Fishing Montrose Harbor and the lakefront, and where to eat after

Six miles north of the Loop, Montrose Harbor is where Chicago fishes Lake Michigan without a boat. The Chicago Park District lists the lakefront and harbor catch plainly: “Chinook and Coho Salmon, Rainbow and Brown Trout, Steelhead, Perch and Fresh water Drum,” September through December, and the bait shop on the harbor has been posting the report for decades. Parking on Montrose is free, the licence is $15, and the salmon stamp that lets you keep a trout or salmon is $6.50 more. This is the fishing half of a day that never leaves the city. The eating half is at the end, in Andersonville, a mile and a half west, on the road home.

6 miThe Loop to Montrose Harbor up Lake Shore Drive, about 13 minutes with no traffic. Belmont Harbor is five, Navy Pier two.

$15Resident Illinois licence for the year ($31.50 nonresident, $10.50 for 24 hours). Under 16 fishes free. Add the $6.50 Lake Michigan salmon stamp to keep trout or salmon.

$10The Park District’s winter fishing pier pass, November 15 through March 31, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., for the docks in Montrose, Belmont, Diversey, DuSable, Burnham, and Jackson Park harbors.

I write the guides on Smells Like Fish, a bait and tackle site, and I am a guest here. Top of Chicago asked for the water. They supplied the tables.

The day, in order

Leave the Loop in the dark and take Lake Shore Drive to Montrose. Stop at Park Bait Shop on the harbor for shiners, spawn, and the report, then walk out the horseshoe and fish the deep side at first light: spoons and crankbaits for the kings and coho in September and October, a hair jig with a wax worm or a shiner under a slip bobber for the steelhead and browns as the water cools, a perch rig with minnows when the perch move in. Fish until the sun gets high, then drive a mile and a half west on Montrose and up Clark Street to Andersonville for lunch. If you want an afternoon, Humboldt Park lagoon, six miles from the Loop, is one of 13 Park District lagoons the Illinois DNR stocks with channel catfish and bluegill in June, July, and August. Dinner is back on Clark Street before the drive home.

What is in the water

Salmon and trout are the fall event. The DNR stocks Lake Michigan with chinook, coho, steelhead, and brown trout, and from September into December they come within casting range of the harbors and the revetment. The Illinois rule: anyone 16 or older taking or trying to take trout or salmon from Lake Michigan needs the salmon stamp on the licence, and the limit is five trout and salmon combined a day. Snagging for chinook and coho is allowed only in the Lincoln Park lagoon south of Fullerton and in the Jackson Park harbors, with the stamp. Yellow perch are the other lakefront fish: open all year except May 1 through June 15, 15 a day, on minnows off the harbor walls when the water cools. Smallmouth hang around the harbor mouths in summer and fall, and sheepshead are everywhere.

The lagoons and the forest preserves, for the rest of the year: the Park District’s 13 stocked lagoons (Humboldt, Douglass, Garfield, Washington, Marquette, Columbus, and seven more) hold bluegill, channel catfish, and largemouth, with loaner rods at some Chicago Public Library branches. The Forest Preserves of Cook County manage more than 40 fishing waters, stock rainbow trout in Axehead, Belleau, Horsetail, Green, and Sag Quarry East each spring and fall, and rent boats with bait at Busse Lake, Tampier Lake, Maple Lake, and the Skokie Lagoons. Wolf Lake, at the state’s William W. Powers recreation area on the far south side, has “about six miles of shoreline” for bank anglers and walleye, northern, and hybrid muskie.

Where to fish from shore

Montrose Harbor, 6 miles: the horseshoe revetment and the harbor walls, bait shop on site, free street parking on Montrose, winter dock pass $10.
Belmont Harbor, 5 miles: the next harbor south, pay lot on the south end, meters on the north, same fish.
Navy Pier, 2 miles: fishing along the north side of the pier; $9 parking for anglers who leave before 10 a.m.
31st Street Harbor, 4 miles: the south-side harbor with perch and salmon access.
Humboldt Park and Washington Park lagoons, 6 and 7 miles: stocked catfish and bluegill June through August, bank fishing, free.
Wolf Lake, William W. Powers State Recreation Area, 19 miles: six miles of shoreline, walleye, northern pike, hybrid muskie, largemouth, panfish.

Licences, the two stamps, and the perch rule

Anyone 16 or older needs an Illinois licence, and the Park District says so for every water in the state: $15 for a resident for the year, $5.50 for 24 hours, $7.75 for seniors 65 to 74, $1.50 at 75 and over; $31.50 for a nonresident for the year, $15.50 for three days, $10.50 for 24 hours. Under 16 fishes free. Two stamps matter here: the $6.50 Lake Michigan Salmon Stamp to take trout or salmon from the lake, and the $6.50 Inland Trout Stamp for the forest preserve trout lakes. Perch are closed May 1 through June 15 and limited to 15 a day. Statewide, black bass are six a day, walleye six, northern pike three, muskie one at 36 inches, and the forest preserve trout lakes close from March 15 to the first Saturday in April and from October 1 to the third Saturday in October.

The gear side

Which spoon for the coho off the wall, how to rig spawn under a slip bobber for a harbor steelhead, which minnow rig for perch, and what the Fox Chain’s walleye slot means when you drive north: that is my beat, and it does not belong on a restaurant site. The full Chicago fishing guide on Smells Like Fish has the map of all 12 spots with drive times from the Loop, the live Fox and Des Plaines river flows, the licence and stamp links, the lagoon list, the forest preserve trout schedule, the Fox Chain rules, and the tackle list.

Where to eat after

A table at an Andersonville restaurant — Andersonville, a mile and a half west of the harbor on Clark Street, feeds the lakefront crowd.

Montrose runs straight west from the harbor to Clark Street, and Clark Street north of there is Andersonville. These three are on the Top of Chicago Andersonville list. The scores are theirs, not mine.

7.2Taste of Lebanon RestaurantThe lunch stop with a cooler in the truck. Hummus, falafel, and shawarma at prices the guide says “hold reasonable even as costs have climbed across the neighborhood.”

6.9Little Bad WolfDinner. The Bad Burger, “a juicy, properly constructed patty,” ordered with the mac and cheese.

6.6Mas Alla del SolThe bar after a cold morning on the wall. The dragonfruit margarita has become the signature, and the kitchen holds its own behind it.

Sources. Chicago Park District, fishing areas page (lakefront species, perch rules, winter pier pass, lagoon list, licence); Illinois Department of Natural Resources, licence and stamp fees via its published 2026 schedule, the Urban Fishing Program reports, and the William W. Powers State Recreation Area page; Forest Preserves of Cook County, fishing page (trout lakes, seasons, boating centers); Park Bait Shop, Montrose Harbor fishing report; Chicago Sun-Times on lakefront parking. Drive distances computed on OpenStreetMap roads from Daley Plaza.