, having now won the 2008 pro division, the 2009 Shimano Ruboy Thursday Shootout and the 2009 pro division.

The team capitalized on reliable patterns in a very tough weekend of fishing.

Matt Salerno said the team did well on a prototype Dreamweaver paddle that will be on the market next year. The attractor is tentatively named “Dreamcatcher” and is a glow material with UV tape. The team used a No-See-Um fly with the paddle.

For lake trout, the team couldn’t keep fish off an orange p-nut trolled on the bottom in front of the pierheads. The team had to throw back six sub-legal lakers in its hunt for three legal trout.

Tony said the search and the fouling of lines when they slowed down to reel in each trout made for an exciting day.

Weights were up across the board in the tournament and LTD’s catch reflected that, as it had 137 pounds the first day and 141 on Sunday. A year ago, the team’s two 12-fish boxes weighed 123 pounds and 115 pounds.

Living the Dream edged out perennial contenders Best Chance Too, the only other boat to take 12 fish both days.

Capt. Bill Bale said SpinDoctors and flies were his hot baits on the shelf near Big Point Sable and orange Dreamweaver SS spoons were the best for the boat in offshore waters. Bale declined to give specific patterns as he will fish the “Best of the Best” tournament in Manistee Wednesday and Thursday and the Salmon Splash next weekend.

“I told Tony he’s a pain in the (backside),” Bale said. “But my hat’s off to them, they brought in two impressive boxes.”

In third was Fuzzy Bear out of Michigan City, Ind. Captain Carl Stopczynski said he’s a licensed captain in Michigan now, too, and the big reason is because all the big kings are in Ludington and Manistee. He’ll be fishing out of Pentwater for the next few weeks with a good number of clients from Indiana coming to experience the fishing.

“We come up to fish big kings,” Stopczynski said.

He said he was into the big kings all weekend, but had to come from 14th place Sunday because they only landed six of the 12 big ones they had on Saturday. On Sunday, the team landed all the big kings it hooked, producing a 138-pound box.

His hot lure was a prototype Dreamweaver glow plug with green and black fished on a 150-foot copper line and on five colors of lead.

 

Amateur division

Out of the Blue has been one of the more successful amateur teams on Lake Michigan, but until Sunday, Ludington’s top trophy had exceeded their grasp.

Kirk Mosher said he was pretty sure they had blown it again Sunday by coming in with just eight fish, but their weight was enough to offset the fish missing from their coolers.

He said his fish shut down Sunday and the team went shallower near Gurney Creek to find four more.

The Ludington trophy was special, he said.

“I fished it a lot,” Mosher said of the event. “In the last five years, we’ve been in the top three and the last four years we bombed on Sunday. We’ve been trying to win Ludington for a long time.”

Mosher said SpinDoctors and Howie flies were his best combination, although cut bait caught a few fish. He said when he went to shallower water, a mixed vegetable spoon worked well.

Out of the Blue edged out perennial contenders Lake Effect II for the top spot. The Romsek family, which has won the men’s amateur division twice, the ladies amateur division once and Ruboy Thursday once, finished just three points behind. Steve Romsek said the team’s top bait was a Stingray spoon in Blue Wiggle and for offshore fishing a Stinger double-orange crush was hot.

The biggest king of the tournament was a 25-pound fish caught by Team Spoonfeeder Saturday near Big Point Sable.

The fish hit a purple mirage fly behind a chrome SpinDoctor with rainbow tape on it. It was reeled in by Joe “The Fiddler” Perrone over the course of about 40 minutes.

Perrone said the team nicknamed him “The Fiddler” after the fight because he played the fish like a fiddle.

Dennis Plamondon’s Finwhacker caught the second-largest fish, a 23.95-pound king, on an Ace High plug on five colors of leadcore line.

Brent Daggett got the third largest fish, a 23-pound king.

A year ago, the top three kings weighed 23.3 pounds, 21 pounds and 20.75 pounds. A 19.80-pound king took fourth in 2008, while this year a fish that size would have been good for 14th.

 

Tourney numbers

Tournament committee member Greg Magee said it’s no surprise Ludington had big kings because it’s always had the biggest kings on the lake, along with Manistee.

“I’ll go out on a limb and say there will be a 30-pounder caught this year,” Magee said of the remaining fishing season. “It’s going to happen and it’s going to be fun when it does.”

Magee's words were prophetic, as 30 pounders were taken later in both Ludington and Manistee.

Magee said the drop from 195 boats to 137 boats this year hurt, but it was somewhat predictable in light of 15 percent unemployment.

“To have this many people and this much participation is wonderful,” Magee said. “These things are expensive.”

The tournament awarded $60,325 in cash, savings bonds and gift certificates, plus uncounted lures and loot in captain’s packs. The amateur division split a pot of $19,400, the pros divided $17,650 and big fish winners split $10,400. West Shore Bank contributed $5,050 in savings bonds to the Youth Classic, while Ladies teams split $7,825.

Chris Zeppenfeld of Great Lakes Ford, who decided to increase his sponsorship as did Big Jon after Gander Mountain left the event, said he was thrilled by the weekend.

“When Gander Mountain pulled out, I was proud to step up and take on one of the major sponsorship roles along with Big Jon,” Zeppenfeld said. “We realize how much money it brings to Ludington. I look forward to next year. This was the first time I stayed up all four days and it’s been a blast. I experienced the town as a tourist.”