Fall Lake Michigan Fishing

Fall fishing on Lake Michigan can be the best period of the year. 4 year old Chinooks head to the shore to run the harbors ad the rivers for the fall spawning run. Brown Trout head into the shallows and the harbors first to feed and then to spawn after the Chinooks. Lake Trout head into the shallows to spawn. October 31st closes the season on Brown Trout to protect the actual spawning. Coho’s are the last fish to spawn, usually in late November and early December. All these fish are easily catchable.

As they approach the harbors and the river mouths, Chinooks will bite on Magnum Spoons , Plugs like Silver Horde and Moonshine and on Gulp and Powerbait 4" minnows and 5" jerk shads in the gaps. Once in the rivers and spawning areas the best bait becomes spawn sacks and skein under slip floats. October becomes the best month for mature Chinooks.

Lake Trout start heading into the shallow water in early October and pretty much stay for the winter. Some nice fish are caught in Oct before the season closes Oct 31st. Standard size spoons from Moonshine, Proking, Dreamweaver and Sooperfly are really deadly fished near the bottom. Ripe Banana, Rotten Banana, The R & R Speccial, The Joanie and the Amy Spoon from Sooperfly are irresistible. These same Lake Trout will start up again March 1st when the season opens.

Mature Coho come in in November and December. On the way in they bite on standard size spoons 3 7/8". The same 5 colors of Sooperfly spoons are deadly. These fish also hit 3" shad lures like Rapala shad raps, Lindy shadlings, storm thunder cranks, Berkley flicker shads, and the best of them all the Bagley’s 3" diving shad lure.

Brown Trout come in in late September and stay all winter. The main forage for brown trout is shad in the harbor. The same shad lures that catch the Coho’s will take these Brown Trout as well. Fish these baits on flat lines behind boards. Standard and small spoons are also very deadly for these browns. They can be at any depth in the water column, depending how deep the shad are swimming. Fall and Winter Brown Trout in the Milwaukee Harbor is world class.

Every year fish from 20-30 pounds come into our store to get weighed. Besides flat lines, 2 & 3 color lead core behind boards, small slide divers with 30-50' leads, and the same length leads behind downriggers will work great. This is the best Brown Trout Fishing in America.

There is one more fall hotspot on Lake Michigan here in Milwaukee. The 2 & 3 yr. old Chinooks, 2 yr. old Coho, and a bunch of Rainbows have been hanging out in 90-250' of water for several months. As the water cools they will follow the bait into the shallower water. These fish will end up in 40-65' of water in November and December. These fish are very hungry. These fish are so aggressive they even hit 8" and 4" flies. These fish are all silver and lean and mean. They run from 2 to 15lbs. If you lighten up your tackle you can have a lot of fun. When the lake is calm you can catch big numbers of these fish without all the competition of summer. More Fishermen are taking advantage of this fabulous fall and winter fisheries every year. We have had 40-50 fish days in 2-3 hours of fishing! You need to try it!

Best Of Luck to You All!!!!