Fresh McHenry County Fishing Reports

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.

The water is perfect and the fish are biting. It has been a great last two weeks. Limits and large walleye are being caught. Striped bass, catfish, drum, and perch are being hookes as a bi-catch. Right now is a great time to get out and catch some walleye, on the Illinois Chain of Lakes.

Fishing remains strong in our area book your trip now

A great time was had by all this morning out on the Magnum. Great job guys and i look forward to seeing you again

This was a 3-8pm trip, we found them limited out. Great day

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.