Capt. Bill Kelly (center) is flanked by the Considine family after a memorable day of Lake Michigan salmon fishing. Sean Considine (second from left) plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. Their catch is typical of the midsummer action off the Chicago lakefront. Photo by Jerry Pabst.

Based solely on the 2006 Lake Michigan salmon fishing season, this year should be great, too, and it probably will be. But as the late Gilda Radner's Saturday Night Live character Roseanne Roseannadanna cautioned many years ago, "It's always something." It seems like every year we hear about new threats to the Lake Michigan fishery, but somehow the salmon and trout manage to thrive. So, don't sell your boat just yet.

While the theme of this article focuses on salmon and trout fishing opportunities in the Illinois portion of Lake Michigan, we must recognize that this huge body of water is really just one ecosystem. Events occurring anywhere on the lake can -- and usually do -- materially affect fishing elsewhere, so we will be looking at how seemingly distant problems could relate to Illinois' waters.

But first, let's recap the 2006 fishing season on "The Big Pond." From the Wisconsin state line down to the Indiana border, salmon and trout fishing held up pretty well. Of course, there were high points and low points from area to area along the lakefront, as seems to happen every year. Fortunately, the dry spells without fish usually weren't very long ones, and the good times always returned.

Spring fishing started with a bang, because the cohos were open for business in April and kept rods jumping for most of May. Then, unexpectedly, they went somewhere else. But a suddenly resurgent chinook population replaced the silvers and produced some pretty good action during June. While the chinooks were not of trophy size, there were plenty of them. From my observations, the average size of these salmon ran from 8 to 15 pounds.

As summer progressed, reports of much larger chinooks began to come in, especially from Wisconsin where fish in the low-30-pound range were reported in some of the fishing contests held there. Tournament officials at Kenosha and Racine weighed in bigger chinooks than had been recorded in the last five years.

By late June, the cohos had returned to Illinois waters in decent numbers, and most boat catches were mixed with about even numbers of cohos and chinooks. The average size of the chinooks remained on the low side, but the cohos seemed to be growing fat and sassy, ranging from 4 to 8 pounds.

Salmon fishing has been holding up much later into the season over the past four or five years. In the past, the deep-water catches dried up by about the third week of August, and all that remained was to troll around the harbor mouths for returning 4-year-old chinooks. Once those fish swarmed into the harbors to "spawn," fishing from boats pretty much ended. But lately, determined anglers are motoring offshore into deeper water and finding big schools of young cohos and chinooks, along with the occasional brown trout or rainbow trout, which are really steelhead. Some charter boat operators are still plying their trade well into October, and even early November, weather permitting. And with our greatly moderated fall temperatures, this late-season fishing is not only productive, but it is comfortable.

Trout fishing in 2006 was just fair. Some years, rainbows/steelhead and brown trout seem to cluster into certain areas, and hold there for a month or more. When that happens, everyone becomes an instant "expert" on landing big trout. The secret to success under these circumstances is the same as in selling real estate: location, location, location. Just get in among those fish and put something shiny in the water.

While no special hotspots developed for steelies or browns in 2006, there were enough of these species scattered along the Illinois shore to provide some thrilling action. As with the salmon, not many wallhanger-sized trout were landed, but as we know, it is a big lake, and they are out there somewhere. They'll be back, and maybe this year.

The lake trout, or "beautiful gray fish" as one charter captain termed them, are still abundant and still doing their thing on the deep-water reefs. However, with all the trout and salmon around, very few trollers bother to chase lakers. For a long time, the lakers got a bad rap as being pollution magnets, storehouses for the chemical PCB. That scare is now officially laid to rest, and there is nothing to fear from eating a lake trout. However, because they require a completely different lure presentation than do salmon and trout, you really can't fish for both at the same time. However, remember, when all else fails, the "beautiful gray fish" are still down there, just thinking about what a Weber Grill looks like.