LEGEND: ***** – excellent; **** – very good; *** – good;
** – fair; * – poor
Lake Michigan (Chicago lakefront)
*** 1/2 Perch season reopens for adult anglers and fish are biting, especially around Montrose and Burnham Harbors, Northerly Island and 39th Street. Best baits include softshell crabs or minnows. Sporadic smallmouth also reported. Boaters still finding coho and kings at the R3 and R4 on spoons and flies.
Lake Michigan (Lake County)
*** 1/2 Anglers catching nice-sized perch along shorelines on softshell crabs and a variety of minnows. Many anglers hitting limits off Government Pier and South Rocks. Boaters also catching nice perch in shallower depths. A few salmon reported off piers.
Lake Michigan (Northwest Indiana)
*** 1/2 Mt. Baldy/Black’s Ditch area west to Beverly Shores has produced good-sized perch in depths up to 46 feet. Also very good reports out in front of Ogden Dunes east to the Indiana Dunes State Park in 25- to 37-foot depths. Good bite around Gary’s Light and the Inland Steel Wall. Michigan City anglers finding variety of coho, chinooks, steelhead and lake trout straight out from the lighthouse as deep as 110 feet. Smallmouth good for East Chicago boaters along break wall. Rocky areas around Buffington Harbor also active.
Southeast Wisconsin
*** Good shoreline perch catches in Kenosha, especially in early morning from piers and in marina. Boaters also successful along rock break wall and at the bubbler on minnows and crab tails. Shoreline action spottier in Racine, but boaters report good action on minnows or crab tails while trollers catching coho, rainbows and chinooks. A few perch and some late-night chinooks caught off Milwaukee’s McKinley Pier.
Southwest Michigan
** 1/2 Perch action slowed near New Buffalo early in the week. Midweek reports indicate good perch south of South Haven in 20 to 30 feet. Pier fishing slow near St. Joseph, but good perch conditions in 20 to 30 feet, while trollers finding chinook as deep as 85 feet. Excellent activity in Three Rivers area, including very good bluegill action at Corey Lake.
Chain O’Lakes
** 1/2 Predicted weekend heat may push bass into weeds. Look for green weedy areas or deeper currents. Walleyes slow but can be found in currents around Route 173 bridge and river mouth. Bluegills and crappies good in shallows while catfish generally quiet. Some northern reported deeper in weeds in north channel and Lake Catherine and Lake Marie.
Kankakee River
** 1/2 Largemouth bass good in Indiana bayous on minnows, plastic worms and spinners. Some smaller northern pike biting in river and connected bayous. In Illinois, Momence area producing a variety, including smallmouth bass on jig and twister tails and crank baits. Rock bass and catfish also good. Try Kankakee Dam through Sawmill Creek for smallmouth, catfish and walleye. Smallmouth fair to good on minnows, jigs and double twister tails from Wilmington Dam through Des Plaines Conservation Area. Catfish good throughout system.
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Compiled by Jack McCarthy from pro and bait shops and state natural resource reports.
