Early June Lake Michigan: Smallmouth, Salmon, and Long Light Windows cover art

Early June Lake Michigan: Smallmouth, Salmon, and Long Light Windows

Early June Lake Michigan: Smallmouth, Salmon, and Long Light Windows

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Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Lake Michigan Chicago fishing report. We’ve got a classic early‑June pattern on the big lake. Water temps along the Chicago shoreline are sitting in the upper 50s to low 60s, warming faster in the harbors and inside the breakwalls. Winds have mostly been light to moderate out of the north‑northeast and should lay down more by late morning, giving you manageable chop and decent clarity close to shore. No real tide here on Lake Michigan, just seiche sloshing, but water levels have been stable, with a slight rise and fall on wind shifts. Sunrise is right around 5:15 a.m., sunset about 8:25 p.m., so you’ve got long low‑light windows to work with. Best activity has been first light to about 9 a.m., and then again the last two hours before dark, especially if clouds roll in. Salmon and trout action offshore has been steady. Charter captains running out of Burnham and Diversey have been picking up mixed bags of coho, kings, and a few lake trout in 70–120 feet of water. The coho are still favoring bright orange and red dodger‑fly combos and small orange spoons, trolled 2.0–2.4 mph. Kings are coming a bit deeper on magnum spoons in green‑glow and UV patterns, plus flasher‑fly rigs in white‑green. Average catches have been 5–10 fish on decent mornings, more when the wind and temp breaks line up. Closer to shore, smallmouth bass are the big story. Rock piles, crib structures, and the armor stone along the city front are holding good numbers. Plastics on light jigheads are doing work: green pumpkin tubes, goby‑style baits, and ned rigs in natural brown. Work them slow along bottom, especially around Montrose and the crib line. A lot of 14–18 inch fish being reported, with a few bruisers over 20. Perch are spotty but worth the effort when you find a school. Navy Pier, the south side of Montrose, and the Calumet mouth have all kicked out keeper fish recently. Best bait has been soft‑shells when you can get them; otherwise minnows and red worms on simple drop‑shot or perch spreaders. Morning bite has been stronger; once the sun gets high, they slide off a little deeper, so bring enough weight to stay near bottom. For multi‑species fun in the harbors—Burnham, Diversey, Montrose—float rigs with live minnows will draw perch, rock bass, and the occasional smallmouth. Nightcrawlers on simple bottom rigs are still catching freshwater drum and catfish along the inner walls and slips. If you’re throwing artificials from shore and want to cover water, tie on: - 3–4 inch swimbaits in smelt or alewife colors - Small silver or blue spoons - White or chartreuse inline spinners on overcast days Two hot spots to circle on your map: - Montrose Harbor and the adjacent pier and rocks: early‑morning smallmouth on tubes and ned rigs, plus roaming coho just outside the harbor mouth when bait shows. - Calumet River mouth and nearby breakwalls: perch and mixed bag on live bait, with a shot at shallow‑running coho and the odd brown trout on small jointed crankbaits and spoons. Keep an eye on the wind; if it swings around and stacks warm water on the city side, that nearshore bite can light up in a hurry. On flat, sunny days, drop a size on line and go more natural on colors. That’s your Chicago lakefront report from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next update. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
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