Lake Michigan Chicago — Saturday, October 25, 2025 — This is Artificial Lure with your morning fishing rundown.

We woke up to brisk fall air about 47°F, and crisp sunshine over the big lake. Winds have been light, east at 8 mph, holding the waves steady at 1 to 3 feet. Lake surface temps are hovering near the low 50s, so the bite is ramping up for those late-season gamefish. Humidity sits at 73% and there’s no rain in the forecast. Sunrise hit at 7:13 AM, with sunset coming at 6:00 PM tonight — good daylight for working the nearshore structures and pushing the last drift after work. According to the NOAA tide charts, your best tidal movement comes early with a low at 3:08 AM and a solid high at 10:10 AM, so mid-morning action should be hot.

Fish activity has picked up nicely these past couple days. Local chatter and angler reports along Monroe Harbor and Montrose say that perch are moving in thick near the breakwalls and slips; several buckets filled this week with keepers running 9–11 inches, mostly on live fathead minnows and shrimp. Salmon crowd is mostly gone, but the last few kings and cohos were landed last weekend near the river mouths, mostly on glow spoons at daybreak and jigs tipped with skein in the low light. Steelhead are starting to show at the pier heads and along the river mouths, with bright chrome caught on spawn sacks and pink worms.

For the bass crowd, smallmouth are snapping on tubes in rocky areas close to Navy Pier and Burnham — green pumpkin and smoke colors are working great. Chartreuse spinnerbaits tossed around weed edges have produced some bonus largemouth too, especially on a sunny warm-up.

The best lures for today:
- For perch, nothing outperforms a light drop-shot rig with a lively minnow—if you have shrimp, try it for the picky ones.
- For steelhead, go with spawn sacs or a small brightly colored jig tipped with wax worms. Pink and orange were top colors in yesterday’s bite.
- For bass, finesse tubes, Ned rigs, and slow-rolled spinnerbaits are doing the work.
- Pier anglers should toss 3/8 oz silver Kastmasters or glow Cleos if you want one last chrome flash from a salmon.

Live bait tip: Perch and steelhead are hitting best on fresh baits; pick up fathead minnows or waxies at your local shop. If the bite slows, tip your hooks with small bits of shrimp—the school will turn back on.

Hot spots right now:
- **Montrose Harbor**: Perch have stacked up around the inside slip and along the northern wall. Both morning and late afternoon bites are excellent.
- **Navy Pier/Parking Lot Wall**: Smallmouth bass numbers have been great; fish tight to the rocks at dawn and dusk.
- **Chicago River mouth**: A handful of steelhead taken in the last 48 hours, especially after the minor morning tide.

Overall, with the solunar major window running late morning and warming east winds, today is prime for soaking baits and tossing artificials along the harbors. Cloud cover will roll in by noon, so get your best effort in before then.

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