Fishing Reports

Each spring Northern Pike migrate up the Kankakee River finding places to spawn. The fish are looking for warming backwaters with newly emerging vegetation. These movements are tied to rising river height and water temperature. Using river gauges at Shelby and Dunns Bridge anglers can get an idea when to get out.

The best action this week was near Portage and east to the State Park but action was hit or miss.

Recent winds stirred up Lake Michigan and curtailed effort. For those that got out, there was good coho action around Portage from the mouth of Burns Ditch to the Port.

On Lake Michigan, recent winds stirred up the lake and likely disrupted existing patterns. Mixed bag of coho, a few browns and lake trout have been caught.

On the St. Joseph River (below Twin Branch Dam), in the past week, almost 600 steelhead went through the South Bend Fish Ladder. With water temps in the mid-40s, the run is just getting started in earnest.

On Lake Michigan, most of the lake ice is gone, and some anglers are getting out and catching early coho and a couple browns.

Ice cover is fading fast and fishable ice is drawing to a close.

On inland lakes, ice cover is much more widespread and many areas have fishable ice.

A highlight is on Lake Michigan, where perch fishing has remained good in the Cal Park area in slips and up the river, although this is outside of the reciprocal zone so anglers launching in Indiana would need an Illinois license to fish there.