Dave Kallie grew up fishing in and around Milwaukee, sometimes on a boat and sometimes from shore, on Lake Michigan and in the rivers. These days, you’ll often see him casting with his 15-year-old son, Drew, who started out using a Snoopy rod and reel at age 3 or 4 and got hooked. Lakeshore State Park is a regular stop for both of them.

“Me personally, I love the fight when you hook one! It’s amazing. No other freshwater fish can fight that hard.”

Drew

“What they did with that park is awesome. The fishing opportunities always were there, and the park made it much more accessible.”

Dave

We asked Dave and Drew, who live in Brookfield, to share some of their tips and observations about fishing at Lakeshore State Park.  

• There’s a wonderful variety of fish to catch: Chinook (King) and Coho salmon; steelhead (rainbow), brown and lake trout; carp; rock, largemouth and smallmouth bass; northern Pike; yellow perch; bluegills; sunfish; and more.
• Don’t miss the fall salmon run, when these fish are spawning. “Me personally, I love the fight,” said Drew — and a fight is what he gets from the salmon from about September to October. Some can be 20 or 30 pounds. “When you hook one, it’s amazing. No other freshwater fish can fight that hard.”
• Starting around November and into spring is a good time for brown and steelhead (rainbow) trout, which feed on salmon eggs.
• Ice-fishing season at Lakeshore State Park can vary — if interested, monitor conditions.
• Summer is the time for largemouth bass, northern pike, carp and even some walleye. 

To monitor fishing conditions, try LakeLink.com, which has a thread specifically about Lakeshore State Park, and group pages on Facebook such as the Racine/Kenosha Lake Michigan Fishing Report  Whether catch-and-release or for dinner, and whenever you choose to go, the Kallies predict you’ll enjoy the experience.

“It’s a way to slow life down. It allows me to clear my head. It’s a form of therapy for me whether I catch fish or not.”

Dave Kallie