Fresh Chicago Fishing Reports

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.

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

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

I went out by myself this mornning to scout (find fish) and see what was biting. The Lake was like a big bathtub with waves going in all directions this morning. Big rollers left over from the last couple days of high wind and a chop on top coming from diff direction. Therefore it was interesting to find a good line to troll that the fish wanted to hit. We did it and found some decent lures and depths and should do OK next couple of days. However, it does appear that it slowed a little or the fish had lockjaw... not sure which. We did get 4, 2 trout and 2 salmon. The coho are big and meaty and the trout are too. Fish seem to be a little deeper 125 to 168 FOW, down 70 to the bottom. I hear there are still a few big kings around but none today for me. Good luck if you give it try otherwise give me a call and book a trip today!

This year continues to be one of the best years fishing from Chicago that I have seen. Limit catches as of Tuesday of this week, are still possible (5 per person, w 2 Lake trout max ea.). We are holding our breath that it continues. Catching all species on any given day is very possible. We had 3 species each on Monday & Tuesday. Fish remain in 80-160 feet of water north of Belmont harbor has proven successful since the beginning of July. Fish are biting about everything but spoons w greens, golds, whites, and glow baits have been good, flasher fly's are also working well, UV has helped on all baits. All coppers starting with 90 feet (out to 350) are working well. The July run steelhead have come out into the Lake from the streams and are still venturing into the warmer waters near the surface to feed (early in morning or when overcast). We continue to catch big coho, a few Kings remain in the area but not as many as a week to ten days ago. Salmon catches have been good, fish are 40 to 90 down. Lake trout still being caught at misc depths but mainly near bottom, Browns out of Chicago remain elusive this year, but I've heard of a few being caught. The best speeds vary, but 2.0 to 2.7 depending upon what you run is working. I think the fish catch will remain strong through August. C'mon fishing.

The fish are cooperating as of yesterday, it's more catching than fishing right now. So book a trip asap. I had a chance to go out by myself yesterday, and got a quick limit of coho and a lake trout. Had several others on the line, a nice steelhead 12-14 pounds to back of boat and a couple more trout. I was trying to see what they would bite. Doing a lot of experimenting on lures and baits I never run. I guess those fish are hungry and will eat about anything because it didn't take long to get a limit. In the process we found some new (old) standbye's (lures) that are working well. Fish are biting on spoons, plugs, flasher / flies, & cut bait. Fish are in 90-160 feet of water straight out and North of Belmont harbor. That is a big range but there are fish 40-to bottom, with 55 to bottom being best yesterday. Trolling 2.4 to 2.7 mph, in 110-125 FOW best. This group of fish fillets went to Hagens in Chicago to be smoked (a great choice if you love smoked salmon / trout). That smoked fish is great to add to cream cheese along with a few other key ingredients, for the best salmon dip you ever had! Come fishing with us I'll give you all the details. Capt JB