What to bring for your adventure

Everyone in your party 17 or older requires a valid Michigan Fishing License with trout stamp. One day licenses are available for $6.00. They can be purchased in Ludington. They can be purchased in advance for the date of your trip.
Cooler to take home your cleaned and bagged catch
Camera and or VCR to capture the magic moments
Snacks, Beverages etc (Try to get everything in one or two small coolers
Sunglasses
Hat
Sun lotion or block, Chap stick
Soft soled (non-skid soles) for your safety, light colored soles PLEASE
Dress for the weather. It can be cool in the early morning and very warm by mid morning. It's also been known to rain occasionally in Michigan. You can always take it off. But, it's hard to put it on if you didn't bring it.
Most Charter Boats provide a Full Day trip of 8 or 9 hours and a Half Day trip of 5 hours.

We offer an 8 hour and a 6 hour trip

Some days we have extraordinary fishing and we come in early with our angler limit. But it doesn't happen too often, especially with parties of 4 or more (that's 20+ fish landed and the fish have been known to get away). In general I've found that a 5 hour dock to dock trip does not give us enough time to do a professional job for you. 9 hours tends to be a very long day with no added benefit.

Why book an 8 hour trip?
While a 6 hour trip can provide plenty of action and opportunity for everyone in the party, for the serious anglers who want lots of action 8 hours is the better way to go. One major advantage of an 8 trip is the ability to move to different areas of the lake. This is important for two reasons. Salmon tend to be morning fish. During certain times of the year, after a fast paced morning of salmon fishing we can pick up and go further off shore to catch Steelhead. It's a BIG LAKE and even though we fish every day we might not start off in the best spot. Most Captains stay in contact by radio and if the action is better in some other area, with an 8 hour trip we are able to pick up and try a second or third spot. For the serious anglers who want to maximize their fun we offer an 8 hour or angler limit trip.
When is the best time to go schedule a trip?  That's the most commonly asked question. The answer isn't  easy. In Ludington we are very fortunate to have excellent fishing from ice out to ice up. What will vary is what we catch , their size and fighting ability. Most people book trips in July and August. It's vacation time, the weather is usually the most cooperative, and we have opportunities for all species of fish. However, May and early June often provide outstanding action and pound for pound more fight from feeding Kings.

The four year old Salmon start to move in on their spawning rivers in early August and on average reach their biggest size in mid to late August. While the "average size" is the biggest during this time we typically find the largest fish  30+ are caught from early July until Mid August. These fish grow fast and head up river early. After the four year olds move into the river we have excellent fishing for three year olds and Steelhead.

A 12 lb Salmon caught in May or Late September will often out fight a a 25lb Salmon caught in late August.

If you can, fish mid week. Boat traffic tends to spook the fish. Mid week has less traffic and makes fishing easier. You can't pick a bad time to go fishing in Ludington.

As a wise man once said "The best time to go fishing, is anytime you can! My worst days of fishing have beat the heck out of my best days of working"

I. Walton