Your marine radio is a vital source of on-the-water information. Learn which channels the local sport-anglers use and which channel the charter boats are on. Pay attention to these transmissions and put the information to good use. You will usually be received kindly if you call another boat and ask for some help. You can even call a charter captain, once or twice, and ask a question or two, but don't get chatty. Remember, he has six customers to take care of -- and 10 or 12 lines in the water -- and doesn't have time to listen to war stories. If the information he gives you puts a few fish in your cooler, make a quick call and thank him, then leave him to his work. Never call a charter captain to brag about how many fish you have caught. Sometimes they have bad days, too.

Salmon Unlimited is one of the lake's oldest and best fishing clubs, and works tirelessly to improve the fishery and cleanup of polluted areas. SU sponsors a schedule of interclub fishing tournaments that provide wonderful opportunities to learn techniques from fellow anglers. The club hosts monthly meetings featuring speakers on a wide variety of salmon fishing topics. The club also maintains a hotline on which members post up-to-date results of recent fishing trips, a big help when deciding on your next morning's starting point. Call Jean at (773) 736-5757, or check them out at www.salmonunlimitedinc.com.

When this magazine hits the newsstands, Lake Michigan's trout and salmon will have moved offshore into waters 60 to 120 feet deep. There is no way to predict how deep they will be holding in advance, since a shift in the wind can cause dramatic changes in water temperature. Here is when a water temperature gauge is valuable. Stop the boat and simply lower the unit down into the water column, and be alert for a sudden 3- to 5-degree decrease in temperature. That's the thermocline. Concentrate your lures in a pattern reaching 10 to 15 feet above and below the temperature break. Watch your graph, pay attention to the depths that strikes are occurring, and adjust your presentation accordingly.

Since game fish will be clustered near baitfish, don't be in hurry to leave a productive area. Use your GPS to mark the spot, and troll back and forth over that waypoint until the action ceases.

You will still be using a goodly spread of dodgers and tinsel flies, but bright trolling spoons will now be very productive. Be sure your downriggers have plenty of cable on them, and check all the line on your reels for wear and tear. Are the reels full, and are the drags working properly? This is the time of year when the hawg chinooks and monster brown trout show up, so be well prepared.

If you need to find a charter boat to take you and your group out for an exciting day of big-lake action, simply do a search on the Internet for "Lake Michigan fishing." You will find more help than you can imagine. Lodgings around the Illinois shore are plentiful and will fit any price range.

When choosing a location from which to charter, simply pick a spot convenient for you, since the fish are distributed all along Illinois' shoreline. Sometimes there are more in one spot than another, but there is really no way to forecast that. North Point, Waukegan and Chicago all have excellent charter boat fleets with competitive rates. There is no reason to travel any farther than necessary.

So, while there are some dark clouds on the horizon, the fishing outlook for Lake Michigan in 2005 is a bright one. Get out there and have fun while you can!