Salmon season shifts to Chinook as June settles on Chicago's Lake Michigan

What's Biting

What's Next

With no current buoy readings for the Chicago nearshore zone, precise temperature forecasting is not possible from this data pull. Check the IL/IN Sea Grant buoy network and local weather services before making plans.

That said, the seasonal calendar is favorable for offshore salmon work. By the second week of June, Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan are typically transitioning from scattered nearshore staging to deeper water and offshore structure as the thermocline firms up. Anglers targeting kings should run downrigger balls to the 40 to 60-foot range and probe depths where baitfish are marking. Alewife concentrations will dictate where fish stack, and per the WI DNR Lake Michigan Fishing Report, the outsized alewife classes that drove record 2024 harvests were still working through the system, giving this year's stocked Chinook and coho an above-average forage base to draw on.

Coho, which shattered harvest records in 2024 per WI DNR, may still be accessible on near-surface gear earlier in the week. Flasher-fly rigs or spoons trolled in the top 20 feet are the standard approach on calm summer mornings before wind picks up. The waning crescent moon means lower ambient light around dawn, and first light tends to be the most productive trolling window under those conditions. Plan to be on the water before sunrise if your schedule allows.

Closer to the Chicago shoreline, post-spawn smallmouth bass should be actively feeding along rocky riprap, pier pilings, and breakwall structure. June is a strong window for bronzebacks: spawn stress is fading and fish are back on the feed. Drop-shot rigs, tube baits, and lightweight jigs worked slowly along pier structure have historically produced well during this phase. Shore anglers on the Chicago lakefront can intercept quality fish without a boat.

Yellow perch, a year-round Chicago-area target, tend to school in the 20 to 35-foot range over sandy or mixed-bottom areas in early summer. No perch-specific reports surfaced in this cycle's intel, but typical early-summer patterns favor morning bites over deeper structure using live minnows or small jigs.

The waning crescent transitions to a new moon later this week. Some anglers find the days surrounding the new moon produce more consistent daytime bites. If the weekend lines up with that window, prioritize an early-morning run over a midday session.

Context

The benchmark heading into this season is the 2024 Lake Michigan salmon harvest documented by the WI DNR Lake Michigan Fishing Report: more than 210,000 coho (a record) and more than 160,000 Chinook (best since 2012). The agency tied both totals directly to strong alewife year-classes, which supplied the forage base that allowed stocked fish to survive and grow at exceptional rates. That dynamic does not reset overnight. The same year-classes feeding the 2024 fish are maturing through the system in 2026, and stocking programs on the Illinois side of the lake continue contributing to the fishery.

For context on where June fits in the Lake Michigan calendar: spring coho fishing typically peaks in April and May as fish stage in colder nearshore water. By June, coho numbers nearshore decline and fish tend to run closer to the surface on open-water gear. Chinook fishing builds through June and peaks in July and August as fish begin moving toward spawning rivers. The second week of June is a transitional moment: coho action may be winding down near port while Chinook are starting to concentrate in earnest in deeper water offshore.

IL/IN Sea Grant, which maintains three nearshore Lake Michigan buoys and was in active deployment season at the time of this report, is a reliable resource for real-time water temperature and wave conditions for the Chicago-area water column. Their buoy data is the essential ground-truth supplement to any seasonal projection when NOAA buoy feeds are unavailable.

No current angler reports from Chicago-area charter captains, tackle shops, or local fishing sources were available in this data set, which limits on-the-water specificity. Local charter reports or the WI DNR's regular Lake Michigan updates would provide sharper current catch rates and productive depth ranges for this specific week.