June on Lake Michigan: Offshore Breaks and Scattered Kings

From Capt. John King's fishing logs, 2004–2015. June is the transition month: spring Kings scatter from the shoreline, and the fish that stay are found offshore on temperature breaks or deeper on the shelf.

Go offshore to the temperature breaks

  • When inshore Kings disappear, John's long-time answer was to run 7–15 miles offshore.
  • Fish the top 30' over 400–900' of water for Steelhead, Lake Trout and juvenile Kings. Surface lines and planer boards can produce up to 90% of the action.
  • Fish usually hold on the cold side of a surface temperature break. Check the NOAA CoastWatch surface temperature charts before you go.
  • 6/14/15: a 48°F-to-39°F break within one mile, 13 miles west of Manistee. A Laser Glo HRP Salmon Buster 4.0 took a Steelhead there.

Inshore Kings when they're around

  • 6/12/04: bigger Kings 60–70' down over 80–200' of water.
  • 6/20/06: a 3-person King limit by 8:30am, 70' down on a meat program.
  • 6/30/06, north of Big Point Sable: 80–100' down over 120' of water, 10 fish for 12 hits on an X-Glow Yellowtail BTI with a 2-fly meat rig.
  • 6/21/06, Manistee: 2 riggers, 2 divers and 2 full lead cores. X-Glow Green Frog BTIs on both divers and a Mountain Dew BTI on the full core. Every hit came in 110–120' of water, tight to structure. The fish were full of 2–3" baby alewives.
  • 2015 spoons: inshore Kings 30–70' down on a Black Mamba SUV Salmon Buster 4.0. An Undertaker 4.65 took a King 100' down, a depth usually left to attractors.

Recommended tackle

More: Spread Setup Guide · Trolling Cheat Sheet · All months

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