Chicago Fishing Reports

Daily updates on the fishing in Lake Michigan, posted by Captain Gintas.

You can search the Captain's Blog or browse the archives.

• Huge Trophy Lake Trout!

  08/29/2011

  

  The southwest winds have blown away the warm surface waters and created a situation called an upwelling, which means the cold water from the deepest part of the lake is coming in towards the shore to replace that water that has been blown away. The surface water outside the harbor is 50 degrees and the Alewives are packed into the harbor along with the Perch that came in yesterday afternoon. The Coho's are in 43 to 48 ft. of water.......... find the bait, find the fish! The Lake Trout are 90 ft. and deeper on the bottom with a big dodger with and fly behind it.

• Don't put your boats away yet!

  10/22/2010

  
  
  Some of the best fishing of the year is upon us, as every Fall. (The problem is the weather is bad also) The Salmon and Trout have come to their Winter sanctuary in deep water (130 feet to 180 feet). From now until the Lake starts freezing, the Spring Cohos and next years Kings are schooling and can be taken on the surface with Spring patterns (Cohos on small red dodgers and tiny flies,...) . The huge spawner Lakers are also readily available along with Browns ( in 46 to 60 feet of water). There are alot of Kings out there hitting spoons down 30-60 feet.

• Following the "Yellow-brick-road"

  09/20/2010

  
  
  The Kings are knocking at my back door every morning here in the harbor. The fish have arrived at the harbors in search of the river they were promised by mother nature only to be disappointed. They are waiting for the rains to swell the river so they can make their final journey upstream to spawn. The fact there is no river will become reality eventually, right before they die. Nice Kings and Cohos as well as Steelhead are being taken during the early mornings and at sunset on a variety of baits from spoons to body baits to spawn, even minnows are working because the bait is tiny (small perch)

• Awesome Action!

  09/04/2010

  
  
  The Salmon and Trout ( Not Lakers) are working the shallow bait pods, which are moving into skinnier water every day. These off-shore winds (40 M.P.H.) today are changing the water temperature drastically. An upwelling is taking place resulting in the shore temps being in the high fifties by tonight, or even colder. The salmon are gathering around the harbor mouths looking for the "river" to run up after the rains bring the water level up. The larger "spawners are coming into very predictable areas (outside all the harbor mouths), which makes for great fun.

• Lucky King!

  09/01/2010

  
  
  The off-shore winds have pulled the cold water and bait up against the ridges (46- 51 feet) and the salmon followed. The sun is dropping quickly in the sky and goes down earlier and earlier every day. This indicates to the spawning fish that it is time to gather for the "river run up-stream". Spoons trolled up and down the outside edge is producing great catches! Going fast allows for covering more water and gets the aggression bite from the angry Kings.

• Pirates?

  09/01/2010

  
  
  This morning we went back to where the bait was yesterday, but it had moved shallower. WE started taking fish in 51 feet of water and trolled out with a following sea to 115 feet taking nice Salmon and Steelhead the whole way. No best depth for catching fish because the sun drove the fish out away from the shallow bait pods.

• Chicago Browns

  08/30/2010

  
  
  All the action Saturday was deeper most of the day (65 feet to 75 feet of water). All the boats went back to that location this morning, but the sun was obscured by a haze and this kept the fish shallow with the bait all day. I noticed a huge school of bait in 51 feet of water that was half a mile long and couldn't see myself going out deeper where no fish were caught up to that point in the morning out deep. We set lines and aggressively went back and forth from 51 feet to 56 feet of water using tiny spoons that were the size of the forage base there. WE had our limit within a few hours!

• Never seen anything like this morning!!!!!

  08/11/2010

  
  
  We left at 6am with my group and went out to 60 feet of water where we started to observe surface feeding fish all around us. The conditions were perfect: cold surface temperature, fog, and a tremendous bug hatch. There were fish gobbling up bugs everywhere! We were running 5 and 6 core lead lines with small spoons because there are huge amounts of last years spawn of Perch down 20 feet all over. Riggers down 40 feet popped every 5 minutes with Small spoons along with everything else. Action was hot all the way to 100 feet where we turned around and slayed them some more. Straight East of Montrose. We were trolling real fast( 3.6 knots SOG)

• Limit Catches!

  08/04/2010

  
  
  This morning began with rain and calm waters, the perfect combination for great fishing. We began trolling in 55 feet of water and immediately started taking fish. Spoons down 30 to 40 feet were working best, but everything was taking Salmon and Steel head, from Dipsy-Divers, lead core (7 colors to 13 colors out) , copper lines. We trolled out to 125 feet and back to 60 feet taking fish the whole time. Lakers were best in 90 feet of water on the bottom with big dodgers and flies. Spin-and-glow rigs also took Lakers.
  The Perch are hitting hard outside of the harbor on anything you present to them.

• "Just in time for our Weekend BBQ"

  07/31/2010

  
  
  The fish are still relatively shallow for end of July and still hitting the usual patterns, anywhere from 46 feet to 130 feet of water. Find your school and work them. The larger fish are in 55 feet to 65 feet and also way out in 130 feet. Small Salmon are in the middle. Riggers with spoons down 50 to 60 were working the best.
  We saw an incredible sunrise this morning, but by the time I got my camera it was over. There is nothing like watching the sunrise reflecting off the city as it rises. Green and orange colors slowly walk down the buildings as the sun gets higher in the sky.