Lake Michigan Fishing Reports

[Rick]

Milwaukee, WI - The weekly Lake Michigan fishing reports from 7/11/13 are gathered by local DNR officials, angler creel surveys, county and state parks staff. They are compiled. There are always current Wisconsin Fishing Reports and hunting reports as well as outdoor reports in this forum. Enjoy.

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Southern Lake Michigan Fishing Report:

Kenosha Co.

Ramp: Activity was back to normal this weekend at the Simmons Island boat ramp. Rain, lightning, and high winds kept most boaters off the lake for nearly a week. The catch rate has been very low lately, according to anglers at the fish cleaning station. Most of the anglers reported that they’ve been motoring out to the “hills” to start their fishing trips. A few anglers returned with nice catches of cohos and a few kings averaging 15-20 pounds. Most anglers report that they’re having a hard time finding the fish.

A couple of boaters motored north to Wind Point, but they returned with only 1 or two coho in the cooler. Anglers fishing for perch have been active as well, but they’re working hard to find them. The break wall outside the harbor has been a popular spot, especially the southern side where the water is deeper. A few perch anglers reported some luck fishing the rocks and woodpiles along the shoreline. Most of the anglers are using a jig and plastic, and some of them report that they have better luck when they add a wax worm or a spike to the bait.

A couple of boaters have been trolling the harbor for brown trout, and they’ve been having good luck. There isn’t much room to troll in the harbor because of all the boat traffic and because of all the lines in the water from anglers on the piers.

Shoreline: Fishing pressure on the shoreline was steady all week. Anglers finally got a break with a few days of warm and dry weather. Nice catches of browns were taken all week long from the short pier, the area around the Pike Creek outlet, the point behind the Best Western hotel, and from the old wooden pier in front of the Coast Guard station. Most anglers have given up on perch for the time being as large numbers of brown trout continue to be caught in the harbor. Anglers reported catching a few perch while fishing from the rocks between South Pier and Southport Marina, but they’re working hard to catch them. The perch were hitting on minnows and on jigs tipped with small plastic worms. The surface temperature at the lakefront was 64F on Sunday.

Piers: Fishing pressure has been heavy on the piers over the past week. Nice catches of brown trout have been reported all week long on North Pier and South Pier. Some anglers have been walking off the piers with their limit of browns. Artificial lures are taking most of the fish. The browns have been hitting tube jigs, kastmasters, cleos, krocodiles, white twister tail spinners, swedish pimples, and fire tiger spinners.

Anglers fishing with alewives are having limited success. The browns have been rolling on the surface of the water all day long for over a week. One angler lowered an underwater camera into the water from North Pier and everyone watched as nice size brown trout swam past the camera. Anglers on both piers are still fishing for perch, and some of them have been catching brown trout by accident. The most productive lure for catching the browns was a ½ ounce, blue/silver or green/silver kastmaster.

Racine Co.

Ramps: Activity at the boat launch was heavy this weekend as temperatures climbed to the upper 80’s. Nearly half of the boats at the ramp this weekend went out for pleasure boating rather than fishing. Anglers report that they’re having a hard time finding schools of fish. Trolling in 80-90 feet of water around the 3rd hill produced nice catches of fish over the past few days.

And a few boaters from Salmon Unlimited came in with some nice catches of cohos and kings on Saturday. They trolled straight out from the harbor until they located a school and then worked the area until the fish stopped hitting. Sometimes it took 3-4 hours to find the school but when they did, they caught cohos, lakers, and kings. A couple of boaters tried fishing for perch along the break wall by Gateway Tech and by the bubbler outside the water treatment plant on Sunday.

They reported limited success. Perch fishing has been very slow this year. A couple of anglers went spear gunning for perch along the break wall. They saw a small school of perch (20-30) but couldn’t get close enough to spear them. It was their first attempt at spear gunning for fish.

Shoreline: Fishing pressure on the shoreline was average this week, and the catch rate continues to be low. One of the regular anglers at the Pershing Park wooden pier reported that the perch fishing has been very slow for over a week. She managed to land one bluegill over three days while fishing with crab tails and minnows. One angler caught his limit of perch, some over a pound, while fishing from the rocks below the DeKoven Center.

The perch were caught on a jig tipped with a small plastic worm. Another angler at the DeKoven Center reported that he finally caught his first perch of the year after 6-7 days of fishing. One angler landed some nice size brown trout while fishing the point at the water treatment plant with a white twister tail. There was little to no fishing pressure on the Reichert Court fishing pier over the past week. A couple of anglers tried bow fishing from the pier on Saturday, but it was difficult to see the fish due to the dirty water. The surface temperature at the lakefront was 64F on Sunday.

Piers: Fishing pressure increased on the piers this week after a few days of warm and dry weather. A few anglers on the North Pier reported some nice catches of perch earlier in the week. The perch were taken on jigs tipped with small plastic worms and with small golden roaches. One angler said that he always has good luck catching perch on North Pier when the wind comes out of the northeast. The perch stopped biting on Friday when the wind direction shifted from northeast to southwest. As the water temperature has been warming up, anglers have been catching more brown trout from South Pier. Cleos, wobblers, and krokodiles have been taking most of the browns. Most anglers stopped using alewives for bait about two weeks ago. Repair work on South Pier resumed on July 3rd. Work was delayed for about a week due to strong winds and high waves. According to some anglers, the catch rate on South Pier has dropped since the repair work began and that the loud noise and vibration has been spooking the fish.

Milwaukee Co.

North Shore: Fishing has remained slow through the weekend though lighter winds have provided at least the opportunity to venture out on the lake consistently. Boaters only averaged about 2 to 3 fish landed per boat, so it remains much slower than is to be expected for this time of year. Those that were catching fish focused in 100-175 feet of water with no particular depth below the surface providing more fish than any other. Chinooks and lake trout made up most of the catch with spoons in blue and green producing the best. A few cohos were caught along with rainbows on blue and white flies with orange flashers. Fishermen off of McKinley pier caught a few brown trout off the pier in the evening on green spoons. The rest of the shoreline also had no reports of success fishing for browns or any other species. Perch fishing was extremely slow as well with only a few small perch caught off of the rocks near McKinley using jigs or live bait under a bobber.

South Shore: Fishing has remained slow through the weekend though lighter winds have provided at least the opportunity to venture out on the lake consistently. Boaters only averaged about 2 to 3 fish landed per boat so it remains much slower than is to be expected for this time of year. Around 100-175 feet of water produced the most fish with a few reports of more fish caught in around 100-115 f.o.w. between St. Francis and Oak Creek. A few Chinooks were caught on blue and green spoons. There were no reports of people catching fish from underneath the Hoan Bridge. A few perch fishermen went out of Bender Park to fish the boils, but only a few small perch were caught on soft plastics. Anglers fishing on the Oak Creek power plant fishing pier had no reports of fish being caught. Perch fishing was inconsistent around the South Shore floating pier with only a few keeper perch caught on minnows off the bottom between 5 and 7 am.

Ozaukee Co.

Fishing pressure has increased on the ramp, mainly due to the Ozaukee Great Lakes Sport Fishermen’s Fishing Derby. Pressure also increased slightly on the pier, and remained low from shore.

Port Washington Pier: Fishing pressure has increased on North Pier, but catch rates remain low. Many anglers the past few days have been fishing for anything, venturing onto the pier more for the sunshine and cool breeze than the fishing. Fishermen have reported a couple small perch being caught, as well as a couple nice Browns, but fishing effort is high and catch rates are low. Water clarity on Thursday (July 4) was low near shore, but clarity improved by the end of the weekend, mainly due to only light wave action generated by a consistently Southeast wind the past few days. This wind has made the lake quite choppy through the middle of the day and created some rough water near the mouth of the harbor as well.

Anglers have also reported that water temperature near the end of the pier is in the high 50s to low 60s (°F).

Port Washington Shore: Fishing pressure has fluctuated from low levels on Thursday (July 4) and Saturday (July 6), to more normal levels on Sunday (July 7); in fact, I observed no shore anglers on Saturday. The recent increase in catch rates seems to have tapered off, with only small trout and a rock bass reported in the past few days, caught on worms and a silver spinner, respectively. Water clarity in the marina remains good, and water levels on Sauk Creek continue to drop while clarity improves. The path to Fisherman’s Park remains closed.

Port Washington Ramp: Fishing pressure has increased to more normal levels on the ramp. On Thursday (July 4), most boats stayed on the lake until past dark, most likely to watch the fireworks. I was only able to interview one group that day, but they caught nothing and had no strikes. Boat traffic increased on the weekend, mainly due to the fishing derby, and catch rates were higher, with most boats coming back with four to five fish. Catches consisted mainly of cohos, but also quite a few chinooks and rainbows were caught, as well as a couple lakers. Anglers continue to troll in 90 and 130 feet of water and are marking a lot of baitfish. Most success this weekend was with spoons. Anglers have reported large slicks of dead alewives in open water. Like other areas there has been a consistent Southeast wind the past few days that has grown stronger from late morning and continues into the afternoon, generating some sizeable waves.

Amsterdam Road Ramp: Fishing pressure remains low on the Amsterdam Road ramp. No trailers were observed on Thursday (July 4) and only jet skis launched from the ramp on Saturday (July 6). On Sunday (July 7), 5 groups launched from the Amsterdam Road ramp, but no boats came back while I was in the area. Judging by catch rates in Port Washington, fishing was probably quite slow. Like other areas there has been a consistent Southeast wind the past few days that has grown stronger from late morning and continues into the afternoon, generating some sizeable waves. This wave action could make launching a boat quite difficult. Though there has been constant light wave action, clarity near shore is quite good.

Sheboygan Co.

Watch out for the orange flags and buoys that mark commercial fishing trap nets set in Lake Michigan. Steer clear and give these markers a wide berth to avoid getting tangled and capsizing. Learn where the nets are set on our Trap Net page.

Fishing pressure has increased on the ramps, remained low on shore and increased on the piers.

Sheboygan Ramps: Fishing pressure has increased on the marina ramp, and one trailer was observed from the 14th Street landing (but they evaded me). There was a constant stream of boats on Thursday (July 4), and this boating pressure continued through the weekend. Catch rates were slightly higher on Thursday, with most groups catching three to five fish; most catches included coho, but some also bagged nice rainbows and chinooks. Catch rates tapered off by the end of the weekend, with about half the groups interviewed catching nothing. Anglers continue to have success, and mark fish, in 80 to 140 feet of water and seem to be catching most fish on spoons. There has been a consistent Southeast wind the past few days that has grown stronger from late morning and continues into the afternoon, generating some sizeable waves. Most anglers are reporting large slicks of dead alewives in open water. The lake has also been hazy during the day due to humid air. The 8th Street ramp remains closed.

Sheboygan Piers: Fishing pressure fluctuated in the past few days, from very low numbers on Thursday (July 4) to more normal levels on Sunday (July 7). Low numbers on Thursday were mainly due to the closure of South Pier for holiday festivities. Despite resumption of more normal fishing pressure, anglers continue to report no catches, though some have seen or heard of a brown trout caught here and there. Like other areas there has been a consistent Southeast wind the past few days that has grown stronger from late morning and continues into the afternoon, generating some sizeable waves. This wave action has influenced higher fishing pressure on North Pier (mostly the lake side), as well as focused effort on South Pier to the marina side. Despite wave action, water clarity on the lake side of both piers remains good.

Sheboygan Shore: Fishing pressure remains low on the Sheboygan River and the lake shore. Water clarity on the Sheboygan River and in the marina remains poor. I observed only one fisherman on shore, at North Point; I was doing my count at the time and was not able to get the interview later. My guess is nothing was caught, mainly due to warm water near shore and also low water clarity due to constant wave action.

Cleveland Ramp: Fishing pressure has increased the Cleveland ramp. Mainly recreational boaters used the ramp on Thursday (July 4), but the weekend saw an increase in fishing boats. Anglers fishing on Sunday (July 7) averaged one fish per boat, with catches of a coho, a laker, and a chinook. Anglers were trolling between 70 and 100 feet of water, and like other areas continue to report lots of baitfish but few strikes. There has been a consistent Southeast wind for the past few days, which has generated some sizeable chop (usually from midday to the early afternoon) and constant wave action on shore that has made launching slightly difficult. Due to wave action, clarity in near shore areas is low.