Going from warm Gulf waters to Illinois to visit my son in the Navy. When's a good time to fish and where? Do ya'll have a steelhead or salmon run? And...we'll need a guide. Thanks
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Going from warm Gulf waters to Illinois to visit my son in the Navy. When's a good time to fish and where? Do ya'll have a steelhead or salmon run? And...we'll need a guide. Thanks
If your son is at Great Lakes, that's not too far from some salmon/steelhead streams in SE Wisconsin. Try contacting The Flyfishers shop in Milwaukee for info: www.theflyfishers.com.
Chuck
The southeast Wisconsin salmon run is generally late September, early October. Steelies, depending on the strain, start coming in Thanksgiving (as do brown trout, I think) and hang around through Tax Day (so does the ice, sometimes).
At different times of the year, these same rivers hold smallies. Although none of them, to the best of my knowledge, can be called great smallie rivers.
If you're there for the salmon run, you don't need a guide. The fish, and fishermen, are everywhere.
The Flyfishers is a good shop.
There is a good smallmouth bass fishery in Lake Michigan in Illinois, but you would need a boat or guide for that type of fishing. There is is decent smallmouth bass fishing in the Kankakee river, but that river is couple of hours drive from Great Lakes Naval Station. The river fishing is best in the summer and if there has been a lot of rain, you can forget about wading the Kankakee.
There are better fishing options in Wisconsin. There is good trout fishing in both Central and Southwest Wisconsin. Check out http://www.wisflyfishing.com.