Lake Michigan Charter Fishing Reports

We are approaching the holidays and quite honestly we could still be fishing. The start of December has been better than the first couple of weeks we were in the water. But McKinley marina has been close for over a month. We are already starting to prepare for next season. Repairs, tune ups, new line on reals, stocking up on more lures, total boat cleaning and organizing We spend a lot of time improving each off season. We will be putting the boat in on March 29th to get in on the very popular Brown trout fishing the first three weeks we are in. This is becoming more popular every year. That said we are out there fishing through October and there are great times to fish throughout the season. 

Silver King Charters offers gift certificates on our website. Just go to www.silverkingfishon.com, go to our Info page and you will see a gift certificates tab. All you need to do is print this certificate out and present it to the person you would like to give a Lake Michigan charter fishing trip to. Usually people pick the five hour trip. This trip will be $600, including sales tax until at least the end of December. Once the person has the certificate they can pick a date and call us at 414-460-1467 to book the date. After the date is booked we will need the person giving the certificate to call us back to give us a credit card number. This will hold the date. We run this card once the trip is complete. This makes a great gift to give to someone who likes to fish and you do  not have to pay until next year. 

We make this very easy for our customers and have had many people give out these gift certificates. Below I have a picture from each month we fish. From March through October, with a November thrown in. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get a gift certificate for the holidays. The pictures go in order from March through November, with a picture frim every month. The July picture is from our $10000 Pro Division first place win in Brew City tournament last year. 

We ended our season November 9, 2023. Unlike the last several years the great end of October fishing did not develop for us. From mid August right to the last week we had strong winds each week and some of those weeks we only could get out a few times to fish. But it was really bad the last three weeks of October. A good Chinook salmon bite was starting to take hold and then we had several consecutive periods of strong winds. From northeast to southeast and then a rea big straight east wind. We are talking 20 to 30 mph sustained blows. At the end we only fished the Milwaukee harbor with catches from 1 to 8 fish but most of the time it was 2 to 4 fish. Most of the catch was Brown trout. Now once we decided to concede on the last weekend of October things became a little more steady and a bit e did materialize in 80 to 100 feet of water for Chinook salmon and Lake trout were biting along in 30 to 50 feet of water south of town. We just cannot stay in that late because the marina closes. We expect to have better luck weather wise next year. We usually have some strong winds in September and October but this year was ridiculous. 

We had a very good year that saw an 11.76 fish catch rate per trip. Compared to last year we were up in Rainbow and Brow trout catches. We were about the same in Chinook and Lake trout catches. We were down on Coho salmon but last year was a record Coho salmon year. That said we did very well on average for Coho salmon. The bait population seemed a little down from the past several years so we will see what happens in 2024. The salmon were down in size and the Coho salmon are were you could see it the most. That said the fish population was healthy and the fish we caught were in very good condition. I biggest fish we boated was a Chinook salmon that weighed 29.40 lbs. This fish was a beast. Our other big fish per species were a Lake trout at 27 lbs., Brown trout at 22 lbs, a Rainbow trout at 15 lbs and a Coho salmon at 11 lbs. 

We will breakdown the months throughout winter and go over what happened and why it is good to book a trip during those months. The big Chinook came in June and the big Brown trout in April and the big Lake trout in September. We fish from April first through October and the fishing can be very good during any of those months. As of now we keeping our popular five hour trip at $600, including sales tax and any trip booked in 2023 will be at that rate. Below are pictures of the last two fish caught this season and the boat being pulled. We also have a picture of the big Chinook salmon and Brown trout for 2023. We also won the Brew City Pro tournament for in 2023 for $10000 and of course we had to put another picture up from that. 

Lake Michigan charter fishing is always subjected to weather and wind is the biggest variable. Since the middle of August we have had multiple days of strong winds that has caused many cancellations and difficult fishing in big waves at times. This stretch has rivaled anything we have had to deal with in twenty years. We are paying for the calm seas of May and June for sure. We have not had one week that did not include multiple cancellations during a week since mid August. The fishing was setting up for a good Chinook bite but back to back big blows out of the northeast and then east blew everything around. The last weekend saw 10 to 14 foot waves, with occasional 18 foot waves. This has made the water murky and warm. The water is 60 degrees from the surface down 70 feet. Might be warm deeper but we have not been out that far as of late. Before all of the super winds we are catching two and three year old Chinooks in 100 to 130 feet. The  bite was good and we were catching 8 to 12 fish a trip. There was plenty of bait around. We hope this sets up one more time before we pull the boat. The last several trips we have fished the Milwaukee harbor and we are3 catching Brown trout there. The bite was going good until the mega blows last week. The water is starting to clean up and cool down. If the bite does not materialize out deep there should be good harbor and shoreline fishing for the last few weeks of the season. 

We were running everything down 55 feet or deeper our in 100 plus feet. The boards were all still 250 to 450 foot coppers. But we are now in the harbor and we are back to 1, 2, 3 and 4 color leadcores. We are also using mono dipsies. We have spoons on everything. The top spoons are UV Blue Dolphin, Gold Hud, Silver Hud, NGK Green Bold and Orange NBK Gold. The best areas are just noth or south of the Main Gap and river. There is plenty of bait and fish around the harbor, so if conditions set up we should have a good bite. 

Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get one of the last trips of the year. We go until November 6th. We are also booing for the 2024 season. I have a few pictures from recent trips. The best is a 21 pound Chinook. At least we think it was a Chinook. It could have been a Conook, which is a cross between a Chinook and Coho salmon. This fish had no sex or not a spawner and was 43 inches long. A trophy for this time of year. 

We are coming to the end of the Lake Michigan charter for 2023 but we still have a month and a half left. The last four years we have had some outstanding fishing for Chinook salmon and Lake trout. For the first part of September we have been fishing in 120 to 200 feet of water. We have been fishing from the Main gap of the Milwaukee harbor to Atwater beach or 43.00 to 43.06. The water is 67 degrees on the surface and 65 degrees 100 feet down and it has been this way for most of the month. The Milwaukee harbor is 67 degrees from top to bottom and has hurt the bite for the entire month. We tried a couple times with very limited success. We have been caching a mixed bag of Chinook salmon, Lake trout, Rainbow trout and a Coho salmon on occasion. We have not caught a four year old salmon over ten days now. The mature Kings are mostly in the harbor or rivers now. 

We are running a eight rod spread because the bites are coming 80 feet down or deeper. We have tow of the  following running on our boards. A copper 300, 350, 400, or 450 foot set up. We have either a wonder bread RV Moonshine or a NBK green Stinger Stingray. The wire dipsies are the magnum size dialed in at a two setting. We have these set from 200 to 300 feet on the line counter. We are using either a chrome or white flasher with a Howie Super Frog or a Willy fly. The two side riggers have a two color leadcore or SWR set up on them, with Moonshine RV spoons. The best are the Agent Orange, Wonder Bread or Holdout spoons. Both are set in the 70 to 90 feet range with a 15 pound downrigger balls. Our back two riggers are set from 110 to 200 feet down using a 20 pound downrigger ball. We are using an 11 inch flasher that is either white, chrome or the chrome frog. We have a Howin super frog on this rigger This is the deepest rigger and is usually 135 to 175 feet down. The next rigger up is using the 8 inch flasher, with the some colors as the 11 inch flasher. We are using a Willy fly or Howie Super Frog set up. All are catching fish but the deep 11 inch flasher has done most or the damage. 

Milwaukee charter fishing is setting up for some very good fishing for the rest of September and October. There is a lot of warm water and bait around and the salmon and trout are starting to set up on the bait. The last couple of years the water started to cool off and the bite just kept getting better. This is a great time to catch two and three year old Chinook salmon. We have openings throughout September and October, so give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467. The pictures below are from the last couple of weeks. The first three pictures are what we think is a Conook, which is a cross between a Coho and Chinook salmon. The fish is between a Chinook and Coho in the second two pictures for reference. The Chinook is circled yellow, the Coho is circled blue and the Conook is circled red. 

We are heading into the last days of August and the bite this month has been solid. We have caught a mixed bag of Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Lake trout and Rainbow trout almost every trip. We are still catching the mature four year old Chinook salmon each trip and this should continue through mid September. For the last two weeks we have been working between 90 to 200 feet of water but for the most part we are in 120 to 150 feet. Milwaukee charter fishing has been good from 43.02 to 43.07 just north of the north gap of the Milwaukee harbor. The water has warmed up and cooled down with constant strong winds from every direction. But the temperature break has been between 50 to 75 feet down in the water column. The mature Chinook have been 15 to 25 pounds this year and there is still potential to boat a 30 plus pound King over the next three weeks. Our biggest Chinook this year was 29.4 pounds and we have had several in the 24 to 26 pound range. There have been a few Chinooks in the harbor but the big push has not happened yet. This should occur in the next two weeks and we hope the water cools down some before it does to make for a good bite. 

We have been running almost the same spread since the Brew City tournament. Cooper set ups on the boards ranging from 225 to 450 feet of cooper. Moonshine spoons standard size RV Wonder Bread, Orange Hulk, Green Flounder Pounder and Agent Orange have been good. The Stinger stingray size Gold Hud, UV Blue Dolphin, Gold NBK Green have also been solid. The wire dipsies are the large size and we have them set at 175 to 250 on the line counter. We are using white pearl flashers with Howie Super Frogs on these. Chrome flashers have been outstanding this year but white is starting to work good. The side riggers have been a one and two color set up with a Moonshine or Stinger spoon mentioned earlier. Currently they are set at 50 and 60 feet down. The second deep rigger has a whit flasher and Howie Little Boy Blue fly set at 80 feet down. Our deepest rigger has the eleven inch chrome flasher and a Howie Super Frog on it set five feet back off a twenty pound downrigger ball. This is down from 120 to 150 feet depending on how deep we are fishing. We are trolling somewhat fast. 

This has been a solid year. Our Rainbow trout and Brown trout catches are up 35% from last year and we are catching a good amount of Steelhead each week. The Chinook totals from year past is up and since 2015 we have only one year that was better and that was last.  year. We expect by the end of this season we will past last years totals. The Coho salmon catch is down from last year but last year was ridiculous. The Coho numbers are very good. There are a lot of two and three year old Chinook salmon in the catch and this sets up for a good fall bite as long as a little warm water hangs around. Some of our best Chinook catching happens in the fall. We have openings in September and October.. We expect some real good fishing the next two months. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get in on some fall Wisconsin charter fishing on Lake Michigan. Below are some pictures from the last couple of weeks, including some 25 and 26 pound Chinook salmon. There is also a picture of our biggest Coho salmon at 9.5 pounds and a Hawk that landed on our boat during a trip. 

The second half of July was solid, with a good Chinook bite throughout the month. The increased stocking of Chinook salmon had a big impacted. We were able to land a fish on the Salmon-A-Rama board, with a 13.44 pound Rainbow trout. Over the last twelve years we have had 22 fish on the board and 6 fish of the day, winning cash for our customers. It is great to have more weigh in scales around the Lake Michigan, which has increased people who fish the nine day event, but it has made it more difficult to get fish on the board. We plan on purchasing another charter ticket for 2024 and the dates for Salmon-A-Rama should be announced soon. We also took 1st place in the Brew City Pro tournament last Saturday. We won the tournament by 51 pounds for $10.000. The Silver King team delivered our second 1st place finish if five years. To finish the month we boated a 27 pound Lake trout, which is our biggest Lake trout this year. 

Milwaukee charter fishing has been solid over the last two weeks and we have been fishing as shallow as 20 feet and as deep as 200 feet of water. We started the middle part of the month straight out of the north gap and down to the green can. For the most part we worked 90 to 130 feet of water, We started fishing north of Milwaukee in 43.04 to 43.07 in 50 to 90 feet of water by the third week of July. The last 7 day we have been from 43.07 to 43.11 or about 5 to 10 miles north of Milwaukee. From the ship wreck in 120 feet to a mile north of Fox Point. As the water cooled we worked 30 to 40 feet of water. Just before Brew City we were in 90 to 120 feet of water and for the tournament we worked 140 to 170 feet of water. But the last couple of days we are in 90 to 110 feet of water. We are catching a mixed bag of Chinook salmon, Lake trout and Rainbow trout. There is a Coho and sometimes a Brow trout in the catch. 

The Brew City spread is what I will go over and this is what we are currently running. The boards started out with 7, 8, 9 and 10 color leadcors but the water warmed up and the break was down at least 55 feet we switched over to copper set ups. Are best coppers were 175, 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 coppers. These rods delivered some nice fish. We were using the orange Hulk RV Moonshine and the Wonder Bread RV Moonshine. Both standard sizes. We also used the gold NBK Green Stinger. This has been a good Chinook spoon. On the side downriggers we are using a one and two color leadcore with the tow Moonshines we are using on the coppers. Those two Moon shines along with the Agent Orange have been very good. The deep down rigger has a large chrome flasher, with chrome tape. This is a Lurh Jensen and we have a super frog Howie fly on this. We are just 4 feet back from the downrigger and we try to have this just a couple  feet from the bottom. This set up is great for Lake trout and will also take salmon. It delivered big during Brew City We are using a twenty pound downrigger ball on this set up from Magnum Metals. The wire dipsies have been set at 150 to 200 feet with a magnum dipsy. We are using the chrome Dragon Slayer from Derks, along with a Howie Bull Frog fly. All of these set ups delivered during Brew City and are still working now. 

The Chinook salmon fishing has been good and should continue. We should have some great September and October like the last several years . The Chinook fishing in October three of the last four years has been amazing and the one year it was not the Lake trout fishing was great. Call Silver King Charter at 414-460-1467 to book trips in August, September and October. Below are pictures of the last couple of weeks. The first several are from the Brew City Pro tournament win. The next coupe are a 27 pound Lake trout and a 25 pound Chinook salmon. Big thanks to the GLSF Milwaukee and Brain who is the president of the GLSF for putting the tournament on. Brain, you guys did a great job. 

We are in the heat of the summer and July is the most popular month for Lake Michigan charter fishing. Weather is a big reason because people like to be out in the warm temperatures but the big reason in Chinook "King" salmon. This is the best month to target Chinook salmon. The mature Kings have not yet begun to find their spawning grounds and they are at peak weight. Lake Michigan's Chinook population has not been this large since 2012 when a decision was made to reduce stocking numbers and eventually bring the annual lake wide stocking total to less than one million. This number has now grown to over 2 million Chinook salmon stocked per year and this is the first year we have four year classes at this stocking rate. We are catching Chinook salmon on every morning trip and most midday trips. They are putting up some great fights. We have been catching a mix of Coho salmon, Rainbow trout and Lake trout as well. The water has warmed up with consistent northeast winds but we are now seeing a good thermocline set up and this will help us target fish better. For the first 10 days of July we have been fishing 80 to 120 feet of water and the bites are coming 40 feet to 100 feet down in the water column. Only the last few days has the water started to cool down near the bottom and with west and  southwest winds projected over the next week this may set up a bite closer to shore. The good news though is there are plenty of Chinook salmon up and down the shore. The average mature Chinook seems to be around 15 pounds but we have boated many over 20 pounds and the big so far is 29.40 pounds. 

We are now using all copper set ups on our boards. The best are 200 to 350 feet set ups. We are using Moonshine spoons on these rods. Our favorite is the RV green flounder pounder and the happy meal. We are running wire dovers set at 140 to 200 feet on the line counter. We are using the large size dipsies set at 30 degrees. We are using either white or green flashers and either the Willy fly, Howie green krinkle frog, or Howie bull frog. These have been solid for Chinooks. The deep riggers have had the pearl coyote flashers with Howie green krinle frog. These are set between 60 and 105 feet down. The side downriggers have a two color and one color SWR on them. We are using either the Moonshine agent orange or the green flounder pounder for these rods.

The best bite has been the first hour and a half of the morning. We have been starting at 4:30AM to capitalize on this action. Just before dark is the second best bite. Chinook salmon can get moody. But we ahve been catching a few during the midday and Lake trout, Rainbow trout and Coho salmon also kick in throughout the day. July will continue to deliver a good Chinook bite and starting this Saturday is the lake wide Salmon-A-Rama big fish tournament. We have purchased a ticket that makes everyone on our boat eligible to win cash prizes during the nine day tournament. We hope to report a couple of winners this year. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a July or August Milwaukee charter fishing trip. Below are a few pictures from the first part of July. 

June 21st is summer solstice and my favorite day of the year. This is also the time that are Coho salmon bite turns into a mixed bag of fish as Lake Michigan starts to set up a thermocline. Right now we are starting to see 60 plus degree water temperatures on the surface and 51 degrees all the way down to 100 feet deep. Soon this will start to form a more distinct temperature break and set up a good summer bite. But for now fish can be anywhere in the water column but the best bite for us is in the top 60 feet of water. We have been fishing from 100 to 280 feet of water over the last 10 days. We are still seeing Coho salmon in he catch on each trip. Some times it is the bulk of the catch and other times we only catch 2 or 3 of them. We are also seeing a Chinook salmon almost every trip and it is common to have 2 or 3 of them in a trip. Rainbow trout and Lake trout are now caught on almost every trip. This is typical for this time of year as the lake starts to warm up. We are catching some nice size Chinook salmon, with several over 20 pounds and are biggest so far is 29.4 pounds. These fish are putting up a great fight. 

Our spread has changed from our last report. The back two downriggers are flasher flies. We are using white pearl flashers with the Willy fly or a Howie bull frog. These have been consistent at 50 and 65 feet down. The side riggers are spoons now, but we do use a red stubby dodger and 2" fly on one rigger at times down 15 feet. When we do use spoons we are a two color leadcore on a rigger down 25 feet. We like the Moonshine agent orange standard size. This has been a great spoon this year. We also like the Stinger green blue dolphin. The other rigger is staring mono down 30 feet. This set up has been the same for over 10 days. We still have orange dodgers on the inside dipsies set at 30 feet on the line counter. These pick up a fish or two per trip. We now use wire dipsies that are standard size on the outsied instead of the mono dipsies. The white pearl flasher is on one side with a Howe aqua 5000. On the other side we are using a green flasher from Derks that our firstmate came up with. The Willy fly is on this set up. We have these set at 140 to 165 on the line counters. We are still running mono and keel weights on the outside boards. These have stubby orange dodgers and two inch flies on them. They still pick up a few fish on a trip. We have 3 to 7 color leadcores on the inside boards. We have orange stubby dodgers on the 3 and 4 color and spoons on the 5 to 7 color we are running spoons. The Moonshine agent orange is best and catches them all. This spread is perfect for targeting the top 65 feet of water. 

We expect to keep catching Coho salmon for the next couple of weeks but the catch will be a mix that includes Lake trout, Rainbow trout and Chinook salmon. This is a great time of year to catch multiple species. We have been fishing since late March but this is the first day of summer and some very good fishing will happen over the next few months. Milwaukee charter fishing is looking to have some good Chinook fishing this year. We have some good dates open in the first two weeks of July. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a Lake Michigan charter fishing trip this summer. Below are a few pictures from the last 10 days, including the 29.4 pound Chinook that for most would be 30 pounds:) 

Charter Fishing Milwaukee on Memorial Day Weekend is usually one of our best weekends of the year for catch rates. The Coho salmon our in full swing. We had a strong northeaster the Wednesday before Memorial Day and things looked to be set up but we had mixed results. Friday and Monday were good but no wind on Saturday and Sunday hampered the bite. Monday through Thursday we saw some good catches and we had 2 to 5 big Chinook salmon caught on every trip. Several were between 15 to 22 pounds. By Friday we had lost the King bite but Rainbow trout and Coho salmon filled in. We have fished all over. We started in 15 to 25 feet off the shores of Fox Point. Spent time by the North, Main and South gaps. We have spent the last seven days working 43.07 to 43.09 anywhere from 100 to 250 feet of water. Over this period Coho salmon have accounted for 85% of the catch. A few Chinook salmon and Rainbow trout have also been in each catch, along with a Lake trout. We have only boated 14 Lake trout so fat this season. The mature Chinook salmon have been fighting really hard this season. The Coho salmon have been a little smaller this year. The water has been very cold but with calm seas and warm air the last week the surface temperatures have warmed to 62 degrees in places. We don't want it to warm up too fast but it has helped the bite this week. 

Flasher and flies on the wire dipsies set at 140 and 170 on the line counter, with regular size divers have been excellent when the Chinooks were around. We also ran downriggers set at 60 and 75 feet down. We ran white pearl coyotes with bull frog Howie flies. We also ran a flasher that Collin developed for Derek's that Colling calls the Cash Cow. This is a chrome blade with green cracked ice tape on it. We cannot wait for Derek's to finish making them. To fish with a bait our firstmate came up wiht and named is cool. The rest of the spread has been mall orange dodgers on the outside boards with 5/8 ounce keel weights and on the dipsies. We have gone back to mono dipsies over wire dipsies over the last four days because the Chinook action slowed down. We are running the inside dipsy at 31 feet and the outside dipsy at 51 feet on the line counter. We have orange stubby dodgers on the side riggers set at 12 and 18 feet. We also use this set up on a 3 color leadcore and 75 foot copper. These have been very good for us. We have run some 175 to 300 coppers with gold hud and blue dolphin spoons on them but the orange set ups have been better. We have the Willy fly peanut size on everything. 

The Coho salmon bite should stay good and stay in the mix though June. We could use a little west wind though. There are more Chinook salmon in the lake then there has been for several years. This should make for a good summer. We have not had much in Lake trout action this year but they will start to be more in the mix at the back end of June. It is good to see some early Steelhead action too and this cold really help out this summer. Silver King Charters has spots open in June and July, so call 414-460-1467 to get in on some good salmon and trout action charter fishing Lake Michigan. Below are some pictures of catches over the last ten days, including a 22 pound Chinook. There is a 9 year old who caught a 19 pound Chinook and a 10 year old who caught a 15 pound Rainbow. 

Milwaukee charter fishing is at the beginning of the best time of year for Coho salmon. The action has been very good in the southern end of Lake Michigan and we have had some very good days out of Milwaukee starting early this May and the best is yet to come. There has been good Coho action in Port Washington and Sheboygan as well. So there are a lot of Coho salmon out there. Over the past two weeks we have been all over the place to find a good bite. We started at the boils in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. This has been a good spot due to the cold water that is around. We have been fishing the north gap of the Milwaukee harbor and the beach north of that. We have been out in 180 to 230 feet of water straight out of town. We have also fished the shore north of Big Bay park. With the exception of  when we fished deep the action has been in 10 to 25 feet of wat4er. The water has been between 44 to 50 degrees and this has made things a little tough but we have had a lot of limit catches and for the most part double digit catches. The Coho salmon have been a little smaller than last season but last season they were exceptionally large. 

We are running all mono lines on the boards with 5/8 ounce keel weights and orange double )) dodgers on one side and Orange B&B dodgers on the other side. All these lines are 2 to 8 feet under the surface. We have small size peanut flies on all of these set ups. We like the blue/green/gold, 7 up, green and the Willy fly the best. We have a braid dipsy dialed in at 15 degrees and a mono dipsy dialed in at 30 degrees. Each has a double )) orange dodger and peanut fly. When we are fishing shallow we only use two downriggers, with an orange dodge on one side and a orange stubby on the other side. When we find Coho salmon the spread is very effective. 

We expect the Coho bite to get better, with some fantastic fishing at times. The water needs to warm up a touch and a big northeast wind would not hurt to help bunch fish up. There is one coming Wednesday and this could really help Memorial Day weekend. We still have some spots open in June to get in on some great Coho salmon fishing. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to try Lake Michigan charter fishing for salmon and trout. Below are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. 

This April ended up being a very good Brown trout month. We boated a lot of fish and many over 14 pounds, with the big Brown trout weighing 22 pounds. We target Brown trout throughout April and with a few years of reduced stocking on these fish we have seen the catch drop but this year it was strong and stocking numbers on Brown trout are rising. The weather helped make the bite solid. We are still in Milwaukee but the Coho salmon bite has been good from Kenosha and further south. In the last week Racine has been solid. Last year it was May 6th that the Coho bite took off in Milwaukee. We started catching Coho salmon in numbers just after Easter but not enough to specifically target them. But in the last week we have started to catch 5 to 15 Coho salmon a trip and over the last couple of days more bait has shown up and we are now running Coho setups on most of our rods. It looks like we are days away from limit catches in Milwaukee but if for some reason it does not materialize we will head to Racine for a couple weeks. Although Alewives have been in the harbor for two weeks now we are still waiting for the large schools to show up. Once this happens the Coho should be right behind this. 

We are currently running orange dodgers and peanut flies on all planner boards. These are mono set ups with a 5/8  ounce keel weight on them. Our lead is 17 inches from the fly to the double "O" orange dodger. We run these 15 to 45 feet back from the boards, with the shorter length  on the outside. board. The best fly we are using is a Willy fly but just the green tinsel. We have a mono and braid dipsy on each side of the boat. These are set at 20 and 10 feet on the line counters. We are using the same set ups as on the boards but we do like the two tone fly here as well. We have one downrigger set with the orange dodger and peanut fly and this is down 7 feet and set seve feet back from the release. We like to have this set up on the side the motor is running. The other three riggers have spoons on them. We  are catching a Chinook a trip over the last two weeks on the downriggers and the Gold Hud or UV Blue dolphin have been very good in the stingray size. We are close to staying with this set up for several weeks and may take the spoons out for orange dodgers soon. 

May and early June are know for great Coho salmon action. Coho account for a third to half our catch in a year. This is a great time to catch salmon in good numbers on Lake Michigan. Early April is about Brown trout but for the next several weeks it is all about Coho salmon. Last year we went 30 straight trips with limit catches in May. This is not always the case but May and June are the top two months to catch limits for salmon. The action has been along the shoreline and in front of the gaps of the Milwaukee harbor. Today we fished in 10 to 15 feet of water along the shoreline, where we found some murky water. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a May or June Lake Michigan charter fishing trip and start catching Coho salmon. Below are picture from the last two weeks. I have several Chinook pictures and these fish have been 8 to 17 pounds. There is also a picture of the 22 pound Brown trout that got a lot of attention of Facebook. The picture of the snow cover the the front window was from a trip on April 22nd and lets hope that is it for the snow. The boat was covered to the point we had to shovel. The spoon is a Gin and Tonic Stinger spoon that has been very good on lleadcores and dipsies this spring. Also a big thanks to Lake Michigan Angler and R&R The Fishing Hole for having the right stuff for Lake Michigan fishing!! 

Milwaukee charter fishing in the summer is a few months off but the last four days we had high temperatures in the 80's and high 70's. On April 12th we hit an all time high of 83 degrees. As of today we now have surface temperatures of 55 degrees around the river mouth by the Hoan bridge. Alewives are starting to show up along the shoreline but as of today the big schools have not appeared but it is only days away. We have been fishing the harbor and south of town by the FBI building and pump house It has been a real good bite in 15 to 30 feet of water south of town but after all the west winds the water became too clear to fish the shoreline so we headed back to the Milwaukee harbor. We caught a mix of Coho salmon and Brown trout south of town. In the harbor we are still catching almost all Brown trout, with a Coho once in a while. 

We had heard of a Coho bite by the Cudahy towers and went all orange dodgers and peanut flies on the boards and two downriggers but it was mostly Brown trout, with a few Coho salmon. The next two times we fished this area we went back to mostly spoons. When we were in the harbor it was all spoons. The one, two and three color leadcores have been best. A new hot spoon has been the Gin and Tonic Stinger spoon. We are also using a lot of orange colored spoons in the mix. Right in front of the river mouth and around where the Lake Express docks have been the best spots for bites in the Milwaukee harbor. The Saint Francis condos and just past the pump house on the beach have been best south of Milwaukee. 

We expect more normal temperatures for April coming up. The alewives should be near shore and in the harbor this up coming week and we hope the Coho salmon will follow. The southern half of Lake Michigan is already catching good amount of Coho salmon and it looks to be a solid year for them Call Silver King Charters to book a Lake Michigan charter fishing trip for the second half of April and May. The best Coho salmon fishing of the year is coming up. Below are some pictures from the last week. Our first Coho of the season and a lot of Brown trout. Next week will probably be our last week targeting Brow trout. 

We have spent the first two weeks in the water fishing for Brown trout. We have had very good action with most of our trips in the double digits. We have fished in the Milwaukee harbor for almost all of our time, except a few shots through the Main and North gaps. The best spots have switched from day to day. The river mouth and just past the discharge has been good of late. But before that it was best by the south gap and the Lake Express dock. Most of the fish caught had large shad or gobiies in them. There has not been good smelt action yet by Jones Island. Our biggest Brown trout was 17 pounds so far and we have seen man in the 9 to 13 pound class. The water temperature has risen to 42 degrees in areas, with all of the rain of late. We expect the alewife schools to show up in the next week and this will change the bite. 

The first few trips we ran in March are best bite was come deep on on downriggers but over the last several days the one and two color leadcores have been the best. Orange Stinger size spoons have been the best, with the orange and gold NBK standing out. The Inmate Stinger has been very good to.  We lie to troll fast but the best bite has been around 2.3 mph on the GPS. Orange tape on a Gold Hud has been god on the downriggers and dipsies. The Moonshine Mongolian Beef has also been good on the deep downrigger set at 26 feet down. 

We  have a lot of customers who want to target Brown trout and we expect to have a good bite for them during the next week. But warm air, with highs in the 60's and rain could change the bite. Alewife schools will also be showing up soon and all this could change the bite to Coho salmon and once this happens the Brow trout bite will fade. Coho salmon are being caught south of Milwaukee and people are catching them from shore off the Cudahy towers. We expect an early and good spring for Coho salmon. But this weekend we will still target Brown trout and if you are interested in catching Brow trout next week may be your last best shot. We have openings next week and the weather looks superb. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book your Milwaukee charter fishing trip. You might get lucky and be out when the Coho bite starts up. Below are pictures from the last several trips. 

We put the boat in March 24th and started fishing that day, catching 7 Brown trout in a couple of hours. Unfortunately the next day it snowed six inches and we needed to shovel out the boat. We did get out Sunday, Monday and Tuesday though. The fishing has been solid for Brown trout in the Milwaukee harbor. The best spots have been from the Discover World, past the river and to the discharge. There have also been bites in front of the Lake Express dock and South Gap. The river mouth to the Main Gap has been good too. On Sunday there was incredible pressure, with over 25 boats fishing around the river and discharge. There was little wind and almost all our bites came off downriggers near the bottom. Monday and Tuesday, with less boat traffic and a breeze there were more bites and the one and two color leadcores took off. The water temperature was between 36 to 38 degrees, unless we went up the river by the turning basin where it reached 40 degrees. The fish had either Gobies or large Shad in them. 

We are running one, two and three color leadcores, two mono dipsies and two downriggers. Gold spoons seemed to work best, with the Stinger Stingray size Gold Hud dominating. The Gold Hud with orange tape was second best. Rob at Lake Michigan Angler still has a bunch of the Gold Huds left but they are going fast. Tough spoon to find these days. The action is mostly Brown trout but we did boat a couple of Lake trout near the gaps and we lost one Coho salmon. 

This is the best Brow trout fishing of the year and should last a few more weeks. The run time is a few minutes and fishing in and around the Milwaukee harbor helps with wave action. This is a fun experience and one of the only times we put are efforts in targeting Brown trout. Milwaukee charter fishing in April is the best time to target Brown trout. All though it is March right now. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to give April fishing a try. I havea picture of a Gold Uud in a Brown trout month. A couple of the trout are 15 pounds and there is a picture of the boat covered in snow from Saturday. 

I was going to go over August in this report but the marina and southern half of Lake Michigan has been ice free since February 28th and people are in boats catching fish. Our first mate Collin was out in a small boat yesterday catching Brown trout in the Milwaukee harbor and today catching Coho salmon from the shore. With the mild winter and little ice this year the southern half of Lake Michigan never went into a deep freeze and this will lead to some early action. Coho salmon are being caught all along the shoes of southern Lake Michigan. IT by no means is the action we will see in May but fish are being caught. We are looking to get the boat in next weekend or the Monday after that. We have fished in late March before and it has been good. We look to do it again this year. Brown trout will be are primary target but it is safe to say Coho salmon and Lake trout could be in the mix on any trip this March and April. We have the boat rigged and ready to go. 

We will be running a straight spoon spread. We really like gold and copper spoons in early spring. Stinger spoons now made by Gibb's are our favorites. We usually run the stinger or scorpion size spoons the first couple of weeks. Our favorites are Mass Confusion, Gold Hud, Gold NBK Green, Gold NBK Orange. These spoons along with a UV Silver Blue Dolphin are already tied up and ready to go. The one, two and three color leadcores do a lot of damage early in the season. We like to troll fast to cover a lot of water and pass as many active fish as we can. The bites are usually found in a few areas and once we get hit we will work the area hard.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          We have ha a lot of good action the first few weeks we are in and there is no better time of year to target Brown trout but we think a mixed bag of species is likely. Resident Coho salmon could be great this year with the very mild winter and certainly higher survival rate. We will see how early the bait fish show up and this will only improve a promising start. I will go over August and September Milwaukee charter fishing for those of you planning trips for that time of year. soon but hopefully very soon I have a report of our first trips. If you are interested in booking a trip for this March or April or anytime of the season call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467. The first couple of pictures are Brown trout caught a couple of days ago and the rest are from March and April over the last several years. 

We are inching closer to the start of the 2023 Lake Michigan charter fishing season. We are almost ready to drop the boat in and with a little help from mother nature we might be in March 24th. As of right now the entire McKinley marina and Milwaukee harbor is ice free and has been since February 28th. I cannot remember a time the marina had no ice in it this early. We talked about April Brown trout fishing a few reports back and we hope to be catching them in March. April fishing looks to be good this year. July is our top booked month for a lot of reasons, The weather is usually good, Children are out of school and people are taking vacations. But July is also when we have our best Chinook action of the year. A thermocline has usually set up and this makes it easier to target Chinook. The mature Chinook are also loading up on bait fish to get ready to spawn. There was a big stocking reduction lake wide back in 2008 and additional reductions in 2012 until there was actual debate to end Chinook salmon stocking all together and let natural reproduction take over. Wisconsin fought this with the help of the Wisconsin Lakeshore Business Association or the WLBA, who helped lead the charge to end the reductions and eventually get the Chinook salmon stocking up to 2.3 million lake wide. This has helped bring back the Chinook salmon catch. The last three years have each improved from the last season in catch rate. When we left the lake last October we were catching a lot of two year old Chinooks that were two to four pounds and this should lead to a good Chinook bite this season.                                                                 

Several years back we were fishing Lake trout in July on a regular basis because the Chinook bite was almost non existent at times. We still catch Lake trout, Rainbow trout and Coho salmon in July but Chinook are now back in the mix and common in the catch. We are also catching bigger Chinooks. During the down turn in stocking along with low levels of bait fish it became tough to catch a 20 pound Chinook but in the last five years we have caught many in the 20 to 25 pound class and several that where 30 to 34 pounds. July starts out with a blend of Coho salmon and Chinook salmon but by the middle of July it is more Chinook. Depending our current and water temperature we could be fishing in 15 to 25 feet of water or out in 300 feet of water. But in July we spend a lot of our time between 80 to 100 feet and the run time to this depth out of Milwaukee can be as short a 10 minutes. 

Chinook salmon our the King of Lake Michigan and put up a great fight no matter the size. But when you hook up a 15 plus pound Chinook salmon it can take 200 feet of line out without stopping very fast and this is why they are so fun to fight. Our favorite rod to catch big Chinooks on is the wire dipsy rod. These rods have rollers on them because we are using 30 pound test wire line. Very productive big fish rod. We are almost always using flasher and flies on these rods. When a big Chinook hits a wire rod there is no doubt what fish hit it. During July when we fish deep water there can be a good Rainbow trout or Steelhead bite. Rainbows jump almost immediately and this leads to an exciting fight. No matter where we are fishing Lake trout are present and everywhere provided the water is cool enough. 

So at the beginning of July we are seeing Coho salmon in the mix with Lake trout, Rainbow trout and Chinook salmon but near the end of July the Coho bite slows up. Salmon-A-Rama is July 15th through July 23rd and is a lake wide big fish fish fishing contest. We enter our boat every year so all of our customers are entered and can win prizes. Over the last 11 years we have had 23 cash prize winners during this week. We still have a few spots open for 2023. Last season half our catch was Coho salmon but Chinook salmon came in second as most caught species. We are expecting to see the same results this year and July is one of the best months to catch Chinooks. Call Silver King Charters to book a July Milwaukee charter fishing trip this year at 414-460-1467.Below are some pictures from July fishing trips. I also have a picture of a graph showing the ice coverage on Lake Michigan. It was below average for almost the entire year and this will help the survival rate of bait fish that hatched last year. 

We are charter fishing from April through October and all the months we fish can be good and each month has its strong points. Last month we did reports on April Brown trout and May Coho salmon. This report covers June and we are finally getting warmer weather in Wisconsin. June is a month that will begin to transition into a mix of Coho salmon, Chinook salmon, Lake trout and Rainbow trout but it starts out strong on Coho salmon. The Coho are starting to average four to six pounds based on the bait population and what the size was of Coho when we left the lake in October. We are still fishing in the top 20 feet of water for these fish, with some of our baits right at the surface. This bite at the surface can stay strong all month if the water does not warm up too quick. But usually by the third week of June the lake starts to transition as warm water starts to form and that warm water goes deeper into the water column. Eventually a temperature break will occur and there will be a distinct temperature break of several degrees at a certain depth. When this happens the Coho bite will start to break up and we will start to see more Chinook salmon and Lake trout in the catch. But for most of June Coho salmon is the number one caught fish and can be as good or better than May. 

We are still running anywhere from twelve to sixteen lines in June and most of these rods will still have the orange dodger and peanut flies on them. The big difference is that the flies are now bigger and usually two inch long sliders. Are favorite and is on every orange dodger set up is the Willy fly. This is when it dominates. We at times like to use red treble hooks with this fly. It can mean the difference in catch rate. Gamakatsu double strength or two "X" round bend hooks are our favorite. We use the size two for the small flies and size one for the lager flies. We are still using mono line with 5/8 ounce keel weights on the outside boards. At the start of the season we set these back ten to 40 feet from the board. As the water warms we drop them further back. Eventually we switch to leadcores from one to eight colors depending on how warm the water gets and where the break is. We will also use copper line from 25 to 150 feet. We will use the orange dodger set up until the Coho salmon break up and go deep. 

Our dipsy setups are the same orange and even our dipsies are orange. We use one mono and one power pro setup on each side. These are set at 15 and 30- degrees. We start these only 15 feet out on the line counter and keep dropping them until the water warms and the break gets to 20 plus feet down. At this point we switch to wire dipsy setups. By June we are usually running flashers and flies on the riggers and this is where we start to catch some big Chinook salmon. Somewhere in June we will have some good Chinook fishing. But Coho salmon are still the main target. The great thing about June, besides the weather, is the chance to catch it all. Load up on Coho with a few Chinook salmon, Lake trout and Rainbow trout. 

May and June are usually tied for the most limit catches in a month for a year but June usually wins out. Last season was very good for Coho salmon in June, with many days that we fished right in front of the Milwaukee harbor. During June we could be fishing 15 to 40 feet or out in 200 to 300 feet but when we find schools of Coho salmon it is great action. Chinook salmon also travelling in schools and when they set up of Milwaukee it really makes for a fun trip. People who call looking to catch salmon there is no better time than May and June. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to hook up on June Coho salmon. Below are some pictures from the last few years of June Milwaukee charter fishing and Racine charter fishing trips. 

Our last report talked about April Milwaukee charter fishing. Our best month for Brown trout. May is a month that transitions into Coho salmon. Over the last ten years Coho salmon has been our number one caught species eight of or ten seasons. When Chinook salmon stockings were reduced the Coho salmon continued to be stocked at around 2.5 million lake wide, making Coho more plentiful than every fish then Lake trout. Chinook salmon have been increased over the past couple of years but Coho will still be heavily relied on. We can start seeing Coho salmon in our catch as early as late March and April but the consistent action starts to happen in May. This is also the time of year we are Racine charter fishing at times. It depends on where the Coho salmon schools show up. When we left the lake last year in early November we were already catching Coho salmon that were almost a pound and a half. Each season can be a little different on the size of spring Coho salmon but two to three pounds is typical. But these fish start putting on weight quickly as the season progresses. 

Coho salmon are raised in hatcheries for a year and a half. The eggs are harvested in October and held for a year and a half and stocked in May. These fish then grow that summer and fall until the following spring they are ready to catch. This means there is only one stocking years Coho to catch each season. These fish will winter in the middle of the lake, the southern end of Lake Michigan or around power plants were the water is warm and bait is plentiful. In the spring the Coho will come u along either the west or eastern shoreline or swim in from the middle of the lake. Every year we will here a report or experience a Coho bite ourselves and the catch goes from Brown trout and Lake trout into salmon. Coho salmon travel in schools, so when you catch one there is a good chance there are more around. 

When we are fishing Coho in May we will run a spread of orange dodgers and peanut flies on just about every set up. The peanut flies vary in color and manufacture but our favorite is the Willy fly, which Captain Willy ties himself. By far our top producer. The orange dodger is an attractor that simulates creel or shrimp from the ocean. These fish came from the Pacific ocean and their brains are still wired that way. This si a great set up to catch Coho and when they are schooled up it makes for a fun day of fishing. Every season is different on when the bite will start. In 2021 we were charter fishing Racine in early April catching limits. Last year it started up in early May and we had 33 straight trips with limit catches of Coho salmon Milwaukee charter fishing. 

We expect another good season of Coho fishing. We don't know when they will start biting but we know for sure that May will have a lot of Coho salmon caught. Weekends go fast in May, especially Memorial Day weekend. We look forward to May fishing because when the Coho bite is on there is no easier or quicker fishing that can be had. Silver King Charters fishes seven days a week and if you want to catch salmon sometime in May is when it starts up. Below are some pictures of Coho salmon catches over the past few years. We show a bunch of limit catches. We do not limit on every trip but May is a month that has on of the most limit catches. The last picture shows an orange dodger and Willy fly. That fly was been copied by many but never duplicated. 

Happy New Year to everyone and Silver King Charters is looking forward to the 2023 Lake Michigan charter fishing season. We have already done a lot of prep work and we still have 3 more months of work before we put in on March 31st. We will be going over each month from last year over the next several weeks and explain what to expect if you are booking a trip during that month. We start early. Right after the ice is out of the marina in Milwaukee. Sometimes we are already running trips in late March. This is our best time of year for Brown trout. No other month comes close. Brown trout stocking has been down for a few years now but last year there was an increase, though modest it will help. We troll in and around the Milwaukee harbor during the first few weeks of April. This mean less run time to get to where we start fishing. These is also three rivers that converge in the Milwaukee harbor that make this area very good for fishing in the spring. We are also fishing along the shore line in 10 to 30 feet of water both north and and south of Milwaukee. We do make runs to the Oak Creek power plant and the Oak Creek creek. Both areas have warmer water and hold fish in early spring. The run time to these areas is a half hour but can be very productive. We keep the cabin closed during this time of year to keep you protected from the elements, so you stay comfortable while fishing. When the winds are strong we can still run most of the trips because the harbor protects us from waves we could not fish in out in the lake. 

Usually 70 percent of the Brown trout we catch during a season is in April and for the most part it is the only time we make a point to target Brown trout. We also catch Lake trout, Rainbow trout and some Coho salmon during April, with an occasional Chinook. But Brown trout is the main target, especially through the first 3 weeks of April. We are not fishing in deep water and most the the baits we run are in the top 15 feet of water. We will run one or two baits near the bottom and the deepest water we will find ourselves in is 40 feet. We are usually running all spoons this time of year. Our favorite spoons over the last few years are copper or gold spoons The Stinger Mass Confusion and Gold Hud in the stinger size are always in the mix. It is getting tougher, at least last year to get these spoons, so order ahead. We also like the the UV Blue Dolphin and are going to try and get a gold version of these for this spring. Deadly spoon. The other spoon that has been solid is the UV Green NBK gold spoon. All of these plus a few others will always be in the spread during spring. 

We run one, two and three color lead cores on boards and occasionally a four color. If you have been out with us in the summer and had to fight a 300 copper fish you know that sometimes fish on boards is not fun but in the spring there is far less line out and catching a fish on a board rod is a lot of fun. These rods account for over 65 percent of the fish we catch in April. We run downriggers and two mono dipsy rods also and these are set shallow and close to the boat. The weather is why people sometimes do not want to book in April but with the covered cockpit it really is not bad. But the fishing can be really good during the period. 

If you want to catch Brown trout on Lake Michigan then April Milwaukee charter fishing is the time to go. Milwaukee is known for a great Brown trout fishery also. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a trip in April for Brown trout. Monday through Wednesday we offer six hours for the price of five hours during April. Our next report will cover May fishing. Below are some pictures of April Milwaukee charter trips. We are booking trips for the 2023 season now so make sure to call early to get the date you want. 

Silver King Charters would like to wish everyone a very happy holidays. We have already put a lot of hours on the boat getting ready for the 2023 season. Every year there is maintenance to be completed before we put in. We hope to be floating on March 31st next year. People ask us all the time when do we start booking for the next year and you can book right after you finish your trip. But a lot of times people are not sure when they can go and have to coordinate with others. But the sooner you know the earlier you should book. Saturday's are the most popular day for people and if you want a Saturday now is the time to call. Fridays and Sundays are next to go. The least popular day is Wednesday. We like fishing on Monday and Tuesday because there are less boats out. We still have a few Salmon-A-Rama dates too. To inquire you can email or call us but when you want to book we take all reservations over the phone. 

Last year our number one caught fish was the Coho salmon as it has been for the since 2016, with the exception of 2019 when the Coho stayed in the southern part of Lake Michigan.  People ask when is the best time to book a Milwaukee charter fishing trip. There are real good days from Late March through October but the best Coho fishing is early May through late June. We have had Coho action early April going through late July but mid May through mid June is the sweet spot usually. Coho salmon are great eating and lead us to our most limit catches during the season. This has become our most popular time to fish. Coho salmon have mot been reduced in stocking like the other species and has helped us to keep our catch rate up throughout the season. Chinook salmon stocking has been raised over the past several years but Coho is still number one. 

If you are looking to get out and target Coho salmon May and June our the months and these dated get booked faster, especially Friday through Sunday. Please call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to secure a date for the 2023 season. Below our some pictures for Coho salmon catches last year. I have a picture of a sunset on Christmas Eve. Also don't forget our firstmate Colin is running ice fishing trips right now for Rainbow and Brown trout. He is really good and it is a lot of run. 

The season ended for us on Monday November 7th. We were able to get some fishing in the last two weeks of October and the first week of November and it was a good bite. Every year during this time we having some god fishing action and every year is different on what bites. We have had a couple of seasons when the Steelhead bite was great. Brown trout are always an option along the shore. Lake trout fishing can be outstanding this time of year. But our favorite late season fishing is Chinook salmon and this late October and early November the King bite was real good. Over the last 4 seasons we have had three really good season ending Chinook bites. The increased stocking has help the bite this time of year. The reduced stocking of Steelhead has certainly hurt the bite. We started out in 300 plus feet of water in early October but by the end of the month the bite was in 100- to 140 feet. When we left the lake it was still 51 degrees on the surface and stayed that temperature down to about 60 feet. There was still lots of bait around. We where also catching next seasons Coho that were running one and a half pounds. Our bigger Kings ranged 13 to 15 pounds. This was some real run fishing and we had some great weather, with high temperatures in the 60's and 70's. 

We ran two wire mag dipsies set at 150 on the line counter and dialed in at 30 degrees. They both had little boy blue flies and flashers on them. I really wish they still made the Little boy blue tape for flashers. The set ups were on our deep riggers set at 100 and 75 feet down. We had Stinger UV blue dolphins and gold huds on the up riggers set at 50 and 55 feet down. We also used these spoons on our boards. One side had an 8 and 10 color leadcore. The other side had a 200 and 300 lcooper set up. The flasher fly set ups were the best. We were just north of town in front of the water treatment plant. 

We had a lot of next years Coho hit the last two months we fished and we hope this translates into another good season of Coho fishing. This year was one of our best ever and the last several seasons have been good. The late season Chinook action we had is a good sign for next season too. Silver King Charters is taking bookings now and if you want a weekend for the 2023 season call us at 414-460-1467. Below are some pictures from the last couple of weeks of our season. I have a picture of a Coho that almost weighed two pounds. Also a picture of the boat being pulled out to end a great season. Thanks to everyone who fished with us and helped make it a great year! 

We are half way through our last month of Lake Michigan charter fishing, although we will stay in the first week of November. The water remains warm with a surface temperature of 61 degrees and down 150 feet it is 60 degrees. We started the month fishing in 250 to 300 feet of water with the action down 75 feet and deeper. Most of the bites were Lake trout, with a few Chinook and Coho. Over the last week we are fishing in 150 to 200 feet of water and over the last couple of days 140 to 160 feet of water. The bites are coming 90 to 150 feet down. There are stacks of bait on the bottom and the fishing seems to be improving as the water slowly starts to cool down. The bite over the last week has been mostly Chinook salmon. We are boating a lot of 8 to 14 pound Kings. Three of the last four years October has set up like this, with lots of warm water and lots of bait fish on the bottom. This has made for some very good Chinook fishing. We think the rest of October will have some good Chinook fishing. Weather does cause more cancellations this time of year but when we can go the bite has been good. 

Our spread has been limited, since we need to fish deeper down to catch fish. We are running just six to eight rods during the trip. Usually the two back downriggers, with 20 pound downrigger balls, are set 120 and 140 feet down. We are running a Hot Spot little boy blue flasher and Howie little boy blue fly on one rigger. On the other we are running Derks bloody nose flasher and Howie Aqua 5000 fly on the other. If we run a third rigger it is 90 feet down with a one color leadcore and a Stinger gold NBK green. We will probably run these until the end and just continue to move them up as the water gets colder, unless we fish shallow water. Our wire dipsies both have the Derks and aqua on them. We are using magnum dipsies set at a three setting and 250 or 300 feet out on the line counter. We run a 350 and a 400 cooper with the same spoon on the rigger of a Gold yellow tuxs spoon. The riggers and dipsies do most of the work and have been very productive. 

The Chinook bite has been good and should become easier as the water bools. We also expect some goo Lake trout and Brow trout action later on. Next years Coho are already 14 to 16 inches and we catch a few of those too. Silver King Charters will be in the water until November 7th and when the weather permits we will be out fishing. Give us a call at 414-460-1467 to book a end of the season trip. The pictures below show recent catches. We have pulled two Coho over 10 pounds that have not yet gone to a river to spawn during October. 

The fishing off the shores of Milwaukee have remained good, although the spots have changed. The last couple of weeks of August the water was cooling down. We found 49 degree water down 45 feet in 100 feet of water before the big Labor Day weekend northeaster. The fishing was very good both north and south of town in the 100 foot mark. We were catching all species but it is great to see more Chinook salmon in the mix. The mature Coho salmon are 8 to 12 pounds, with some pushing 15lbs. There has also been a decent bite of of Chinook salmon in the Milwaukee harbor, with the best action from the Main gap and up the river going past Centerointe. We have started fishing out in 200 to 280 feet of water this week and the temperature break is anywhere from 50 to 65 feet down. The best action has been 50 to 120 feet down. We have caught Lake trout, Rainbows, Coho, Chinook and Pink salmon in this depth. We have fished from 02 to 07 with great action everywhere. We have now caught 18 Pink salmon this season and have heard it is even better for them down south off Kenosha. We have pulled 5 species 4 times in he last week and each time one of the 5 was a Pink salmon. The bait we see on the bottom over the last couple of days out deep is unreal. Reminds me of a couple of years ago when we had amazing Chinook salmon fishing in October. 

We are currently running all coppers on our boards frim 150, 175, 200, 250, 300 and 350 feet. We are running the green Moonshine flonder pounder small size. The Stinger UV blue dolphin, gold and silver huds on the coppers and they are working great. Not our customer's favorite rods though. We are running magnum dipsies on our wires set at 175 on the line counter and dailed in at 30 degrees. White glow Hot Spot with a Willy fly or the Derks bloody nose with a Hwwie aqua 5000 fly. These are very steady. The two back riggers are set 100 and 85 feet dwon and have the same set ups as the wires, although chrome flashers have also been good. We have spoons on the side riggers down 55 and 65 feeet. Stinger gold hud and blue dolphin are strong on these set ups. We are getting over 35 bites a trip currently. With all the bait out there we beleive the bite will stay strong even with big wind switches. 

Silver King Charters will be fishing through October and things are setting up for a good bite over the next 8 weeks. There are a lot of 2 and 3 year old Chinooks around, so this could lead to some real good King action this October. Give us a call at 414-460-1467 to get out Lake Michigan charter fishing before the season ends. The pictures below are from the last several weeks. I have a couple Pink salmon photos in there. 

July finished strong with a good offshore bite and a good shoreline action. Through the last ten days of July and the first week of August we have had very good action in 200 to 280 feet of water between 00 and 04 straight out of the North gap of McKinley marina. The action has been below 40 feet out there. We have also been fishing the green can and Fox Point in 40 to 60 feet of water. There has been some cold water close to shore and a good Chinook salmon bite. We have boated several 20 pound fish including a 26 lb Chinook salmon, a 23 pound Brown trout and a 23 pound Lake trout, which are all the biggest of the season for each species. This month and early September is when some of our biggest fish are caught. We also just finished fishing the Brew City tournament last week. We finished in 6th place in the two day Pro tournament. We were in 4th place after the first day with a good chance to win but we could not catch our Lake trout the second day and that hurt our chances. We were three miles south of the good Lake trout bite. There were 116 boats in the tournament overall and the pro division paid out $10000 to 1st place. The Am division paid out #4000 to first place. Best tournament on Lake Michigan. The biggest fish or the tournament won a one ounce piece of gold too!! I cannot wait until next to fish it again. 

When we are out deep we are running coppers on all our boards. They are 150, 175, 200, 225, 250, 275, 300 and 350 coppers. We are running a mix or spoons on these. Moonshine UV bloody nose and Singer kevorkian are the best two. The Stinger UV green dolphin has also been very good. We are also running a two color leadcore on a side rigger down 30 to 45 feet with a spoon. Usually one of the three mentioned above. We have spoon on the other side rigger back about 75 feet with a spoon and down 45 feet. We are funning flashers on the two deep riggers down 50 and 65 feet. We have Derks blood nose and chrome flashers with a Howie aqua 5000 fly on them. We really like that fly this year. The same is on the wire dipsies and they are set at 100 to 150 feet on the line counter with the magnum dipsies. The bite has been a mixed bag of Coho salmon, Lake trout and Rainbow trout out there with a few Chinook salmon. 

When we are fishing 40 to 60 feet of water the boards are leadcores from 2 to 8 colors. All spoons on the leadcores. We like the Stinger carmel modified dolphin and UV. The Stinger UV green and blue dolphin has been good. But teh best is the Stinger silver hud. The Moonshine UV bloody nose has been good too. We have spoons on the mono dipsies set at 40 to 60 feet on the line counter. These are standard size dipsies. The downriggers all have spoons on them and we are running a two color leadcore or long leads on the downriggers. We are catching a lot of 2 to 5 pound Chinook salmon but there are some 15 to 20 pound Kings taking on every trip. We are also catching some nice Brown trout too. Every trip we catch 8 to 10 nine inch Coho salmon. They are all over the place. But there are two strong year classes of Chinook salmon coming up and this should be good for October fishing. 

We contiue to catch a few Pink salmon and we boated our first Atlantic salmon a couple of weeks ago. August should continue to have some solid fishing. Early September is big King time in and around the Milwaukee harbor and we are hoping some lands a 30 plus pounder. We will also have a good offshore bite in September. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a trip in late August and September to get in on some good trout and salmon fishing. Below are some pictures from the last couple of weeks, including the Atlantic salmon and the 26lb Chinook. 

So far this season 86% of the fish we have landed have been Coho salmon. It has been a very good year for Coho salmon fishing and they are still in the mix. As of early last week we started to catch Chinook salmon on almost every trip. Before that we had only caught 20 of them all season. We are also starting to catch four year old or 20 plus pound Chinooks and just yesterday we boated a 25 pound King, which is the biggest for us this season. We are also starting to catch more Lake trout. We have not specifically fished for them but they are staring to set up in 100 feet of water both north and south of Milwaukee. The water on the surface has warmed up but there is still a lot of cold water below and before the big northeaster yesterday and today there was 49 degree water down 35 feet below the surface. Salmon-A-Rama starts today and is a 9 day big fish fishing contest that is lake wide and based our of Racine, Wisconsin.  The link to their website is www.salmon-a-rama.com The people at Salmon Unlimited Wisconsin have been running this contest for years and it just keeps getting better. There are now weigh in stations around the lake and we have one in Milwaukee. We have purchased the $500 ticket for our boat as we have done for the last 10 years and this enters all of your clients into the contest when they fish with us. We have had multiple people win cash prizes every year we have entered and we hope to keep the streak alive but is will be tough.

We have been fishing between 06 to 59 hundred out of Milwaukee in 80 to 160 feet of water for the last several days. Our spread has finally changed. We have for the first time eliminated all or the orange dodgers. Sad day for me. Because the water has warmed we have switched to all copper set ups on the boards. The coppers are 150, 200, 225, 250, 275, 300 and 350 feet. We like the Moonshine green flounder pounder UV and several other green Moonshines too. We are also using these on our side riggers down 40 and 50 feet. The wire divers are set at 150 to 200 feet and we just started using the magnum dipsies today. We are using green Derk's flashers with a green willy fly. Derk's flashers and Derk's beads are fast becoming our favorite. On our back deep riggers we are running the same set up on our deepest rigger and Derks bloody nose flasher with a Howie supper frog fly. These were down 50 and 60 feet but with the northeast blow we are now down 80 and 90 feet. 

This is the best time of the year to target big Chinook salmon, so give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to get in on the action. The four year old Chinook bite just started up they will be in the mix through early September. Below our some pictures form the last couple of weeks, including a picture of the green flasher. 

This season has been very heavy on the Coho salmon as 86% of all the fish we have caught this year have been Coho. There has been a lot of them around and has led to some great catches. Over the last ten days the water temperature has become very much the same from the surface down as far as 70 feet at times and this has been around 54 degrees. This has caused fish to spread out, making it more difficult to score big numbers. When we find bites now it is very important to stay in that area to keep catching. We are hoping to have a change in the current or have a more sharply defined thermocline to help set up another hot mite on Coho salmon. Like stated earlier there are a lot of Coho in the area and they should be a part of the catch throughout the summer. But we need a more regular Chinook bite to start happening. The good news is that more Chinooks were stocked in Lake Michigan last two years ago then any single years going back to 2013. We don't know the exact numbers stocked last year but it was supposed to be the same. This should lead to some good catches this summer. The Lake trout are just starting to set up and this along with Steelhead should keep the bite going as the Coho bite slows. 

Are spread has changed some as we go deeper in the water column. The boards are 1 to 7 color leadcore and 25 to 150 foot coopers. All with orange dodgers and 2 inch flies. The Willy fly is the best. We are using a wire diver on one side and mono and braid on the other side all with orange dodgers. We still use a large size peanut fly on a couple of these dipsy divers. The downriggers are orange stubbies on the outsides and the back riggers we are using white flashers with Howie supper frogs or JoJo flies. Speed has been key and going fast when you are not getting bit helps. If the water cools soon we will go back to mono set ups on the boards. Coho love the orange so we are still rolling with it. 

July and August is the time to catch big Chinook salmon. Last season the first two weeks of August were the best King salmon fishing of the year. Give Silver King charters a call to get hooked up on some salmon and trout this summer. Below are pictures from the last couple of weeks.

We tell our clients that May and June are some of the best months to catch good numbers of Coho salmon and this May did not disappoint. Staring on May 6th right through the end of the month the Coho fishing could not have been any better. We had 30 straight limit catches and the longest trip took 3 hours. Incredible fishing and all were Coho salmon. We fished all over the place. From Grant park in 15 to 20 feet of water to .57-55 hundred in 70 to 90 feet, 02-03 in 150 to 200 feet of water and our favorite right outside the North, South and Main gaps. All three have been good. The Coho are 4 to 6 pounds and the alewives are everywhere. Not sure who the biologist that was hire to study Lake Michigan was and said that salmon should not be stocked anymore. But I think he should be fired. 

Our spread is simple and I detailed it on my last report. It has not changed and it is orange dodgers, with peanut flies on everything. We have the entire spread set in the top 12 feet of water. The water temperatures did heat up to 55 degrees on the surface about 12 days back but south and west winds have cooled it down again. This will keep the Coho bite going and there is no signs of it letting up. Limit catches may not be as quick but we expect to catch a lot more Coho. We have boated a 15 and 13 pound Coho already this year. 

June on average is our best month to catch Coho salmon and we start to see a few Chinook salmon in the mix as well. The best of both worlds for those who like to catch salmon. Please give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to get in on June salmon fishing. This is one of the better Coho bites we have had in several years. Below are some catches from the last coupe of weeks. 

We are half way through May and full throttle on Coho salmon. Our last report we were still Brown trout fishing in the harbor but Alewives started showing up in the harbor the first week of May and by May 7th we were catching limits of Coho salmon. Over the last nine days we have been fishing the North Gap to the South Gap of the Milwaukee harbor. We have also been down by Grant Park and out in 70 to 100 feet of water south of the green can to Grant Park. Boat pressure has made areas tough to fish and the salmon have been moving around. Several things to note. There are a lot of year classes of Alewives and a lot of Alewives around. The average size of the Coho salmon is up for this time of year. We are seeing Coho salmon at four to five pounds right now when three pounds or less is more common over the last several years. This means there was a good hatch of bait last year because when these Coho were stocked last year they would need a lot of small stuff to eat to get this big right now. The water is warming up fast. We did not have that cold of a winter on average and the last week has been very warm. We are seeing surface temperatures at 56 degrees during the day out in 100 feet of water. There are a lot of Coho around and the survival rate from stocking appears to be good. The 2021 Lake Michigan total stocking numbers have yet to be released but whatever the Coho number was last year it is what we are catching now. This is usually around 2.5 million. This adds up to be some great fishing for the next several weeks. 

We are running a 12 rod spread with all Coho salmon stuff. We have 3 boards a side. One side we are using double O orange dodgers and the other we are using B&B dodgers from Silver  Horde. We have a 17" fly lead on the OO and 27" fly lead on the B&B. We are using a 5/8 ounce keel weight on the OO and nothing on the B&B. We are 15 feet, 30 feet and 45 feet back from the boards. We are using a mono dipsy dialed in at 30 degrees and a braided dipsy set at 15 degrees on both sides of the boat. These are 35 feet on the mono and 15 feet on the braid. We are only running two outside downriggers with stubby orange dodgers down 10 feet. We are using the Willy Fly, Gen X or the Two Tone peanut flies. With the size of the Coho right now we may go to half flies soon. 

Milwaukee charter fishing is very good right now and Coho salmon fishing in May and June gives you the best catch rate for salmon. They are also the tenderloin of Lake Michigan. Give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 tp get in on some of the best salmon fishing of the season. Below are some pictures of limit catches this past week and a picture of our boat fishing. 

April was not a weather friendly month. Below average temperatures and high winds kept us limited at times on the lake. The last couple of weeks in April where solid fishing, with Brown trout making up 90% of the catch. We started to catch some Coho salmon the last week of the month. We fished the Milwaukee harbor, mostly in front of the river. We also had good action outside the Main gap. We fished the Green can and had some good Lake trout action. South of Milwaukee along the shore the Pump house and Grant Park were both good. The key was to find water that was not super clear and not too muddy. We last fished May 1st and the water temperatures seemed to be around 43 degrees average. The alwives started to show up in the harbor late last week and so did a few Coho salmon. 

Our spread still remains the same as last report but we have started running 4 and 5 color leads when fishing in 30 plus feet of water. We have also started just recently adding orange dodgers and peanut flies to the mix. We put these on inside dipsies and boards with keel weights. The blue/green/gold peanut caught a few Coho salmon. The last few seasons we have seen huge schools of large Alewives and this year looks to be the same. Their arrival does slow the Brown trout bite but the Coho action picks up.

The Coho salmon bite is next. Kenosha and further south have had great Coho action over the last couple of weeks. We expect the same next week. The Coho we caught last year were big enough to fillet and this spring we have caught two that were just under 5 pounds, which is big for this early in the year. From Early May through mid July Coho salmon are in the mix. But from now through late June they are the top target and lead to a high catch rate and limit catches. There is no better time to book a trip then during this period. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get in on the best time to catch good numbers of salmon. Below are some pictures from the last part of April. Some nice catches of Brown trout, with a few Coho salmon in the mix. 

This April has been cooler than normal and as I write this it is snowing out. Warmer weather is come this week. This April has been very good for Brown trout. This is still the primary fish we are catching but we are now boating a few Lake trout and Coho salmon. Surface temperatures are slowly starting to climb. We are seeing 42 degrees in the Milwaukee harbor and also south of town by Grant Park We are catching 5 to 20 fish a trip. The Milwaukee harbor around the Main gap and river channel has been best of catching fish. We have also fished Grant park and the bowels. This area has been productive too. We have not seen a lot of bait yet but this will probably change this week. 

We are still running all spoons on 1, 2, and 3 color leads, mono dipsies and riggers set 10 feet down ot the bottom. We are in 12 to 30 feet of water, fishing close to shore when we are not in the harbor. The gold hud and UV blue dolphin are the hot spoons. The stingray size has been best. We had a couple of slow trips when the water became gin clear but otherwise the bite has been steady. We expect the Brown trout action to stay solid through April, with a few more Lake trout in the mix. We are set to fish Coho salmon at a moments notice and they are catching them south of us, so hopefully by the end of the month we will see a steady catch of salmon. 

Right now is the best time to catch Brown trout, so give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to get in the action. This is one of the few times in the season we will target Brown trout. The pictures below are from the last few trips. 

We put our boat in on March 25th and for the next 5 days it was below freezing but we finally got out to fish on April 1st. The water temperature on the surface is 38.5 degrees at the warmest in the Milwaukee harbor and just outside the gaps it is 36 degrees. We have fished from the south gap to the north gap and everywhere in between. The most productive area is in front of the Summerfest grounds to just south of the water treatment plant. Just in front of the river has been good too. This is where we are finding he most bait and slightly warmer water. The smelt have not shown up yet so it is mostly shiners and gobies in the fishes bellies. This should change in the next few days. We have caught all Brown trout so far. Several have been in the 10 to 15 pound class. The bite has been steady, with the exception of when it snowed hard. The trout did not want to bite then. 

We are using an all spoon spread. They are liking larger spoons over the smaller ones. The best are gold and copper spoons. The gold NBK green Stinger in the stingray size has been very good on our deep riggers just off the bottom and on our three color leadcores. The gold hud in the same size on mono dipsies and two color leadcores have been just as good. We are also using mass confusion Stinger stingray size on one color and our up high riggers that are taking fish. The other good spoon is the UV blue dolphin silver blade. Been very good on a mono dipsy. We are seeing 15 to 20 bites a trip but a lot of quick hits right now. The action should become even better as the water warms and the bait starts to move in. There should also be some Lake and Rainbow trout in he mix. The Coho salmon bite is firing up in the at the southern end of Lake Michigan and you never know when it could happen here. Last year at this time Coho fishing was outstanding in Kenosha and Racine. We moved the boat to Racine on April 15th and the action was great. 

Give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467. We have openings this weekend and the Brown trout action is just getting started. It has been fun so far. The pictures are from the first few trips of the year. The bite is only going to get better. 

We are 12 days away from starting our Lake Michigan charter fishing season. Late March and early April is our best time of the season to catch Brown trout. This is the time of year where are top target is Brown trout. We like to run all spoons at this time of the year. Many people like to run stick baits or body baits and troll slow in early spring. Sometimes this is the best method. We like to run scorpion and stinger size Stinger spoons and we like to troll fast. Our ground speed or GPS speed could be up to 3 mph. This allows us to cover more water on a trip and find more active fish. We have found that active fish are not so picking if you get the bait in front of them. Trolling in the Milwaukee harbor it is key to find active fish and they could be anywhere from the North gap, south gap, river mouth and many places in between. To us the probe is useless at this time of the year and if we are not running at least 2.5 mph on the GPS we are too slow. 

Spoon size and color are more important. Copper and gold spoons, with orange, yellow and green colors on them work best. The Gold Hud, Gold NBK green, UV Blue Dolphin and Mass confusion Stinger spoons are all in the spread. We also like the UV watermelon spoon in scorpion and stinger size. Leadcore is key in the one, two, three and four colors. Mono dipsies set at 30 degrees and two riggers near the bottom. This spread has produced solid catches over the last decade. Water clarity is the only thing that really slows the bite, if we have too much rain or big northeast winds. This bite really stays good until the alwives come to shore around mid April.

We start fishing the last weekend of March and our first trips of the season have been epic. Give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to start catching Brown trout in early spring. The pictures below show some catches during the first two weeks of the season over the last several years. The one with me in hte back show the break wall covered in ice. That will not be the case this year. 

We are hoping to have the boat in the water around the end of March and the Brown trout fishing during the first few weeks of the season is the best Brown trout fishing for the entire season. We will be Milwaukee charter fishing during the first part of spring before heading to Racine for several weeks to get in on some early Coho salmon fishing. In 2021 we had a good year catching salmon and we expect the same in . This winter never had enough long cold stretches to freeze up much of Lake Michigan, especially the southern end of the lake. This should help the solid hatch of bait fish we had last year to survive. 

For those interested in early spring Brown trout fishing we will be trolling in and around the expansive Milwaukee harbor. This gives us some shelter on windy days. We are fishing in 35 feet of water or less and most of the bites come in the top 15 feet of water. The size ranges from 2 to 15 pounds but we have boated some Brown trout in the 20 pound size and a few years back a customer caught a 33 pound Brow trout. Attached is the current ice conditions on Lake Michigan and we believe that the harbor and marina will be clear of ice by April 1st. I also have some pictures of what my firstmates do in the winter. They run ice fishing trips for trout in the harbors of Lake Michigan. I also have an early April trip picture. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to have Milwaukee charter fishing trip as soon as the ice is out. 

January charter fishing is about getting ready. We are hoping ot be in the water on March 25th this year. Last season we were in on March 26th and a limit on March 27th. We were able to pull this off due to a mild winter. So far December ended up being even on average warmer then last year. The water on December 31, 2021 was 38 degrees on the surface in the Milwaukee harbor. The police boat was slipped and plugged in until January 1, . Only then did things start to cool off enough to start to form ice. In 55 days it will be March 1st and usually the ice is in full decline by then. But 55 days of very cold weather can make a lot of ice that can last into April. Hope that is not the case.

The last two winters were very mild and peak Lake Michigan ice coverage was below 25 percent. As of right now it is below 5%. These mild winters have helped the bait population grow by giving the young of the year a better survival rate. Stocked fish too have benefited. As of right now we will not have a huge freeze on Lake Michigan but to what degree is still up in the air. That said it has been a slow lead in into winter, giving all the young fish a better chance to survive. 

The last 6 years we have taking a limit on our first trip of the year. We are fishing the Milwaukee harbor, usually wear the rivers come into the harbor. This is typically our best Brown trout fishing of the year, with no run time to the fish. We are usually fishing right as we leave the dock. The harbor will allow us to fish in most wind conditions. We run spoons on all lines with everything near the surface to 15 feet deep. If you are interested in catching Brown trout and don't mind the cold an April charter fishing trip is for you. I have attached the current Lake Michigan current ice coverage map. The police boat picture is the last day a boated floated a McKinley marina on December 31, 2021. I also have some April Brown trout pictures. 

Lake Michigan charter fishing 2021 is a couple months in the past now. This past season was a good one overall and our best for salmo0n in over 5 seasons. Our number one fish boated was Coho salmon and we landed more Chinook salmon this year going all the way back to 2014. Next year looks to be as good or better for salmon. We still boat our fair share of the number on fish in Lake Michigan the Lake trout but we are not relying on them as much. Why the salmon catch rate is up is there are more salmon being stocked. I have attached the DNR stocking numbers through 2020. The 2021 official numbers will be released in March of next year. 

Coho salmon stocking number for 2020 was 2.6 million. This was up some from the last several years but the Coho stocking numbers have been steady over the last 25 years at 2.5 million fish per year. Many factors come in to play for a good season on Coho salmon. One of the most important is to have small bait fish around for them to grow up on. Coho are raised in the hatcheries for 1.5 years and only live for 3 years before spawning. When they are stocking in Lake Michigan they are already 5 to 6 inches long. So the Coho stocked in the spring of 2020 are the ones we are catching in the spring of 2021. These fish need to have small bait around to have a chance to survive and grow to be just under 2 pounds the following spring. During the summer of 2021 these fish then can grow from 5 to 15 pounds befroe they spawn and die in late November of 2021. What was stocked in 2021 will be the Coho caught in . The great news for is that by October we were catching Coho stocked in that were filletable fish. We caught one that weighed in at 1.5 pounds. Many were stuffed full of young of the year alewives. At least off the shores of Milwaukee there was a very good hatch of alewives. We expect this to translate in a lot of Coho salmon for . Weather, current nad water temperature will play a part but you need the fish to have a chance. 

Chinook salmon stocking was at 2.41 million and this was the highest Chinook stocking number since 2012. We hope that number will be the same or better in 2021 and it is supposed to be. Now Chinook stocked in 2021 will not help the catch rate of salmon until the end of he season at best but in 2021 the fingering Kings were also filletable fish by October. Salmon grow fast when there is bait around. We also boated a lot of 2019 stocked Chinooks that were very healthy and this lead us to our best Chinook catch in many years. Lake Michigan has been warm last winter and as of today there is still a police boat in the water on the same dock we slip on. This will help small fish to survive. Again current, weather and water temperatures will influence were fish are caught in the lake but we believe there will be a good number of 2 and 3 year old Chinook salmon for the season in Lake Michigan.

Many of you who fish with us want to catch salmon on your trip. That has been challenging over the past decade at times due to the low stocking numbers. But with the alewife population at least becoming more stable and finally the DNR and Federal government reducing Lake trout stocking, finally more Chinook salmon can be stocked and survive. Lake trout were the number one stocked fish in Lake Michigan for the previous 14 years when you combined the fingerling and yearling stocked numbers. Now Coho salmon is number one and Chinook salmon is just behind Lake trout. This is a much more balanced fishery. 

Customers will ask when is the best time for salmon and it can be anytime of the season from April through October. Last year we were catching limits of Coho in mid April and in 2019 our best Chinook bite was the last 3 weeks of October. But mid May through mid June is typically our best Coho bite and July through mid August is our best Chinook bite. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book your Milwaukee charter fishing and spring Racine charter fishing trip for . Below is the stocking totals lake wide for Lake Michigan going back to 1997. Brown trout and Rainbow trout are circled in red for 2020. These numbers are down and we certainly would like to see both go up. The Coho are circled yellow and the Chinook are circled green. The total of all five species is circled blue. I have also attached a picture of the police boat on our dock. The Milwaukee river is still ice free as of now and I hope this boat can stay in until Christmas. 

As of November 4th the boat was out of the water and in storage. The last couple weeks did not go as hoped and we only ran one more trip. The harbor water was still at 56 degrees and when we motored from our slip up the river there was little to no marks on the graph. In the end there was just too much warm water for this time of year. There was some great signs for next season. We were catching a lot of one and two year old Chinooks ranging 1.5 to 5 pounds. These fish were above average size and there were a lot of them around. We also saw a lot of very small alewives in the stomachs of fish we caught out deep. The Rainbows and next year Coho salmon were stuffed with them The Coho were fish you could fillet. The Lake wide stocking numbers for Coho have not been released yet but the survival should be good. We hope that the alewife hatch looks good lake wide and the salmon numbers will be up in . We just need them to be swimming in our part of the Lake Michigan. 

We are taking reservations for and weekends fill up quick, so call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467. We will be back in the water as soon as the ice leaves the marina and we hope that is by the last week of March. We will breakdown the 2021 season over the next several months as we get all the gear ready to catch fish in . The pictures are of the biggest fish we boated in 2021, which was a 34lb Chinook salmon. Also attached is a picture of the first fish and last fish of 2021, which were a Brown trout and lastly a Rainbow trout. We boated a 13 fish per trip average and there were some clunkers during that period but way more smiles. Thanks to everyone who fished wiht us and made the 2021 season very special. 

We are at the end of October and the fishing did not live up to the last two years. In 2019 we had some of the best Chinook salmon fishing in years during the last three weeks of October. It started in 170 feet and finished in 80 to 100 feet just north of Milwaukee. It was incredible good and this year looked as if it could be somewhat like that. Warm water and rough seas ended any hope for a repeat. Although the first part of the month was good King fishing. Just 3 days ago the water was still 60 degrees at the surface and 59 degrees down 100 feet. In 2020 the water off Milwaukee froze out at the end of September and stayed in the in the mid 40 degree mark from top to bottom right through October. This set up a great Lake trout bite in 15 to 30 feet of water. We were taking limits until we pulled in November. Waves were not causing poor water clarity either. But this year the water was way to warm for this bite. The harbor is always an option but we fished that October 24th and the water was 60 degrees from top to bottom. Just a bad set up for this time of year. We love Ocotber fishing because some great fishing usually sets up. Too much warm water and northeast winds in 2021. Hope we get back to crushing October salmon and trout. 

The first two weeks of October we did have decent fishing in 150 to 200 feet of water north of Milwaukee. There was a lot of bait and most of it was near the bottom. We eventually ran just four lines on our trips, which is unusually. But after several trips we could see that these were the only rods catching fish. We ran two downriggers set at 180 and 160 feet down. These both had 11 inch white flashers, with little boy blue flies on them. We ran two wire dipsies, using the big size dipsy dialed in at 15 degrees. We used white 8 inch flashers with little boy blue flies on them. We trolled slower than normal to keep the baits deep. The bite was mostly Chinook between 2 and 15 pounds. We averaged 10 to 25 bites a trip. There were also some Lake trout and a few Lake trout. If we could of had the water cool down some this could have been a great bite. 

The good thing for next season was there were a lot of 2 year old Kings that were already good size. Next years Coho salmon were already fish you could fillet and some of the fish we cleaned were full of very small young of the year alewives. Hopefully all of Lake Michigan saw this kind of hatch and survival of alewives from this years spawn. Next year could be even better salmon fishing than we experienced this season. 

Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book your trip. We hope to be in the water by the last week of March and keep catching fish through the end of October. Attached are a few pictures from the first two weeks of October. The Rainbows where caught out in 300 feet of water, the Chinooks in 180 feet and the beautiful Rainbow was possible the last fish we land this season and was caught in the Milwaukee harbor. 

The first day of September and big Chinooks are showing up in the Milwaukee harbor area with a couple of fishermen have caught Chinooks over 30 pounds already. The action offshore has also been good for Steelhead. We have been fishing between 150 to 250 feet of water just north of the Milwaukee harbor and catching 5 to 15 Rainbow trout a trip along with Lake trout, Chinook and Coho salmon. But the best bite is Steelhead. We will be running harbor trips for big Chinooks but the offshore fishing has been too good as of late. The harbor bite is tough due to warm water from top to bottom, making the fish less active. But first light and just before sunset we can catch a few and the size is worth it. There have been a good amount of immature or none spawning Chinook around and we are hoping that this leads to some good fall salmon fishing like we had in 2019. 

The break has been around 50 to 65 feet and this may change with the current northeast blow. We have been running 150 - 350 coppers on our boards. The gold hud Stingray and NBK green UV stingrays have been best. We are using magnum dipsies set at 175 on the line counter. The little boy blue Howie fly and the little boy blue Hot Spot flasher is best on these and our deepest rigger down 120 feet. We run a 75 rigger with the original Willy fly. There is absolutely no comparison to the knockoffs. We have a green Hot Spot paired with this fly. On the up high riggers we are using the green NBK UV Stingray on a one and two color leadcores set at 35 and 45 feet. This set up over the last week has been very good. The problem is Steelhead have a tendency to jump off the hook 

There will be some great action over the next two months and we are even hoping to run a couple trips in November. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get in on some fall salmon and trout action. Below are some pictures of our last few trips. The Rainbow trout have been very fun to fight. 

July and August have been solid fishing and this is also the best time to catch Chinook salmon. We have already boated more Chinook this year then we have for a season since 2016. We have also boated are largest King salmon on a charter at 34 pounds and 46 inches. There was a new Michigan state record for Chinook salmon caught several weeks ago that was over 46 pounds. There have been two Chinooks caught out of Milwaukee that were both 38 pounds. Now the scale of 30 plus pound Kings is down from last year but there are some even larger being caught then previous years. Good supply of bait, reduced numbers competing for the food and some fish living a fifth season has lead to some monsters. But what is more promising is the number of Chinooks showing up in the catch. We are seeing a lot of 1.5 to 5 pound Chinooks. The small ones are healthy and should be as big as a spring Coho this fall. The reason is increased stocking of Chinooks lake wide last year. The stocking went from 1.55 to 2.41 million last year and it is very evident. 

Spoons have flat out been the hot ticket over flasher flies for the last several weeks. We have been using gold and silver HUDS both stinger and stingray size along with the UV green dolphin. Leadcores from 3 to 8 colors and coppers from 125 to 250 feet. We are also using 1 and 2 colors on the up high riggers. Little boy blue flasher and fly combos on wire dipsies have been solid. We have been anywhere from 30 to 180 feet of water over the last 2 weeks and there has been a lot of bait around. With a good Chinook bite in 110 feet or less and a good Rainbow bite in 150 to 200 feet the fishing is good and if the bait sticks around this could be a very good fall. 

The next three weeks is the last time this year for us to target the big Chinook salmon and we hope to boat another 30 plus pound fish and it would not be a stretch to see one over 40 pounds caught out of Milwaukee. Give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to get a shot at some great September and October fishing. Below are some pictures of some big Kings caught recently, including several of the 34 pounder and a Pink salmon we boated. We have caught several of these this year. 

Summer Solstice and the first day of summer. May & June have delivered some great Coho fishing. Lake Michigan was stocked with 2.6 million Coho for this year and that is above the average. The fish are a little larger and seems to have been a good survival rate from the stocking. Through May and June so far Coho have made up 72% of the catch and the Coho action is not done yet although the water has been warming up. We are seeing surface temperatures now in the 60's but down 40 feet it is still in the high 40's. Still plenty cold to catch Coho on the surface. We hope for southwest winds periodically to keep cold water near the surface and the Coho bite going. We have fished anywhere from 40 to 60 feet all the way out to 150 to 200 feet. There has been solid action from Fox Point to the Oak Creek power plant but we have liked it best from 07-10 or 59-55 hundred. There have been some nice Chinooks in the catch, with many in the 20 plus pound range. The Chinook bite looks to be better this year. 

We are still running a high number of orange dodgers with green peanut and half cut flies. One or two mono set ups a side on the boards are still delivering along with inside dipsies. We are running some 2 to 5 color leadcores with orange and one up high downrigger. The back two riggers are white flashers with bullfrog, super frog, green krink or little boy blue Howie flies. Best between 40 to 80 feet. Spoons on 6 to 8 color leadcores and side riggers have been good, with the bloody nose or blue nose stinger size Stinger spoons. We have run some wire dipsy rods, with the same flasher sets we are using on the downriggers. The orange dodgers are accounting for 70% of the bites over this period. 

The action has been solid so far this year and we look to keep it going over the next several weeks. We have openings in the first two weeks of July and Coho salmon will still be in the mix. This is one of the best times of the year to catch salmon, so give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467. The summer just started today!! The pictures below are from trips in late May and June.

We moved the boat to Reefpointe marina in Racine Wisconsin on April 20th. The reason was Coho salmon. A week early the Coho bite started as the alewives engulfed the shores. We usually make a move south near the end of May but things were several weeks earlier this year. It was the right move because we have had quick limit catches for the last couple of weeks. The fishing right now is crazy good. We hope this continues into late June but if you want to catch salmon there is absolutely no better time than right now. The catch is almost exclusively Coho salmon. The size is decent for this time of year. We are working just outside the harbor, so there is no run time. We expect the bite to remain amazing through the week. The water temperature is 50 degrees on the surface and this is helping the bite. It does not get any better than it is right now.

We are fishing in 15 to 30 feet of water from wind point to the bubbler. There are pods of Coho along this entire stretch. There has been action like this as far south as Waukegan, Illinois. As I right this the Coho bite has begun to turn on just outside the gaps of the Milwaukee harbor. We intend to move back to Milwaukee within a week or two. The bite is on the shoreline and this makes it ideal for fast action. Our spread is simple. Orange small double 00 Gold Star dodgers and green or two tone peanut flies on everything, with the exception of one side of boards using B&B orange dodgers. We are running four boards a side and they are all mono set ups. The side with the Gold Stars we use 5/8 ounce keel weights. Both sides are set at 15 feet, 20 feet, 25 feet and 35 feet back from the board. The boards are by far the top producers. We run and outside mono 25 feet on the line counter and inside braid dipsy 12 feet on the line counter with the orange dodger set ups. We are only running the two outside riggers with down 7 and 10 feet about 7 feet back. All orange!

This is it folks. Call now for some of the best salmon action of the year and Coho salmon are my favorite to eat. We expect to be have Coho salmon in the mix through early July but right now the bite is on fire. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 and get out fishing with us. The pictures below were from last week. 

April has continued to be very good. We have had some excellent Brown trout fishing but last weekend the Milwaukee harbor was invaded by 5 to 8 inch Alewives. Great to see but that did hurt the bite. We tried fishing the boils by Grant Park and there were some Coho salmon but the Alewife problem was there too. We decided to move the boat and try Racine charter fishing. There were some good reports from last weekend. On Wednesday we caught 25 Coho salmon and Friday we did the same in half the time. The move paid off. We were planning to head to Racine the last two weeks on May to fish Coho salmon but plans changed quick when the bite started early. The Alewives that have shown up all along the shores have been impressive both in size and amounts. You cannot run a spoon through the water without snagging one. We have had some of the bigger ones pull our board back. One trip we had some children having fun reeling them in. These fish are 4 to 7 years old and we were lead to believe that there were very few Alewife left in Lake Michigan this size. An Alewife this size can spawn well over double what the two and three year old fish can do. If there is good survival from this hatch Lake Michigan will be in a great spot for bait fish for several years. The Coho salmon are good size for this time of year and we have boated a coupe of five pound Coho already.

This time of year we are usually still harbor fishing Brown trout. I do think there will still be some good Brown trout trips before spring is done but it is all Coho salmon for now. When we were Brown trout fishing we were running leadcore from one to three color on the boards. The top spoon was Mass Confusion from Stinger in the stinger size. The riggers and mono dipsies had Gold Huds and Blue Dolphins from Stinger in the stingray size. All of our action was in the Milwaukee harbor from the main gap and river to the south gap. Once the catch was too many Alewives we ran a mix of spoons and orange dodger and peanut flies at the boils. The spoons once again snagged too many Alewives. When we got to Racine we went all orange dodgers and peanut flies. These set ups did not snag as many bait fish but we still got a few. We fishing right outside the harbor but there was good action all along the shoreline. Our best action was on a green fly or a two tone fly. All mono boards, mono and braid dipsies and we ran only two riggers. 

We tell our customers that Mid May through late June is the best time for Coho action. It has started early and we hope that it continues on and off right through June. This is just the start of what could be a great year of Coho action. Indiana and Illinois are usually catching Coho action like this as we are catching Brown and Lake trout. We still think Mid May and June will see some great Coho fishing but this is a great bonus. We still have not boated a Chinook or Rainbow trout but the thought is there is a lot of bait everywhere and those fish do not have a reason to leave the middle of the lake. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get in on some early season salmon and trout fishing. I have attached some pictures of some recent Lake Michigan charter fishing trips. The trip on Wednesday we were in a snow storm. I hope that is the last time we see snow until the boat is put away in early November. 

Silver King Charters got off to a fast start in late March and early April. Some incredible fishing, with some quick limits. We have been fishing the Milwaukee harbor from a half mile south of the river channel to the south gap. It has been good everywhere. There has been a good mix of Gizzard shad and Smelt in the harbor. Water clarity was that perfect murky and surface temperatures where 42 degrees. This lead to and outstanding bite. We caught mostly Brown trout but we also boated some Coho salmon and Lake trout all inside the harbor. Over the years we have only boated 2 Lake trout in the harbor but early this season we have caught a half dozen. On Sunday the water clarity became a little too clear and the current coming out of the river became very light. The bite slowed down. With the rain expected this week the action should turn back on. This is just the begin of the good Brow trout bite and with other species in the mix this April is going to be some good fishing. 

We are running all spoons, with the hottest being the Mass Confusion copper stinger size Stinger. The one and two colors along with the up high riggers set 10 and 12 feet down all have these spoons on and they are delivering. The Gold Hud & UV blue Dolphin in the stingray size are on the deep riggers and mono dipsies. We are running 3 and sometimes 4 color leads with Gold NBK Green stingers. Gold and copper spoons seemed to be the ticket. We have seen several Lake trout and Brown trout in the 15 pound class. The shoreline both south and north of town along with the boils off Bender Park are delivering fish. 

The weather this spring has been very good. Air temperatures have regularly reached the 50's and the next week looks great. Give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to start catching fish in April. Below are some pictures from the last several days. 

We launched the boat on Friday and fished that day and then again on Saturday March 27th. You never know how the weather will be this early in the year but we took a chance because the ice was gone and it paid off. Friday we did a shake down cruise after launching and within 50 minutes went 9 for 16 on Brown trout. This was in the middle of the day. On Saturday we fished 3 hours and caught 15 Brown trout. The biggest was 15 pounds. This is no doubt the best time to catch Brown trout all year. We fished the Milwaukee harbor from the art museum to the discharge. There were lots of marks and bait on the screen The bait was Gizzard Shad and the Brow trout were full of them. Water temps were 40 - 42 degrees in the marina and harbor. The set up was perfect and the fish were biting. We saw all year class sizes and some post spawn fish. As long as the bait keeps showing up and we don't have a huge rainfall this is going to be a good Brown trout spring. 

We ran 3 boards with a one, two and three color leadcore on each side. The Stinger Mass Confusion in stinger size was by far the best bait followed by the Stinger UV Watermellon spoon. Riggers down 17 feet also contributed with gold hud or gold NBK spoons. The mono dipsies did not fair so well but Blue Dolphins where on these and will be changed for something gold or copper. Speed and direction did not really matter. 

Late March and early April are the best time to target Brown trout and we have boated many 10 to 15 pound fish, with an occasional 20 pound Brown. Several years back we caught a Brown trout that weighed a little over 33 pounds. Weather is always a concern during this time but we are mostly in the Milwaukee harbor, which allows us to run a lot more trips that could be lost to big winds. We also have the cabin enclosed this time of year to block wind and rain. Looks to be a good bite this spring for Brown trout so call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 and get in on some April Lake Michigan Charter Fishing. We are in and catching. Below are a couple of pictures from Friday and Saturday. Great picture of Colin holding his limit. Amazing first mate. 

March has arrived and brought with it mild temperatures. The winter as a hole was not bad except for three weeks in February. Lake Michigan remained mostly ice free. The current ice coverage on Lake Michigan is 15% and the greatest coverage was 35%. Boats are already out fishing and we expect the remaining ice at the marina to be gone in ten days. We hope to have the boat in the water on March 26th and we are already to fish for March 27th. We have added a new Garmin sonar that is superior to anything we have used before. We did full tune ups on the engines, installed new props and added 8 new Tekota reels to the arsenal. All the reels are reloaded with new line. Last year at this time we did not even know if we would be allowed to charter and we were not able to start until very late May. This season already will be better not having to deal with the the uncertainty of last spring. Brown trout fishing has already been solid for those able to get out. The Oak Creek power plant has been delivering good catches. We expect a solid start to the Brown trout bite. We will be in Milwaukee starting March 27th and will move to Racine for three weeks starting May 17th and we will be back in Milwaukee June 6th for the rest of the season in early November when we pull the boat. That is a long ways off though.

We are expecting a solid Brown trout bite this season. The first three weeks we are fishing Brown trout are the top target. By mid to late April we start to see Lake trout added to the catch as we troll the shoreline and move out of the Milwaukee harbor. Once we hit May we will see a blend of Brown trout, Lake trout and Coho salmon. It is not uncommon the catch Rainbow trout coming out of the rivers after spawning and some Chinook salmon. By this time Alewives have shown up in the harbors and shoreline. This sets up the Coho salmon bite and by mid to late May the bite is heavy on Coho salmon. Every year has a different story as to where and when fish show up but the conversion from Brown trout to a mix of Brown, Lake and Coho to almost all Coho salmon from April through May happens every year to some degree. 

We have seen the Coho bite take off right away in the season. In 2012 we started catching Chinooks and it kept going into August. In 2019 the Coho bite was very week but Lake trout fishing was on fire. Tough to say how any season will play out. The Coho salmon use to come up from the southern end of Lake Michigan and this still happens at varying degrees and this is why we go down to charter fish in Racine. Racine is a 45 minute drive south of Milwaukee by car. This distance can make a huge difference for the Coho salmon bite and is why we slip in Racine for several weeks. Over the last 20 years Lake Michigan has become a very clear lake and this may have helped to change the behavior of Coho salmon movements early in the season. Currents in the lake are constantly changing throughout the season and clearer water can affect current and fish movement. 

If all goes well we will have an actual fishing report at the end of this month, with pictures of some Brown trout. After all the turmoil of 2020 this is going to be a very fun season of fishing. Being outside soaking in vitamin D and catching fish is a great way to spend the day. I don't believe we have ever been more prepared for a season, so call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 and lets start catching some fish. Below are pictures from April and May of past seasons. I have some pics of early season Chinook salmon and Lake trout, along with the usual Brown trout of April and Coho salmon of May. 

Winter so far has been mild in Milwaukee but now that it is February winter finally shows up. The low in Milwaukee going all the way back to February of 2020 was 10 degrees. We will be around or under that for the next week. Lake Michigan was less than 10 percent covered with ice going into the month but that is about to change. Because Lake Michigan and especially the southern half has remand ice free until now we hope there is not to much build up and we are able to start running trips in late March. Customers call and ask for the best time to catch salmon. We always reply mid May through late June. This is our highest salmon catch rate. The reason is Coho salmon. This period of time is the best time to target Coho salmon. Since 2007 there has been several reductions on Chinook salmon stockings and we use to load up on them all summer long. There still is some good action for Chinook salmon in the summer but Coho salmon are now the dominate catch for salmon in a season. The Coho stocking has not been reduced. 2.5 million Coho are stocked on average each year lake wide and has been the case for over 25 years. A Coho's life begins in a hatchery sometime in November, where they are raised for a year and a half until they are stocked in spring. Holding them in a hatchery for 18 months gives them a much better chance or survival when they are stocked. They spend their first year in Lake Michigan eating and growing. By the following spring they are ready to be caught. By November of that year they spawn and die, so they spend 18 months in hatcheries and 18 months in Lake Michigan. 

Coho salmon average two to three pounds in the early part of the season but near the end of June it is common to see 5 plus pound fish. Coho salmon are a fun fight and our favorite to eat. The bright orange fillets are delicious anyway you prepare them. When we find schools of Coho salmon the action is steady and sometimes very fast to a limit. We will run a spread of 12 to 16 lines and most of the action is in the top 20 feet of water. Our favorite bait is an orange dodger followed by a peanut fly. When the Coho action is in full swing this may be the only bait we use on every set up. We will run 4 riggers and the outside ones will be less than 10 feet down and set less than 10 feet back. We will have a braid and a mono dipsy set up on each side of the boat. Many times your will be able to see the baits because they are set just below the surface. We also run 3 to 4 boards a side. We use keel weights on mono line. Only the back two riggers are not near the surface. 

Most of our limit catches will happen during this time of the season. When the Coho salmon show up it can be an unreal bite. During the time of the season there are some tough bites but throughout this period we boat the most salmon of the year and some of the fasted action. Call Silver King Charters to get in on some Coho salmon fishing from mid May through June. Below is some catches from the 2020 season. 

Finally we are through with 2020 and we are hope 2021 is not a repeat. Last season when we started out we had hoped to have the boat in and fishing in late March. The ice was gone and the fish were biting. But by mid March it was painfully obvious this was going to be a different kind of year. We start our season Milwaukee charter fishing in and around the Milwaukee harbor. The harbor gives us more controlled seas during early spring and warmer water where the rivers empty out. This creates an ideal area to catch Brown trout. April is our best month to target Brown trout all year. We also fishing along the shoreline in 10 to 30 feet of water. Last season we missed out on this fishing due to the virus and restrictions place on us. We hope to have the boat in the water April 1st this year and be able to run trips. As of right now there is almost no ice cover the lake. Things can change fast but there is a good chance ice will not prevent us from fishing early spring. 

Every April sets up a little different due to the unpredictable weather in Wisconsin But every April does deliver our best Brown trout action. We are usually running all spoons. Stick baits are very effective this time of year but spoons are just easier to run and just as effective. We like Stinger spoons the stinger size. Year after year it is gold, copper and orange spoons that are the top producers. Leadcore on boards are the best presentations. We always run 1, 2 and 3 color leadcore and sometimes a 4 color. The next best setup is our mono dipsy rods. These are set at 30 degrees and 30 feet out on the line counter. We will also run 2 downriggers near the bottom but these are the least effective. There was a time we would try to run as slow as we could in early spring but the last several years we really crank the speed. It gives the spoons better action and we cover more water to find active fish. Not uncommon to be running at 3 miles an hour. 

The Brown trout stocking was cut back 3 years ago but last year there was an increase by the Wisconsin DNR and we hope this continues. The average sizes for Brown trout caught this time of year is 2 to 8 pounds but we land a lot or 8 to 12 pound fish. The trophies are 15 plus pounds and we boated one last season that was 26 pounds. Our biggest was 33 pounds 4 years ago in the first week of April. After all the restrictions placed on everyone everywhere fishing in April sounds like a great time. Dress warm and be ready to catch fish. We will do the rest. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467. I have attached pictures of Brown trout caught in April along with a picture of McKinley marina yesterday. Not much ice down there. 

The Silver King Charter crew would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays. What a crazy year! We hope 2021 will not be worse than this year. Fishing on the other hand was solid in 2020. We averaged 12.25 fish a trip and minus a couple one and two fish performances we had a lot of happy customers. Coho salmon was our number caught species followed by Lake trout. Chinook salmon came in third and at one time several years back the Chinook was King every year. I don't think Chinook salmon will be the top fish in 2021 but we do think the catch numbers will increase. Starting in 2007 Chinook salmon stocking started to get reduced and by 2016 there were only 1.2 million stocked in Lake Michigan. This was down by 75% from the early 2000's The crash of the alewife and natural reproduction lead to the stocking reductions. Catching a Chinook salmon on Lake Michigan became real special for the few that were caught. But there is good news. In 2020 the Chinook stocking in Lake Michigan went from 1.2 million to 2.3 million. Almost double. By October we started to see these fish in our catch. 

What does this mean for 2021? The fish stocked in 2020 will be two year old fish and be much like catching a spring Coho salmon. There will be more salmon to catch in 2021 and this is very exciting. The plan by the Lake Michigan Fishery managers is to keep this stocking number for two more years and evaluate the state of the fishery. Since Chinook live three to four years we will continue to see the salmon numbers increase lake wide for the next three years. Coho salmon stocking has been steady for several decades at 2.4 million fish. Salmon are a schooling fish and can travel great distances fast. There are times they just are not in the area we are fishing. Does not matter if they stock four million Chinook. If they don't like the area they move. What is exciting going forward is when a school does swim in our area of the lake there will be more to catch. With more Chinook in the lake we hope there will be more days during the season when there are good numbers of salmon off the shores of Milwaukee. 

Thanks to many groups around Lake Michigan, with the big one being the WLBA, it was possible to stop the ending of Chinook salmon stocking and reverse course. The number at 2.3 million seems to be a logical step to improve the salmon fishing on Lake Michigan, without risking a lake wide crash due to too many predators in the lake. The reduction on Lake trout stocking also made this less of a risk. So your looking to book a Lake Michigan salmon charter in 2021. What do these numbers mean to you. You will have more opportunity to catch fish. We don't expect our Chinook totals for the season to double but we do expect them to increase. The three and four year old Chinook or the big ones are still at the same low stocking numbers. There are fewer or them but their size over the last couple of years has been 20 plus pound for the mature fish and many over 25 pounds. We expect our Chinook catch to continue to go up over the next three season. Water temperature, bait fish, current and weather will determine a lot as to how many we boat but the opportunity is going to go up. 

I have at6tached pictures of Chinook salmon our customers caught in 2020. We boated them from April through October but the best stretch is late June through mid August and when they stage to spawn early September. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-147 to book a trip Lake Michigan salmon fishing. Our firstmate Colin knows how to hold a King. The last picture is of me in April on our first trip of the year. Just me an Colin. We couldn't start running trips until late May. I really don't care for that mask. 

We usually don't fish in November but the weather was good and after being shutdown in April and May we decided to stay in through November 9th. We could probably stayed in through Thanksgiving but rarely do you get weather this late in the month. To risky. But the first part of the month we were able to get out and on November 8th it was 70 degrees for our last outing. The fishing was incredible. Much like the end of last year but this time instead of Chinook salmon it was Lake trout with a few Brown trout. We fished in 15 to 30 feet south of the Milwaukee reef from 58 to 56 hundred. We turned just before Grant Park. Same location we worked almost all of October. The Lake trout fishing was incredible, with 12 to 15 pound fish very common. We noticed a lot of smaller alewives in the fish that we had not seen for much of the year. For most of the season it was big size alewives. These little ones looked to be a year old and there were a lot of them in the stomachs of the Lake trout. Of course that is nothing new to see a Lake trout's belly full. They are the vacuum cleaners of Lake Michigan. We went out three times and the limits were quick. 

The spread was identical to my October report. We ran a few more Stinger Mass Confusions but that was it. All small size spoons on everything. One, two and three color leads on the boards, to mono dipsies out 30 feet on the line counter and dialed in at three setting and 2 riggers down 12 feet and set way back. The Lake trout like to dig down when they hit, so tangles happened in the shallow water. When we left the lake was 45 degrees top to bottom but we were shallow. The King bite did not materialize in our part of the lake this late fall but we did not try hard for them after mid October. The few that did had little luck, so we stuck with the hot bite and it was a lot of fun. 

I did not post in July, August and September but I will go back and recap those months this offseason. The fishing was steady throughout the year and with all the stuff going on this year it was needed. We are booking trips for the 2021 season. Please call us at 414-460-1467 tp get a date you want. I have attached some pictures of our last trips. My favorite is Colin cleaning fish. A seagull decided to poop on him and after that there were no more handouts. 

Happy Halloween to all as we close out October. We will be pulling the boat on November 6th and we hope that 2021 season is a little better for all. October looked to have a potential for a great Chinook bite at the start of the month much like last year. We were getting a good King bite leading into October but after almost 10 straight days of west winds the water froze out and the Chinooks took off. Because of so many west wind days we were forced to fish the shoreline but this is typical of October. But it pushed into a great bite. We spent almost the entire month south of town by the Milwaukee reef just inside the green can and fished from there to about 2,5 miles south just before Grant park. We stayed in 15 to 30 feet of water and caught all five species but the bulk of the catch was Lake trout. The trout were spawning on the reef and made for some decent fishing. We boated several 15 pound Lake trout and one Brown trout over 24 pounds. Near the end of the month and today we fished the Milwaukee harbor and the south end was the best. 

The spread we used never changed for the entire month. Two riggers down 14 feet with gold Natural Born Killer green tape Stingers. This has become our favorite spoon in October for shoreline Lake trout. We ran all spoons in October and the stinger size. They did not want large spoons. We ran two mono dipsies with one NBK like the riggers had and one yellow tux. Both of these were set at a 3 setting and 30 feet out on the line counter. We ran on, two and three color leadcores on he boards. The one colors had mass confusion copper spoons from Stinger. This is another spring and fall shallow water favorite. The yellow tux Stingers on the two colors and the gold NBK green Stingers on the three colors. In the harbor we added two more riggers down 25 and 28 feet. The best spoons where a Moonshine flounder pounder and the glow watermelon Stinger. Never changed a thing all month and the set just kept catching fish. 

We are going to fish a few more times in first week of November and then that is it. The weather looks to be nice the first week of the month. Start calling Silver King Charters now at 414-460-1467 to book your 2021 trip. We expect a lot more people to want to fish next year as we all get use to living with the damn virus!!! The picture are from some October trips this year. We are not done yet but just 6 more days.

The season always seems to speed by once it starts and with all the things going on right now we really only have just started. We missed out on some real good early season action but it is not even summer yet and the Coho salmon bite is on. We have already boated more Coho salmon than all of last year but 2019 was very bad for Coho. The action has been steady. Not lights out limit fast but very solid. We have had catches of 6 to 39 Coho in a trip over the last 3 weeks. We expect the action to continue through June. The Coho salmon have not lined up to make it easy. They are spread out from 100 to 230 feet of water. We have been fishing a 5 mile stretch straight out of the Harbor of Milwaukee. We had some good action down by Bender Park for the last part of May but we have been out deep all of June. We have caught some Chinook, Rainbow and Lake trout during this time but it is mostly Coho salmon. The surface water was warming up to above 60 degrees but our best bite was still in the top 15 feet of water. 

Our spread is simple right now with orange dodgers and green peanut flies on everything. We run 5/8 ounce keel weights on the mono boards set 20, 30 and 45 feet back. We also run a 3 and 4 color leadcore on boards too, We are using 2 dipsies a side set at 20 and 40 feet on the line counter. These rods are taking over 50% of the fish we catch. The outside downriggers are set 12 and 20 feet down. The two back riggers are the only rods we don't use orange on. We have a flasher fly combo we switch out constantly and a Stinger UV Blue dolphin on these set 35 and 45 feet down. We have caught a Chinook every third trip on these and we hope to start seeing some more Kings around soon. 

There will be a lot more good Coho catches to come and if the fish bunch up it could get ridiculous. If you want to catch salmon the next several weeks are the time to do it. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get out on Lake Michigan, catch some fish and have a great time. The action has been good this season and we couldl all use a break from the real world right now. I have attached some pictures of recent catches and our favorite Coho salmon set up. 

We are nearing nearing the end of one of my favorite months of Lake Michigan charter fishing but with COVID-19 going on we did not fish as much as we would have hoped. The second part of May was full of rain and strong northeast and east winds that left water very muddy next to the shore and for the most part out to 70 feet of water. This mud has since spread out to cloudy the water as far as 275 feet of water in places. This has reduced areas to fish. Our best fishing for the past week has been in 60 to 80 feet of water a mile north or south of the green can off the Milwaukee reef. We have pulled Coho, Chinook and Lake trout in our catches. The Coho bite fell apart by Sunday and the Chinook bite by Monday. We moved to the Main and South gaps of the Milwaukee harbor Wednesday and Thursday as the water cleared just enough and started to catch limits of Coho salmon. There is a lot of bait tight to the walls and the surface temps are 54 degrees. There are not a lot of fish close to shore but it is a decent bite and they are salmon. We did fish a trip off Bender park and the boils in 15 to 20 feet of water too and the water was clearer and it was a steady bite of Coho. We feel there is a consistent bite all along the shore line now as the water is starting to clear up. That is were the bait is most consistent too. The Coho bite is just starting to get good off Milwaukee and there has been good Chinook action on most of your trips. We have pulled 6 Kings over 20 pounds. Lake trout are everywhere but we have not really put a lot of fire power toward them. 

Our spread is fading to orange as i right this but we have had good success on 4 - 10 color leadcores. Most of our Chinook and Lake trout are coming off these rods. The Stinger UV Blue Dolphin and the UV Green NBK in the sitngray size is best by far. These same spoons on riggers set 20 to 55 feet down are producing to. We have run wire divers with regular clear dipsies dialed in at the 3 setting and out 60 to 90 feet. We use a green blade with glow tape and a Howie Bull Frog fly. This is tking Kings and Lake trout. But as we move to shore it is orange on the boards. The Jensen dodgers on one side with keel weights and B&B dodgers on the other side. They are set back 15. 40 and 60 feet. We are using inside and outside dipsies at 15 and 30 feet. We have two outside riggers with set 6 and 8 feet down. All orange, all green or Willy peanut flies and they all producing. 

If the Coho are going to really set up the next three weeks are going to be very good and it looks like it is starting to. The water in 200 plus is still a little too cold but it could be soon when a line of fish sets up there too. The catches have been good and double digits, with some limits. This is the best tome for good salmon catches and the weather is stating to become really nice. Lake Michigan charter fishing is a fun experience any time but after being stuck at home and social distancing for the last 3 months this is a great way to have fun. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get out on the water, catch some fish and drink your favorite beverage. The fish are biting now! Below is some pictures for recent catches and a 25 pound Lake trout we caught Monday. There is also a picture of our top Coho fly.

The best time of the year to catch big numbers of salmon has arrived. Mid-May through Mid-July is Coho salmon time and along with some Chinook salmon is the best time to catch salmon in numbers. We hope all of our customers are staying healthy amidst the COVID-19 outbreak but I don't want to talk too much about this, since that is all anyone is talking about. We know what it is and what to do to prevent it. The state of Wisconsin is finally easing restrictions and for the most part charter fishing is open on Lake Michigan for the Wisconsin side. Silver King Charters will be doing its part to keep you safe. We will be disinfecting the boat after each trip, provided plenty of hand sanitizer and the crew will be wearing face masks when needed. We will encourage all our customers to bring masks and use when needed. We believe charter fishing on Lake Michigan can be done safely and with many other events cancelled this summer it is a great way to have some fun. You can drink adult beverages too! 

We have been out several times in the last ten days and we have been able to put Coho in the boat each time. We have not been able to get into a groove yet but we are about to hit the water hard now. What we can say is there is a lot of bait around. Nearshore at times the graph cannot read bottom. We were in 50 feet of water and our graph read 20 feet for a long time. I though the thing was broken but we also snagged 12 alewives during this period. We ran several Coho set ups and had consistent action on them. The water around the Milwaukee harbor has been too muddy to fish, along with the shoreline, so we found the best action to be in 40 to 60 feet of water. This is were the water clarity began to turn green. We caught Coho, Chinook and Lake trout in this depth. The action was from the filtration plant up to Fox Point. The surface water temperature was around 44 degrees but Friday it was up to 49 degrees and 44 degrees down 30 feet. We did go out to 200 feet one day straight out the north gap and found surface temperatures at 39 degrees. This was a week ago and I am sure it has warmed up some. 

We took the Coho salmon on orange dodgers and Gen X or green peanut flies. We had this on a rigger two dipsies set at 30 feet on the outside and 20 feet on the inside. We had 3 mono boards, with 5/8 ounce keel weights, set 20, 40 and 50 feet back from the boards. All of these set ups took Coho. We have not had our normal time on the water and our catch rate on Coho salmon is down but the potential is there to boat double digit catches of Coho salmon right now out of Milwaukee. If the water clears up a little close to shore there could be a great bite but with the strong east and northeast winds plus the rain I think offshore will be the answer this Memorial Day weekend. We have been catching some nice Chinook salmon each time out and Friday we boated 4 Kings all over 15 pounds. These fish are very healthy and put up and very tough fight. We have been running some flasher and fly sets but the Chinook want spoons. The UV Blue Dolphin and Gold Hud Stinger spoons in the Stingray size are the ticket. Riggers set from 40 to 55 feet down and 5 or 7 color leadcores are the best set ups right now. Of course the Lake trout are being caught and I believe if we targeted them specifically we could take 20 trout easily in a trip. A good back up for sure. But we want to catch salmon right now. 

After this blow that is happening right now we will try out deep. Over the years out of Milwaukee somewhere between 150 to 250 feet or water can be an amazing bite for Coho salmon and Memorial Day weekend usually starts it off. The water is warming up, the bait is everywhere and we are already catching good numbers of salmon. Now it is time to dial in on them and the end of this upcoming week is shaping up to be a good one for fishing starting Thursday. We understand there is a lot gong on and it is affecting all business. This is the first Memorial Day that we have any spots open in a long time. We think the weather and the fishing are going to be good. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 and lets start having some fun catching fish and drinking the beverage of your choice. We will fillet your fish and you can grill them out that night. 

I have attached a few pictures of fish we have caught recently, a picture of our favorite peanut fly and the stocking numbers for Lake Michigan in 2019. The overall number is the lowest since in many years, maybe going back into the 1970's, but some of this decline is due to reduction in Lake trout stocking and this is a good thing. All the species are at low numbers to previous years, with the exception of Rainbow trout. There is a lot to be said about these numbers but the most important thing to be noted is the health of the salmon and trout in the lake currently. You don't catch a Chinook salmon that is 20 to 30 pounds that are eating water, so the reductions in stocking over the last 13 years have helped. It is now time to start putting more fish in the lake and reducing Lake trout stocking. With 2.4 million Lake trout stocked in 2019, which was lowest Lake trout stoking since 2004, and the increase stocking of Chinook salmon of 2.3 million lake wide in 2020 we are heading in the right direction. Not sure but 2.5 million Chinook, 2.5 million Coho, 1.5 million Brown trout, 2 million Rainbow trout and 2 million Lake trout stocked each year seems to be good numbers for a healthy and productive fishery in the lakes current state, 

We should be at the beginning of the best Lake Michigan charter fishing for salmon of the entire year. The fishing is there but the go ahead by the states is not. There is some hope though as Ohio opened up chatter fishing on Lake Erie. We believe sometime this month we will get the go ahead for our Wisconsin Governor. We were out fishing Saturday and had some Coho action off Wind Point in 89 to 90 feet. There has been good or even great Coho action south of Wind Point in 50 feet or less. Been a good start for sure down south and we expect a very good season on Coho salmon, unlike last year. The water was 42 degrees at the surface and 39 degrees down 30 feet. We fished in deeper water due to water clarity in shallow. The bait is loaded in close as the alewives have moved in. The smelt run keeps improving each year and the alewives that have showed certainly have not dropped off from last year. We are slipped at South Milwaukee Yacht Club. I have a huge thanks out to these guys for letting us slip at the marina. We still cannot slip at McKinley marina as it is the only marina not open on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan. We hope they open soon. So there is a lot of stuff going on with COVID-19 right now but the fish, lake and the rest of nature just keeps rolling. 

We have been out several times since early April. We have run Coho set ups each time but yesterday was the first day they were hit. Orange dodgers and green or Gen-X peanut flies were hit. Boards with 5/8 ounce keep weights about 30 feet back from the board or on mono dipsies 30 feet out on the line counter were all hit. We had about 10 bites and boated only 5 Coho but they were decent size compared to early April. We ran a smoked dodger and Milwaukee Special spin & glow on the bottom for 20 minutes and took 2 Lake trout. That was it but we will start fishing on a more regular basis now. 

Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467. We will be running trips soon and that great Coho action we are use to seen at this time of year is shaping up to be very good. I know there is still a lot of uncertainty in the air with the virus issues but we are going to have to get on with our lives soon and due to all the cancellations of concerts, sports and festivals you have to do something fun. Lake Michigan Charter fishing will be back and if is a fun adventure. You can also enjoy some adult beverages with family and friends, while catching fish. I don't have much in pictures from yesterday but I kept a few Coho salmon from the trip and ate them last night. Simple nothing better than Coho caught that day. 

Well April is almost finished and I should be writing about the best April in years but instead we are still waiting on our go papers from the Governor. The weather and the fishing was so right this April and the few times we went out we caught fish with ease. The Coho bite is on fire sown south and it is torture not to be able to take people out. Of course their a lot of people suffering right now both health wise and economic wise with the COVID-19 pandemic. But we cannot wait to take people fishing and forget about it for just a little while and catch some fish. Things are stating to loosen up as state parks and boat launches open up. We expect they will let us charter soon and I am sure there will be restriction put on us. We want to make sure our customers are safe when they fish with us so the boat will be wiped with down disinfectants after each trip, we will have hand soap, we will be wearing masks until things are under control. We want you to feel safe and we want to feel safe too so make sure everyone in your crew does not have flu like conditions when you come. So we just have to wait until the state lets us start chartering. 

We have been out and things are looking up. The Coho bite looks to be a good one this year. The Chinooks that are around look healthy and big. There is still a good Brown trout bite and of course plenty of Lake trout, if you can believe it. The bite down in Illinois has been real good for Coho and we have already been catching them in Milwaukee but the big schools are not here just yet. Water temperatures are warm and we have seen 45 degrees on the surface near shore. It is set up good and waiting for our customers to catch a lot of fish. I don not know when we will be able to start but the earliest is May 1st. We hope it is not much longer than this. We believe we can run trips safely with minimal risk of spreading the virus. Let us just say that going to the grocery store is probably 10.000 times worse. 

Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a trip and we will get you catching fish. We will play whatever music you want on SirusXM and bring something to drink, kick back and enjoy life. We will fish hard for you and make your time away from all of the virus stuff special. The pictures are from our last fun trip. I have my mask on and it really was not that bad. I am holding a 15 pound Chinook salmon. I think we will catch a few more salmon Milwaukee charter fishing this year.

Well COVID-19 has put the skids on just about everything. Lake Michigan charter fishing has been shutdown. For Wisconsin this will not be revisited until late April and then we will see. The most important thing I could say in this report is Social Distancing!! Do it and we will be back in business sooner for all business. We know that it will be sometime before stadiums are full, festivals are a go and live concerts start to happen but for charter fishing I think we will be back sooner. The great thing is it is a small group of your choosing. I know people will be itching to get out and do stuff. Lake Michigan charter fishing is the ticket. You get outside, catch fish and have a few beverages with friends and family. The best fishing of the year is in front of us and we have the boat in the water. My brother and I have fished a couple of times and it has been good. A mixed bag of Brown trout and Coho salmon. The water temperature has been in the low forties where we have fished. We have worked the shoreline from the Oak Creek power plant to the Main gap of the Milwaukee harbor and have caught fish everywhere. We finally have a good spring and the fish are biting and we cannot run a trip. Well there are a lot of people suffering worse and we just keep it in perspective. 

The little fishing we have done has been in 20 feet or less along the shore, with the exception of the harbor gaps. The closer to shore the better. We have heard Flicker Shads are the way to go but we don't like to mess around with that. We ran all spoons, with a couple of orange dodgers and peanut flies out. We are only running 6 rods, so it is a little tougher to dial in to a hot bite. The one color leadcores were the best by far. We had small copper Mass Confusion Stingers on these and these rods where hot. We caught both Coho salmon and Brown trout on them. The gold NBK green was good on a two color. We ran the orange dodgers on a dipsy and mono board and had just one hit on them over the last two trips. It was board heavy bite and very close to shore. We have seen a lot of Coho salmon caught and hopefully this translates into a great May and June for them. Water is warm for this time of year and we have seen some good amounts of bait. The smelt run seems to be decent for where it fell to. But the police shut this down when the groups of people grew to big.

So it is hard to say when we will be able to start Lake Michigan charter fishing up. I think sooner than later. We are hoping early May. When the state says go we are in the water already ans set to fish. Bring the beverage of your choice, some good friends and be ready to catch fish. We will filet them and you can have fresh fish on the grill that night. I have a feeling there will not be a lot of the bigger events happening this summer but you will be able to get on the water and catch salmon and trout. Lets get through this nasty virus asap and give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467. We will be rolling right through October. Going to make this a fun season! Picture of a rain storm that hit as the sun was popping out and a picture of a 33 pound Brown trout we caught in April 2017 around this time. Stay healthy and safe. 

We hope to have the boat in early this year. The goal is March 27th and fishing on March 28th. The reason we think this will happen is there has not been much ice around. Lake Michigan has been less than 20 percent covered with ice at any time this winter and right now in the southern end of the lake it is just harbors that have ice. There have only been 5 years since 1975 with the same or less ice coverage during a winter. So unless we get an unexpected long freeze we will be fishing early. The benefits to these less cold winters are survival of little stuff in the lake. Young stocked fish and fish that just hatched last spring. The lake level is also at an all time high for this time of year and was at record highs all last year. This means that more nutrients is getting in the lake. This is a good combination for survival. We saw bigger fish last season and it looks like this trend should continue. A mild winter should only improve this trend. Milwaukee charter fishing in April is our best month for Brown trout fishing. We have had Aprils where we had some great Coho and even Chinook catches but normally we are strong on Brown trout and Lake trout. 

We are typically fishing close to shore or in and around the Milwaukee harbor in 15 to 40 feet of water. The harbor and river hold warmer water and have better action. We will also fish the Oak Creek power plant when weather permits. This also has warm water discharges. Lake Michigan is already warmer than usually right now. We are typically running boards with 1, 2, and 3 color leadcores. We also run mono dipsy's and shallow downriggers. We like to use spoons this time or year but stick baits are also effective. Our favorite spoons Stinger Gold Hud, UV Blue Dolphin, NBK Green and the Copper Mass Confusion. We catch a lot of Brown trout on these spoons. The Brown trout run between 2 to 12 pounds and we have caught many in that went 15 pounds or more. Our biggest in April was 33 pounds. When the water sets up right this can be as productive as any time during the entire season. 

It is setting up for an early bite this year although it still may be cold out while we are fishing the action should warm you up. Dress warm and give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467 to get in on the best Brown trout action of the year during April. This is one of my favorite times of the year to fish. We will be in Milwaukee the entire month. I attached a couple of pictures of fish caught the first week of April in past years. 

Silver King Charters is getting ready for the 2020 season, which is only 50 days away. Last April we had some great catches of Brown trout and look forward to that early spring action this year that may start the last week of March. To all that fish with us I am sure we have brought up the shortage of Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan. In 2013 it was decided that the lake could no longer sustain the current stocking levels of Chinook, which was 3.24 million stocked in 2012. The alewife population was down and the thought was natural reproduction of Chinook salmon account for more than half the population of Chinook in Lake Michigan. By 2018 there was talk of eliminating Chinook stocking in Lake Michigan completely. A goal of some groups for many years. But many fought back on this idea and even asked for increases. During the 2018 and 2019 seasons the Chinook that were caught were big. A 20 pound Chinook became average and 30 pound Chinooks were the new big fish. It was obvious that some of the facts we were told were off about bait population and natural reproduction. Yes the fish were bigger but the catch rate was way down. Lake Huron, which is connected to Lake Michigan and fish can swim back and forth from did crash and the Chinook population did fall to almost nothing due to very little food. It was a good idea to take steps to prevent the same from happening in Lake Michigan. But for now it looks as if Lake Michigan has reached a balance with the mussel invasion and more fish can be put back into the lake. So what does this mean for the 2020 stockings. Well do to a lot of pressure from groups in Wisconsin, primarily the WLBA the stocking reductions were halted and now will be increased. We were dangerously close to having no Chinooks stocked but the tide has turned. The combined stocking of all four states surrounding Lake Michigan for Chinook salmon will now be at least 2.2 million, which is up from the all time low in 2017 of 1.37 million. This is a big increase and we have not seen this many Chinooks stocked since 2012. There were many who were involved in this increase but I believe if the WLBA did not exist then neither would Chinook stocking in Lake Michigan. Silver King Charters is a huge supported of them.

The stocked fish in 2020 will not help our catch rate this season but for seasons to come it will only get better. Lake trout stocking, which has been incredibly reckless over the last 15 years is still a problem. The Lake trout stocking for the first time in years has been reduced a small amount but one can only imagine how many are in the lake currently. I can say this with certainty that if you added up all the Brown trout, Coho, Chinook and Rainbow trout in the lake currently it would not come close to equaling the Lake trout heard and that is way under stating it. Lake trout live for a long time, eat constantly and have several restricted areas you cannot fish for them. There should be no more than 2 million total a year stocked in the lake! 

Lake Michigan charter fishing has some how weathered several major crisis over the years but still remains a world class fishery and for the immediate future things are looking up. With the way last year ended, with and incredible Chinook bite we are looking for some what of an improved King bite in 2020. Lake Michigan has not come close to freezing over and an early spring is almost certain. At least one where we can get in the water. The early bite of April is one of my favorite times to fish, with short run times and the best Brown trout fishing of the year. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get on the books for some Milwaukee charter fishing in 2020. The pictures are a sunrise and sunset from a couple of days ago. There is barely any ice left in the harbor now. 

The boat is out of the water and in storage but before we pulled it we had the best 3 weeks of salmon fishing of 2019. The Chinook fishing was at its best from early October right up to October 31st when the door shut with very cold temperatures and a snow storm. This was the best stretch of Chinook fishing we had for Milwaukee charter fishing all season. Leading into this stretch are best trip for Kings was 7 fish in one trip and this only happened once. During this period our worst catch in a trip on Kings was 8 fish. We limited out on all trips after October 5th except for two trips and the last trip of the year we boated 30 fish, with 25 of them being Chinook salmon. The action was constant and quick. Every day kept getting better as more bait and more salmon kept coming into the area. It was common to boat 6 to 8 Chinooks over 13 pounds and many weighed 15 to 18 pounds. The bait was diverse too. We found Alewives, Shad, Shiners, Bloaters, Sculpin, small Whitefish and even a Smelt. These fish were loaded with bait and there was a lot of it around. It seemed more salmon came into the area through the month and it just kept getting better. It reminded me of what happened in the southern end of the Michigan side two years ago during May but that seemed better with bigger fish. But it was something close to that action as fish lined up right off Milwaukee. Because it was October not as many boats were out but on one Saturday I counted 40 boats and I hadn't seen that many since August. Many people asked me what this means for next year. This is a big lake and most of it is never fished. With fewer fish stocked the area you fish has to get lucky to have the right conditions and then schools of fish show up like this off your port. I remember a few years back when there was a huge school of Coho salmon off Port Washington in May that lasted several weeks. If the bait and conditions are right fish will fill into an area and make it a very hot bite. This was common years ago. So next spring there is always hope this could happen again but what I took out of this is the Chinook salmon are going to be healthy and big when they are around to catch. Lets hope that bait sticks around at the level it was in October. When the snow and cold hit on Halloween the water temperature dropped from 46 degrees to 42 degrees from the top down 100 feet. The bait and fish disappeared and we were back to Lake trout. Just like that it blew away but it lasted 3 weeks. Best King fishing I have seen in several years. 

Our spread and location did not change through this period. Many said we forgot how to catch Chinooks because of all the Lake trout we have boated. I began to wonder myself but you can't fish for what is not there. But once I knew there was a fair amount of Chinook around the spread was dialed by the second trip. We like to go hard with a set up once we see something the Kings like. Around Brew City there was a good Chinook bite and we used all green flashers with my brothers fly. In October we ran the white Hot Spot little boy blue flasher with the Howie little boy blue fly on all riggers and wire divers. The more chewed up the fly the better they worked as usual. The set on riggers was 40, 50, 80 and 100 feet down in 100 to 130 feet of water. The wire divers were at 150 feet on the line counter with magnum divers set at a number 2 setting. On the boards we used spoons. Easier to reel and very productive. We only go to flashers on the boards if we really need to. We ran Stinger stingray gold huds on all the board rods. We ran copper at 150, 250, 300 and 350 feet. Our bigger Kings came off these boards but are faster bite came on the flies. Three straight weeks that is what we ran and it was very productive. We took a few Lake trout and Brown trout during this period. There were actually a fair number of Seafer's around and we boated one to 3 every trip. 

What a way to end a challenging season. I will break the season down over the next several months. Silver King Charters will be back in the water on April 1st 2020 and we are already booking trips. Remember that Saturdays go quick. Salmon-A-Rama has only 6 spots left and this runs form July 11 through July 19. We hope mother nature is a little more fair in 2020 but as I right this the Milwaukee river has ice on it. Call us at 414-460-1467 to book a trip for 2020. There were some 30 pound fish caught in 2019 and from what we saw in October the trend will continue. I have attached pictures from the amazing Chinook bite in October, the snow storm that ended it and the last fish of the season. 

Well after boating a 31 pound Chinook salmon on August 30th the Chinook return to the Milwaukee harbor has been less than special for sure. We have boated no more than three mature Chinook salmon on any one trip in the harbor. The best effort was three Chinooks in a trip. The size has been very good, with fish going 16 to 25 pounds. We hope for another wave of fish before it is all done. The next several days will be the best hope for better results. The water temperature and water clarity have been perfect for fish to bite. The surface temperature is no more that 60 degrees and at times we have seen 48 degrees at the bottom near the gaps. The numbers are just not there. This year and next are low stocking numbers for Chinook and this is showing up now in a big way. We have also been out fishing Lake trout in 100 foot depth and when the wind is not hollowing form one direction or another this bite has been very good for the first couple of hours each morning. We have also fished the Green Can or Milwaukee reef. This has been hit and miss but when this fish are around it delivers a good mixed bag. A lot of shaker or small 12" to 14" range fish are around too.

For the  Chinook bite we have liked J-Plugs that have silver and lime green on them. We also like green flashers with green or bull frog flies. The Gold Hud has also produced on 2 and 3 color boards. We had early success in the North Gap and Main Gap but for the last several days you needed to be in the river channel or turning basin to get Chinook. I think a few more waves of fish are still to come. The Lake trout are from 43.04 to 42.59 from 90 to 120 feet of water. The riggers on the bottom with smoke or silver dodgers and the Milwaukee Special spin and glows have been best. The gold Hud Stinger on 3 to 10 color leadcores are catching a mixed bag of all species. The water is cold and 50 feet down is usually 48 degrees. The Green Can is where we have found the warmest water and at times it is 59 degrees down 60 feet. The morning bite has been far better then midday fishing. We have been catching a lot of magnum shakers of Coho and Chinook salmon. These fish have for the most part hit a size to keep on trips and this is good to see the young fish growing in size their first year in the lake. Some of the Coho are almost to very early spring time weight. The Chinooks are very decent size. 

We looked at the rest of September and October to be heavy on Lake trout, Brown trout and magnum Coho and Chinook ranging in 1.5 to 2.5 pounds. The lake has already begun to cool down considerable and it really never did warm up much anyway. This will help the nearshore bite that can be good fishing in the fall for many species. We still have some attempts at the Harbor fish before they spawn too. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a fall trip or a trip in 2020. We will be fishing until November 4th when the boat will be pulled out. I have some September pictures attached, with several Lake trout over 20 pounds and a nice Brown trout weighing 19 pounds. We were also lucky to have Santana Dotson and Gilbert Brown aboard from the 1996 Green Bay Packer Super Bowl team. They were incredible players and just as good at fishing. They caught their limit and Santana landed at 23 pound Lake trout. Gilbert finished the limit with a 11 pound Coho salmon. Amazing experience and great guys. The fish look small next to those guys. Have a picture of a Sheephead too. We have caught quit a few of these over the last several years. 

I just wrote a report on 30 pound fish and that we thought this September we could add to the collection because of all the big Kings around this year. It only took until this morning to do it. We boated a 31 pound Chinook salmon. This is our biggest Chinook ever boated and our second biggest a 30.6 pound Chinook happen this June. This is a year for Big Kings and they are just starting to come back to the ports they were stocked to spawn. We will boat a many Chinook in the next several weeks in the 20 pound range and now that we have  the 30 pound Chinook we hoped for we don't want to stop now. This fish was already very dark for August but the meat on these fish is still very good right now. The water temperature is perfect for harbor and just outside the Milwaukee harbor. It has been several years since we have had this good of conditions and the fall run is just starting up. We don't expect to boat big numbers during this period but we do expect some big fish. 

This fish hit a rigger down 18 feet with a number 3 Mongoose J-Plug. We had another one hit a wire dipsy with a green flasher and Willy fly on it set at 35 on the line counter. Another hit the same plug down 30 feet. We have two Kings hit a Gold Hud Stinger down 15 on a rigger. Not a lot of bites but it just set up today and should get better over the next week. These fish are fighting like crazy and it is truly combat fishing in shallow water. The west winds are cooling the water down and the fish are very active because of this. The water clarity was not the best the past two days due to big waves and rain but it is clearing up fast.

Give Silver King Charters a call over at 414-460-1467 to get in on some great early September action for Big Chinooks or great Lake trout fishing. Milwaukee charter fishing will see some big fish over the next two weeks. I have attached some pictures of the big King caught by Troy and his son Charlie. My brother Willy was the captain and is a big fish catcher.

We should be fishing but instead I am posting a report. We have not fished since Wednesday when we took back to back limits. We probably could have gone a couple of times over the last 4 days but with big wind from the north, then northeast, then east and now southeast the conditions were never all that inviting. The best seas were 2 to 3 feet and coming from two directions. As of now it may be a couple of more days before we go due to big south and then west winds. It usually drops some with wind switches but this is a bad stretch. The good thing is that there is still enough cold water around and with the west wind about to hit this could set up the harbor area for some very good fishing. All the big Chinooks around are getting ready to stage and spawn. Then next three weeks are a great time to catch big Kings if the water temperature is not too warm. It has been a cold water year and this could help us out. Right now it is 48 degrees down 62 feet at the Atwater buoy. This is the warmest time of the year for Lake Michigan and a lot goes into warming the lake up. The cold water hurt us at times this year, mainly with the Coho salmon bite. But it could really help out early September. We hope for not too cold and long of a winter, along with a warmer spring to help out next year. The Lake trout bite straight out of Milwaukee has been very good over the last this bite lasted until early October. Big trout and decent numbers. There are a lot of small Chinooks around to help out the catch. 

We have been fishing from 43.05 to 42,57 in 100 to 110 feet of water. We keep moving further north to get away from boats and it doesn't matter the bite is still good. Spin and glows with smoke dodgers near the bottom have been the ticket. We have boated a few Chinook too and a green flasher with a Howie Bull Frog fly down 50 to 70 feet has been best for us. The board rods have not been to productive but we are trolling slow for the trout. The couple of trips ran this last 4 days did the same and so the trout have not been affected by the blows. We are hoping by next weekend there will be enough cold water around the Milwaukee harbor gaps to produce a good Chinook bite. They will be coming in regardless but cooler water makes a better bite. The Kings fight real hard around the gaps and this year could be ridiculous. Now there have been over 10.000 30 pound Chinooks boated this year but all kidding aside there is a good chance this fall to boat a 30 plus pound Chinook. Probably the best chance in many years and we hope to boat one. 

Why are there some many big Chinook around. Lots of stocking and biology to this question. The main reason is the Alewive population is up and the Chinook stocking is at an all time low. This sets up pretty good for big fish lake wide. For the last 14 years the mumber one stocked fish in Lake Michigan was Lake trout. It still is this year but for the first time in a long time the Lake trout stocking was reduced to 2.7 million instead of 3.5 million. The Chinook stocking was down to 1.2 million as of last year and the goal as of 3 year ago was to reduce this to 400,000 and then maybe none. Thanks to a lot of people and the WLBA Wisconsin said the was too much and fought against the reduction. The hope is after fall fish management meetings the Chinook stocking goes back up. We believe that a stocking of 2 million Lake trout and Chinook salmon would give a good balance for sport fishing and the lakes ecosystem. Then keeping the Coho, Rainbow and maybe increase the Brown trout some. The key is the Lake trout that is managed by the Federal Government and treaties with the Indian tribes. We also believe for the next several years the limit for Lake trout should be 5 fish lake wide to help reduce the over population. Lake trout and Chinook salmon are the hardest on the bait fish and must be managed together to keep our fishery strong for everyone who fished Lake Michigan. Bottom line some of what the fishery managers did was very solid and led to a great year for big fish. Before I leave the subject there is no reason the refuge or mid lake reef should not be open to fish Lake trout. Only a couple of ports can reach it and few would burn the gas to do so unless fishing was very tough. It would take a fleet of boats to put a dent in the Lake trout on this reef. That said what is next.

The next several weeks are going to be good fishing. Chances to catch big salmon before they start to spawn. Good Lake trout action and one of the better times to catch Brown trout. So many years we know the water is going to be too warm to make this happen around the harbor. Our concern now is boat traffic. Weekdays are the best days to fish this time of year for reduced boat traffic. This September will as always have its wind issues but when we get out we expect good things. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a Lake Michigan charter fishing trip for September and October. We hope to run charters into the first weekend of November. We tried last year and did not work out with the weather. I have a picture of our last trip on Wednesday. We expect this action to continue. I have also attached pictures of the four 30 plus pound fish we have caught charter fishing. I think we have over 20 fish boated between 28 and just under 30 pounds. It is very special to crack the 30 pound mark. There are two Brown trout. I have a two pictures of one of those Brown trout. I had to hole that one and a 12 year old caught it. There is a Chinook and the whole family fought this fish at one time or another. Finally the epic Lake trout that when it hit Colin could not get the wire dipsy out of the rod holder for almost a minute. We want to catch our 5th 30 pound fish this fall.

The month started out with a bang on the Silver King. We boated a 33.6 pound Lake trout on August 1st. This was our first Lake trout over 30 pounds and considering how many my brother and I have boated over the years it is hard to believe it took this long. We have now boated three species over 30 pounds: 2 Brown trout and one Chinook, along with this Lake trout. The trilogy is complete. The Lake trout and Chinook bite started out very good this month. I would say it was the second best stretch this year out of Milwaukee for Chinook fishing. Mid June was probably the best Chinook action with a lot of big Kings caught for around ten days and then the beginning of Salmon-A-Rama was solid too on Kings. The stretch in early August saw Chinook from the two year old, three year old and four year old class. This made for better numbers caught. Good Lake trout fishing was found just below these fish. We worked 60 to 90 feet of water and the best bite was 10 miles north of Milwaukee. We did have a great Lake trout bite straight out of the Milwaukee Harbor in 100 to 110 feet of water. As the water became colder the bite in close became tough and the Lake trout spread out. We moved offshore in 170 to 250 feet where there was a good bite for Steelhead, Coho salmon and of course Lake trout. The first half of August led to an average of 11 fish per trip and this just seems to be the norm for 2019 Milwaukee charter fishing. The bite is solid but not outstanding. The bigger fish have made this a special season. We won Brew City finally and I have a chapter on this followed by the rest of what happen so far in August. 

On August 3rd we fished the Brew City Salmon Tournament out of Milwaukee. This is the 19th year of the tournament and is the biggest one day salmon and trout tournament on Lake Michigan. We average 100 boats each year, pay out the top 20 boats, have 25 big fish prizes and all prizes are cash. Go to the www.glsfclub.com to see results and information. We need to get this club to join the WLBA! We have finished four times in 2nd place, three times in 3rd place, twice in 5th place, once in 7th place, twice in 9th place and once in 10th place. We finally won it this year. We were the first boat in by an hour and thought for sure we were somewhere in between 2nd and 7th place based on what we were hearing from others fishing that day. We went 19 for 20 and our top 10 fish weighed 123 pounds and this was good enough to get it done.

We started Lake trout fishing and after destroying the Lake trout for a week leading into the tournament it was a tough bite for us the day of the tournament. We caught 6 Lake trout but we got the right 4 we needed. We had a 15.5 pound average on our top 4 Lake trout. You can only weigh in 4 Lake trout out of the 10 fish you can weigh in. We finished Lake trout fishing in one hour and 15 minutes. These fish were caught between 43.01 and 42.58 in 105 feet of water. Smoked dodgers and spin and glows on two riggers and two wire dipsies. We fished for salmon on the dipsies for 10 minutes to start in hopes of catching a silver fish but switched quickly to spin & glows on these. Our first fish was a Coho on the rigger in the first 5 minutes. We hoped to catch at least one silver fish while Lake trout fishing. We pulled a Rainbow on a 7 color leadore, using a Mongolian Green Moonshine. So we left trout fishing with 2 silver fish and a 15.5lb Lake trout average after an hour and 15 minutes. Great start and plent of time to catch 4 more silver fish, so we had 10 to weigh in.

We motored to 43.10 in 80 feet of water or 12 miles north. The best salmon fishing in the area was there. We decided to Lake trout fish first because most of the boats headed north to fish. We felt the bite would be tough to start with the heavy boat traffic and that boats would clear out when we got up there. They did. We trolled for an hour and 5 minutes before we had our first hit on a wire dipsy, which we lost. At this point we were running all green flashers and the famous Willy fly, which my brother ties, on downriggers 35, 45 and 60 feet down, dipsies and two copper rods at 150 and 200 feet. We had a 5 and 7 color with spoons. Shortly after we lost the first and only fish lost of the day we caught 4 silver fish in less than 15 minutes. Two on the up riggers, one on a wire dipsy set at 70 feet on the line counter and one on a 7 color. One fish was a 12" Chinook, another was a 10lb Coho and the other two were 8 and 4 pound Chinooks. This was at 9:00AM. We had our 10 fish and had 4 spots left to upgrade because we kept an extra Lake trout from earlier. We worked 85 - 90 feet from 43.12.5 to 43.14 for all the fish we boated up north. We caught another Lake trout on a 10 color with a Gold Star Green Spatter and another 12" Chinook. Both were released. We then caught a 12 pound Rainbow on a 7 color, with the Moonshine again. We took a 10 and 8 pound Chinook on the 35 and 45 riggers. Our last fish was a 12 pound Chinook on a wire dipsy set at 70 feet. We had 15 fish in the box at 11:00AM and were at the dock by 11:30AM. Never thought the total weight of 123 pounds would hold but by 2:00PM after all boats weighed in we won. Cannot believe it! Very special moment for my brother and I. I attribute the win to catching medium size fish in the 8 to 12 pound range for our silver fish instead of breaking off 20 plus pound Kings, which many did that day. It also helped to have at 15 plus pound average on Lake trout. I thought after catching a 33 pound Lake trout 2 days earlier our luck was spent. We took second place in the Rainbow and Coho divisions too. Last year we took 3rd place and moved 3 time to do it. Both years we were under power almost as much as we fished. You have to move from spot to spot to get what you need on this lake these days.

Next year the Brew City would like to do a Pro/AM tournament on the weekend of August 8th, 2020. The Pro division would pay out $12000 for 1st, $5000 for 2nd and $3000 for 3rd place. The only way this happens as if we get 20 boats to commit to the Pro division by January 1, 2020. It would be a 2 day Friday/Saturday tournament for the Pros. The entry would be $1000 for each Pro boat. We will see if we can make it happen. 

Since Brew City we spent a week fishing up north for a mixed bag of Chinook, Lake trout, Rainbow and Coho salmon. Same spread and location as Brew City. We fished deeper water for several days in the 150 to 250 range for Rainbows and Lake trout, using mostly spoons on leadcores from 3 to 10 color. Gold Hud and Orange Crush Gold Singer spoons were best as they have been offshore all year. We are currently back in our Lake trout spot crushing the Lake trout in 100 feet of water, catching limit or near limit catches. Big trout too.

Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to get in on early September Milwaukee charter fishing. We are hoping for some cool water and big Chinook salmon. This is the year of the big Chinook and they will be coming into to spawn soon. There was a 40 pound Chinook caught a week ago down in the southern end of Lake Michigan. We want another 30 pound Chinook and this is the time to do it. We also made it on the news with a 3 hour spot last Monday on Fox 6 Morning Wake Up. They did 5 spots of live footage of us fishing. I would like to thank Brain of Fox 6 and all those who produced it. You guys did a very professional job. Check it out on the web by looking up Fox 6 Morning Wake Up Live. Look for Silver King Charters. I made sure to pug all the ports and the fishery as a whole. I have attached multiple pictures of the 33 pound Lake trout, multiple pictures of the Brew City victory, the Fox 6 crew on the boat and other August pictures. We also caught our 2nd Pink salmon of the year. 

July was a solid month for Lake Michigan charter fishing. Again we were a little light on catch per trip at 11 fish a trip but it was for the most part consistent action. We started out the month with some good Chinook action and when the Kings slowed down we had consistent Lake trout and offshore for Coho, Rainbow, Lake trout and occasional Chinook. The theme remains big fish. We rolled into Salmon-A-Rama week with the intent of landing a big King. Although a couple 30 plus pound Chinook where caught off Milwaukee the King bite slowed by mid month. The eventual winning fish for Salmon-A-Rama was caught out of our port. We switched to Lake trout by the middle of Salmon-A-Rama and landed 5th and 6th place in the lake wide tournament, with two 21 pound Lake trout. This is the 8th consecutive year we have placed multiple charter customers on the salmon-a-rama board that stuck until the end and won them money. We fished offshore in 200 plus feet of water for much of the middle of July but the last week things set up in the 50 to 90 foot range and we started catch big Chinook and Lake trout again as the water cooled. Most of the last 10 years a 20 pound Chinook would be a really nice Chinook and it still is. In 2019 the 30 pound Kings are the ones to brag about. Many have been boated in all ports around Lake Michigan and it is only a matter of time before a 40 pound fish is caught. We boated a 31 pound King in June. Last year there were two 30 pound Chinook caught during Salmon-a-rama and this year there were nine. Hope it is a trend because these fish are an incredible fight. 

So for our Chinook bite when fishing from 60 to 120 feet of water has been about the green flashers and either Bull Frog Howie flies or the Willy fly. We run a 27" lead with 40 lb pink Ande flourcarbon leader. We like either Hot Spot, Pro Troll or Spin Doctors. Green with crushed ice tape on one side and silver on the other. This has been our top producer. The meat rigs worked realy good last year but not so much this year. Could be the meat we are using but not much success. The flasher flies are best on dipsies, up riggers and copper set ups. Our 150 to 250 coopers. For offshore it is spoons on 2 to 10 color leadcores. We like the Gold Hud, UV Green Dolphin and the Orange Crush Gold stingers the best. Green flasher flies on the dipsies and up riggers. Our deep riggers are white flashers, with bull frog flies. For the Lake trout fishing it is all smoke dodgers and spin and glows. We like the Milwaukee Special or the Lucky Charm. We have not had monster numbers this year but 8 to 12 fish catches have been very consistent out of Milwaukee this year. We have not had to deal with warm water very deep in the water column this year yet either. 

We are getting ready for Brew City this week and the Chinook bite has picked up. Hoping for the best. Give Silver King Charters a cal at 414-460-1467 to book an August trip and get in on some King action before the big ones start to spawn. I have attach some pictures from July. One shows a big Lamprey on a Chinook. Have not seen to many of these this year but this is one of the biggest I have seen. Another is a picture of our boat fishing at sunrise. 

Well this is a report I did not want to post. Why? The lack of Coho salmon caught during our most productive time to fish. The reason was cold water and lack of fish movement. This was our lowest catch total for Coho salmon in 20 years over this time period and it was by a large margin. Fish wouldn't cross over from the Michigan side or come in from out deep or come up from the southern end of Lake Michigan due to cold water temperatures and a very late spring. It was only by late June we were able to take off our winter jackets out on the lake. The best Coho action was in the very southern end of the Lake Michigan and if I had an Illinois charter license I think I would have gone. I hope next year at this time we will be back to normal but I don't know what normal is right now. I am confident though we should be good in 2020. The good news is there are still lots of Coho salmon left because the pressure from many ports on them was not so great. This means more will be in the catch as the season progresses and some big ones too. That is the theme of the 2019 season. Big Fish! We have fished the lake a long time and we are starting to see the alewive population slowly coming back in good numbers where we fish. That means bigger fish. We have boated 20 fish over 20 pounds through June and this includes a 31 pound Chinook salmon. Fish don't grow that big without a lot of bait around. They aren't drinking water to get that big. We also have a 18 pound Rainbow this season and many Steelhead over 10 pounds along with 4 Lake trout over 20 pounds. 

So the total catch rate is at 10 fish a trip through June and at this time of the year we like to be 15 to 20 fish per trip. That is what Coho salmon do for the fishing in May and June. It should be noted that the Coho stocking was not down from previous years but it is a big lake and if things don't line up in your area of the lake it can really affected the bite. But when you through a 20 pound Chinook in the box, who cares about missing 8 Coho in a trip. The fights have been amazing. The fish are well fed and full of energy. We have runs after the hit of 100 to 600 feet of line. The opportunity is there to catch a big King on every trip. We have been fishing all over but finished June fishing in 100 feet of water for Chinook or offshore for a mix of Rainbow, Coho and Lake trout. The offshore bite in June was real good from 180 to 300 feet of water straight out of Milwaukee. The Chinook bite was solid for about 10 days in 100 feet just north of Milwaukee. Flasher flies on the riggers and wire dipsies were best for the Kings. White flashers and Howie Bull Frog flies worked best set from 40 to 75 feet below the surface. When offshore it was 2 through 8 color leadcores that worked best. Stinger orange crush gold spoons or UV green dolphin and the gold hud were the best spoons. We did boat several 12 pound Steelhead and one went 18lbs. I am way past due for July reports and I will go over the month and jump into August next week. 

Every year has its trade marks and 2019 is about big fish and Big King salmon is the highlight for sure. It has been a long time since a 20 pound Chinook was considered average. Throughout the lake there will be many Chinook caught over 25 pounds and into the 30 pound mark. The only question is can someone land a 40 pound King this year. Call Silver King charters for some fun summer Lake Michigan charter fishing at 414-460-1467. The first 3 pictures are of the 31 pound Chinook and the next one is of a 18 pound Rainbow. 

We are through May and a week into June. Unfortunately the Coho bite has been less than stellar. We have caught Coho salmon but the catch rate on them is down 70%. The problem is a very cold start to the season. We are still wearing winter jackets on the lake. The water has been slow to warm and has caused the movement of Coho salmon to be slow. The big schools are still way south. We still believe there will be some good Coho fishing to be had in June but the window will be shorter. We went to Racine for a weekend to better our catch rate and although it improved it was not much. Maybe 5 to 10 bites more a trip. The good news is the Rainbow trout bite has been very good. There is a good amount of them from 90 to 250 feet of water from Port Washington back to the state line. The Chinook bite has not been great but when you hook into one the fight is incredible. There have been multiple 25 pound Chinook caught. The size will be great on the Chinook this year. The other good thing is there is a lot of Alewive around and today at the dock we saw thousands in the harbor getting ready to spawn. The fish that are out there are healthy. 

So we are running a spread to target both Coho and Rainbow. Many of our fish are coming off high boards, using orange Luhr Jensen or Gold Star B&B dodgers followed by green peanut flies. This is accounting for 50% of our fish. The inside boards are 3 to 8 color Leadcores. Are favorite spoon is the Stinger Stingray Gold Hud. We also like the Gold Yellow Tux by Stinger. The riggers are spoons on the outside riggers at 20 to 25 feet down and the inside riggers are white flashers with Howie Green Krinke being the top producer followed by the Bull Frog. We run three dipsies with orange Coho set ups and one wire diver with the same thing on the riggers. All the dipsies seemed to collect 2 to 4 fish a trip. We are fishing in 150 to 250 feet of water for best catches. We are trolling a little fast too. The water is cold and we are in 49 to 42 degrees for the most part. It seems right now the colder the better. The Rainbow trout account for at least half the fish, then Coho, with some Lake trout and Chinook. We have had some in close action but it rarely last. 

There are still plenty of Coho salmon to be caught and we still should have a couple of knock out weeks on them but not like a normal season. The fishing has still been good and the best Coho bite is still to come along with monster King salmon. Give Silver King Charters a call at 414-460-1467. The fish are big this year and fighting real good. We are back in Milwaukee and probably will not go back to Racine unless the bite really picks up. We caught a Pink salmon last Monday. We have been catching more of these each year. This fish was accidentally stocking in Lake Superior many years ago and has naturally survived over the last 40 years. I have attached a picture.

Well it is the middle of May and this is Coho salmon time. The highest catch rate of the year. The problem is the water is still very cold. As of Tuesday we saw 41.5 degrees on the surface in 100 feet or 4 miles off shore. The middle of the lake it is the high 30's still. Late spring to say the least but warm air and sunny days warms up the surface fast and will move fish. Today we saw 46 degree surface water in the same spot we were Wednesday. The bait is all around so the fish just have to find the our bait and they will stick around. There have been some descent catches of Coho down south but just random catches for us in Milwaukee and Racine was not much better for Coho. We expect the Coho action to pick up real soon. Our Brown trout action has fallen off and we are fishing Lake trout while waiting on the Coho bite. The Lake trout bite has been very good. We caught a 20 pound fish today. We have also caught a few Chinook and Coho while fishing Lake trout. Several limits and we are glad that Wisconsin raised the bag limit to 5 Lake trout per person. I have attached a picture of a Lake trout we caught this morning, with what was in its belly. many alewives. This is true for all the Lake trout we catch. They are vacuum cleaners when it come to alewives. They never stop eating. 

We have fished outside the Milwaukee harbor, with the main and south gaps being best. We have taken a mix of Coho and Brown trout here but the bite is average with 5 to 10 fish catches. This area will soon be a hot spot. We have moved offshore for a better bite on Lake trout. The action is best straight out from the harbor in 100 feet of water near the bottom. Spin and glows have been king and spin and glows with yellow in them are best. We like silver prism or smoke dodgers with them. We have caught a few Coho salmon on orange dodger and Next Generation peanut flies off boards on the surface but very few. We may try deeper this weekend for a Coho bite. The action on Lake trout has been steady. We took a few Chinook salmon on a white flasher with a Howie Bull Frog fly. 

Memorial Day weekend's have been known for some great fishing and hopefully on one of our trips we take a limit of Coho salmon. The next several weeks though should begin to see some great salmon catches, so call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a trip for the best time of the year for catch rate and salmon. Until then we will be catching something and probably Lake trout. Attached are some resent catches.

May Lake Michigan charter fishing and we are on the edge of our favorite time of the year. COHO SALMON TIME! The catch is still consists mostly of Brown trout but we are now starting to take some Coho salmon. We have been in, around and down the shore of the Milwaukee harbor. Some have ventured off shore of Milwaukee but with no success. The water as of Wednesday has reached 50 degrees on the surface by the river mouth and 46 degrees outside the gaps. Down 10 feet it is in the mid to low forties. Offshore the surface is at or just above 40 degrees and down 50 feet it is the high thirties. All is about to change soon as the water is warming fast now. The alewives started to show up mid last week in the harbor and on Wednesday we snagged about 25 alewives while trolling. Each day the schools have been getting thicker. The first Coho salmon we have taken outside the harbor occurred last weekend. Probably had 12 bites and landed 5 Coho over the last 4 days. The trips have been between 5 to 10 fish and this is a little lower than we like but mother nature has been tough this spring. Better times are almost here. 

The spread has remained unchanged, with the exception of a few Coho set ups on inside dipsies and outside boards. Orange small dodgers and green peanut flies. We like the Opti Dodgers because of the orange color they use. All of the Coho stuff is right at the surface and is now taking some bites ever trip. Not to the point to go with more orange yet because the Brown trout bite is still better. We are still running 1 - 4 color leadcores, mono dipsies and riggers from 10 to 30 feet down. All spoons and we are heavy on Gold Hud or UV Blue Dolphin Stinger spoons in the stingray size. There are a lot of big alewives around but we have snagged all year classes, which is great to see. We are not sure if we will go to do some Racine charter fishing yet this year. That will be decided by May 18th. Depends on how the Coho action sets up off Milwaukee. The last several seasons there was no reason to go south but every year is different. Right now most of the Coho action is from fish that wintered around the area. The big schools have not set up yet off Milwaukee or Racine. This should start any day now that the bait is showing up. I hope to have a report next time with lots or orange dodgers and Coho salmon. 

We have trips open for Mother's Day. Don't understand why mothers wouldn't want to fish that day. Call Silver King Charters at 414-460-1467 to book a trip during the most productive time of the season. Mid May through June is our highest catch rate and the best time for salmon. A couple of pictures from the last seven days. A few Coho in the mix.