Artificial Lure here, checking in from the big pond off Chicago.

Lake Michigan’s got some teeth this morning. The National Weather Service has a Small Craft Advisory running for the nearshore from Wilmette down past Calumet, with west winds building 15 to 25 knots and leftover 4–6 footers outside the harbors. Offshore, the open-lake forecast is stacked with gales, so this is very much a stay-tucked-in-the-harbors kind of day.

According to the Wilmette Harbor Club forecast, air temps are riding just above freezing with wind chills in the 20s and low 30s. Skies are mostly cloudy, with just enough breaks to tease you. NOAA’s tide and current predictions put our seiche swings on the mild side today, but you’ll still see that subtle up‑and‑down inside Navy Pier, Burnham, and Calumet turning the current on and off around the ends of docks and rock seams.

Sunrise hit right around 7 a.m. over the skyline, with sunset coming a little after 4:20 this afternoon. That gives you a short but very defined low‑light window, and that’s when the bite has been best all week.

Recent action along the Chicago lakefront has centered on three players: lakefront trout, harbor perch, and a few bonus smallmouth. Local pier rats and charter skippers have been reporting mixed bags of brown and lake trout off the outer walls of Montrose and Diversey on spoons and live bait, plus steady perch inside the slips around Calumet and 87th Street. Most guys are scratching out 10–20 keeper perch in a session when they stay mobile and hop dock to dock. A handful of chunky harbor smallmouth have been coming as accidental catches while guys drag minnows for perch.

With this cold, the fish are glued to structure and slow. Best bets:

- For trout on the outer walls: big chrome and gold spoons, white tube jigs on 3/8 to 1/2 ounce heads, and shiner‑tipped spawn sacs drifted just off bottom. Long, sweeping lifts with plenty of pauses.
- For perch in the harbors: small fathead minnows or rosy reds on plain hooks or tiny jigheads, dropped tight to pilings and cribs. Tip with a waxie if bait’s scarce. Light line, barely move it.
- For smallmouth: hair jigs, finesse tubes in green pumpkin, and subtle blade baits yo‑yoed near the bottom on the sunny sides of rock and seawalls.

Hot spots to circle today:

- **Montrose Harbor and the outer horseshoe** – decent mixed trout shot outside, and perch roaming the inside wall and northern slips when that seiche nudges some current.
- **Calumet Harbor and the slips along the river mouth** – more protected from the west wind, and that area’s been giving up the more consistent perch limits and surprise bronzebacks.

Dress for that wet west wind, stay inside the walls, and remember: today’s a precision game. Slow down, fish vertical, and let the cold-water fish make the first move.

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