Early June Lake Michigan: Smallmouth Heat Up as Coho Bite Stays Strong

Artificial Lure here with your Lake Michigan Chicago fishing report. We’re sitting on a cooler, breezy stretch of early June. Around the lakefront this morning, air temps ride the upper 50s to low 60s, pushing into the low 70s this afternoon with a light west-to-north breeze. Skies run partly cloudy with good visibility and only a slight shot at a brief shower. Sunrise hits a little after 5:15 a.m., sunset just before 8:30 p.m., giving you a long, workable light window. Being a Great Lake, there’s no real tide swing, so water levels are steady; boaters just need to watch wind-driven chop. Nearshore water temps are generally in the low to mid‑60s, warming fastest inside harbors and along rock walls. That’s had the smallmouth bass bite picking up again on the Chicago cribs, Navy Pier, and the rocky stretches from Montrose down to Burnham. Shore anglers the last few days have been reporting mixed bags: smallmouth in the 1–3 lb class, plenty of rock bass, plus the odd bonus coho or lake trout when casting deeper edges off the piers. Out deeper, trollers running 60–140 feet of water off Chicago and up toward Evanston have been doing well on coho and a few early‑summer kings. Crews are coming back with 5–15 fish boxes on good mornings: mostly coho in the 3–5 lb range, a couple of bigger kings, plus steelhead and lakers mixed in. The best action has been early, then again in the last two hours of light as the sun drops and the lake settles. For lures, nearshore smallmouth have been chewing on natural‑colored tube jigs, 3–4 inch paddletail swimbaits, and Ned rigs in goby or green pumpkin patterns. A simple drop‑shot with live nightcrawlers or fathead minnows is still money for both bass and rock bass along harbor walls. If you’re chasing trout and salmon, run standard coho spreads: orange or red dodgers with small peanut flies or Howie flies in green and silver, plus a few thin‑profile spoons in orange, UV, and bloody nose patterns higher in the water column. Flatlines and planer boards with small stickbaits or thin minnows in firetiger and silver/black have also been producing. A couple of hotspots to circle today: – Montrose Harbor and the adjacent pier: great multi‑species action from the rocks, with smallmouth, rock bass, and some trout cruising the edges. Pack light tackle, bring both plastics and live bait, and work the transitions where rock meets sand. – The 80–120 foot band off the Chicago skyline: if you’ve got a boat, point the bow east out of Burnham or Monroe and set your spread. Work north–south troll lines until you mark bait and hooks, then stay on them. Early morning surface‑to‑30‑feet has been strong for coho; as the sun climbs, drop a few lines deeper for kings and lakers. Fishing pressure has been moderate, so if you hit it at first light or slip out for the evening bite, you can still find some elbow room. Just remember to keep an eye on the wind; a quick north blow can stack some surprising chop against the concrete. That’s the rundown from the big pond. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn