April brings fish right along the still-cold waters of the Chicago shore. This can make for some really good hauls in a short period of time. We took the boat out for a few hours last weekend to test out some of the new gear and to get a feel of where the fish are schooling.
We trolled along a sharp color change about mile east of Belmont Harbor. Running surface boards with dodger flies, a couple of body baits, 2 Dipsys, a lead core, and a drop weight with a spoon, they all took fish.

We ended up with 10 coho salmon and a lake trout in about 2 hours of fishing. One of the coho was 10+ pounds, a rarity this time of year around Chicago.