Fresh Chicago Fishing Reports

We won the "Fish This" tournament Saturday July 19th, out of Montrose harbor beating a field of both charter boats and private fisherman. Rules were to fish a dnr 3 man limit catching 15 fish and weighing only the largest 10 silver fish (King & Coho Salmon, Rainbow & Brown Trout). There was a side bet for anyone wishing to keep Lake Trout, only weigh one. I believe we were the only boat to bring in 15 fish (13 silvers 2 Lake Trout). The fish are biting between 80-135 feet of water (fow). Various spoons, flasher flies, plugs and cut bait was working. We landed and weighed 6 King Salmon (5 four yr olds & 1 three yr old), 2 Rainbow Trout and 2 Coho Salmon. We also landed 2 smaller Rainbows and 1 smaller coho. Today is July 28 and the big Kings are still around and the Lake Trout bite is going crazy. Get out here and book a trip today, fishing has rarely been better. There are less coho this year than last year but there are more King Salmon making up for it. Cmon lets go fishing. Book us today.

We started early with this Father Son Team and had one of the best trips they've ever taken. Any day you catch 5 species on a 6 hour or less charter is a fantastic day. Many Captains attempt to catch a "grand slam" for many years and some never do. When we catch a brown and/or a King salmon early then we often go for the Grand Slam! Kings and Browns used to be the hardest two fish to catch out of Chicago. This year was a little different as Kings were much more plentiful this year. So we often had them pretty quick. Actually coho became much harder to catch (than normal) after mid July. This trip was on the morning of July 5th, we left the harbor at first light and headed North to one of our favorite spots. Upon arriving I noticed the graph was showing suspended fish. My comment was... "they are here".... and they were, the first line screamer was about a 13 to 14 pound King Salmon, then another, then the 15 pound Brown Trout. Somewhere in there we also caught a decent coho which gave us 3 species, and before I could get all the lines in we caught another coho. These two guys had no clue that we had 2 of the hardest fish to catch in the cooler. So I changed the plan and ripped lines and targeted the sometimes elusive Rainbow trout, or Steelhead. We ran to a spot I like where I often catch them and got my setup out as fast as I could, we had only fished for less than 2 hours at this point. I had about 4 lines out (and was readying to put out a couple more), when we got a hit and that fish was jumping and doing some tail wallking like steelhead can do. We lost him, but before we could get the line in another hit and this one stuck. So all within a couple hours we had 4 species, and no Lake Trout at this point. Often thought of as the easiest of all five species to catch, we had one to go. Where I had run to to catch our steelhead was further out into Lake Michigan and the weather had changed and the waves and wind had picked up and changed direction. So it was difficult to get our last (easiest) fish! There was a current down deep and it took us another hour to get our Lake Trout, but we did it and caught five species again! We did it twice in the summer of 2025, once on tournament day of the Zilliam species tournament. We weree the first boat in over 40 years to catch all five on tournament day and we did it again on July 5th. We also did it once in 2024 catching 5 species with a crew from the Dallas Safari Club. We caught 10 fish that day around August 20th or 22th. A brown trout was our 9th fish and our last fish of the day to end the charter was a nice King Salmon. Wow how unexpected that was to catch the two hardest fish in tandem as the last two. Also they hit the same lure. So we have completed that feet 3 times in the last two years. We also caught 4 species at least 10 times in 2025, mostly only missing a Brown Trout. Anyway, if anyone out there wants a chance at catching a Grand Slam on one day give us a try and let me know that that is what you want to do. I can and do target certain species, so come fishing on the top dog. See you on the water. Captain Jason Baldwin

Hello, my efforts at all of the little things and dialing in the boat are beginning to pay off. On Monday June 16, 2025, THE Top Dog and his crew (Captain Mike Shine & Tony Boshold) beat a field of seasoned Captains and others in the annual Zillion fishing tournament held out of Belmont Harbor. We caught all 5 species of fish Brown Trout, King Salmon, Coho or Silver Salmon, Lake Trout and Skamania steelhead or Rainbow Trout, to take first place. We also won for catching the largest King Salmon. Our plan came together on the right day and we smoked the field. One veteran Captain stated that he had been doing this tournament since 2012 and that a boat had never gotten all five species since he's been doing it. So we are grateful to the Dragon fly (that came and landed on my hand and gave us a little positive luck), and of course to the fish gods we take a bow! We started at the R4 where surface water and down temps appeared perfect, and the fish were there and biting. We fished 50 to 80 FOW made a couple turns around the R4 and then headed east to deeper water to search for big Lake Trout and Rainbows (90 to 120 FOW) where we found both. We had our catch by 10:30 am and only needed to upgrade, which we did on the Lake Trout. We went back to the R4 on Wednesday and in a couple hours 2 of us, boated 8 coho, again today (Friday morning) we were 9 for about 13, 8 coho and 1 Rainbow. NBK, stubby dodgers, and moonshine lures were all good. Fish were biting from surface down to 50 feet. However the surface water temp is getting very warm, I'm sure it will push the majority of fish deeper soon, unless cooler water gets pushed in? Good luck out there and remember safety is number one.

Well... it has been a very busy 2025. We put the boat in at Michigan City April 10th where fishing early season was fantastic, cohos and quite a few early Kings. The boat is now licensed in three states.... Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Yes we passed all of our inspections and have all required equipment etc for all three states. Back to the fish report we came to Chicago around May 7th and have been running trips here. These photos are a combination of Michigan City Indiana and here in Chicago. Early season Chicago was pretty good. Not quite as good as last year but on certain days it has been. We have also had more King Salmon caught this year to date than last year. We've taken several trips out of Belmont and done well. Once we got into June it was a little spotty to find the silvers and a few days we spent catching big trout but then the silvers showed up again and we have been nailing them recently. This morning on a scouting trip we ran North in 50-80 feet of water and quickly caught 8 coho in about 90 minutes. Great eating fish. Two days the Top Dog Won the Zillion Fishing Tournament out of Belmont Harbor! The tournaments objective is to fish for as many species as you can catch of the five main known species, you have King & Coho Salmon, Lake, Brown and Rainbow Trout. Often 3 species catch will win the tournament, last year a boat caught 4 and edged the Top Dog by one spot. This year the plan came together and we caught a Grand Slam .... all five species, and the largest King Salmon. Anyway, I will make another report and include photos from the tournament.

This was the last time we caught significant silver fish towards the end of August. A grand slam or 5 different species of fish. Many Captains and people in general will go a long time or never get 5 species in a 6 hr trip! We were pumped to say the least, and the Brown and King were the last two fish after the sun came out! That day and since its mostly been a Lake Trout Bite. Going slower and trolling flashers flies and misc. Lake Trout rigs. On this day my crew wanted silvers and I stubbornly trolled faster than normal for a Lake Trout bite and it worked, we got our silver fish. Anyway its mid Sept now and I've reports of Kings and Rainbows even a few coho being caught off of the piers near Montrose Harbor. So the 4 yr olds are likely on their way in if not already there! Also now even the Lake Trout bite has gotten difficult for some. My business has wound down and unless I get a last minute deal, I'm likely pretty close to being done fishing for the year. Thank you to all of the people that booked trips with me or tried. Sept usually has some rough weather and we did have to cancel a few trips late. If you still want to go give me a try. I might be able to squeeze you in before we put her up! (first week in Oct) Thanks for the Great Year Fishing hope its even close to this good next year. Capt JB

The silvers are transitioning (4 yr olds prepping to spawn), moving. Therefore it became difficult to catch many silver fish offshore in one trip. Most Captains out of Chicago are targeting Lake Trout now, and we are lucky to get a few silvers, if we do its usually 3 yr old or less salmon and misc browns / steelhead. This started the last week in August, I'm writing this review on 9-4-24. The main bite right now is Lake Trout (2 per person max). The waters on top are warm so they will die once taken aboard the boat. At this point if you catch a couple salmon or other silver fish (rainbows, browns) consider yourself lucky (this is out of Chicago). Its best to head in after catching your lake trout (LT) limit so that you don't kill any (LT) by releasing them. Lake trout are pretty deep right now 80 to 130 FOW plus. Biting on silver flashers and spin and glos and/ fly's. There are a few silver fish around but not many. Trolling slow works great for trout 1.9 to 2.2 but if you keep it a little faster you might luck into some salmon. The photo added here was a great catch last weekend of August, a Grand Slam, 5 species... King / Coho salmon, Brown, Lake and Rainbow Trout. Good luck out there. Salmon may start to show up around the harbor mouths soon. I'm planning to fish them with loud ugly looking lures to entice a bite. Shore fisherman have begun to catch a king here or there. Once the water cools off near shore the steelhead and browns will likely follow the kings in close. You can't catch em if you don't try, so get outdoors and Capt JB