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Grand Traverse Bay Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay: lake trout, chinook and smallmouth in East and West bays on either side of Old Mission Peninsula.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
58 / 63 F
Wind
S 7 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Grand Traverse Bay rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. Today brings a mixed sky, wind S around 7 mph, steady pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 63. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:16 AM-12:16 PM and 10:47 PM-12:47 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Chinook salmonSlow

Runs enter the rivers: drift roe or sand shrimp through travel lanes, plunk a wrapped plug, or float eggs in eddies and tidewater.

Tomorrow: Similar at 65 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Michigan requires a fishing licence from age 17, from $26.00 for residents. What a Michigan licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing chinook salmon here? Check the size and bag limits with DNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Michigan, read off the agency, are on the Michigan seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp58 F
High / Low63 / 42 F
WindS 7-11 mph
Pressure1026.6 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain32% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset08:08 / 18:43
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Grand Traverse Bay this week

The best day on Grand Traverse Bay this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:16 AM-12:16 PM and 10:47 PM-12:47 AM
Minor period
4:39 AM-5:39 AM
Sun
08:08 to 18:43
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 8 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Grand Traverse Bay: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Chinook salmon illustration

Chinook salmon

Seasons follow the runs: spring, summer and fall runs on the West Coast, and late summer into fall in Great Lakes rivers

The largest Pacific salmon, caught by trolling and mooching at sea and by drifting and plunking in rivers as adults return to spawn; also stocked in the Great Lakes. Runs enter the rivers: drift roe or sand shrimp through travel lanes, plunk a wrapped plug, or float eggs in eddies and tidewater.

When to come: the Grand Traverse Bay calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Chinook salmon
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Grand Traverse Bay today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Chinook salmon led the card at slow. High of 58 F, wind to 10 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Chinook salmon led the card at fair. High of 67 F, wind to 8 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Chinook salmon led the card at fair. High of 65 F, wind to 6 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
Only used if we need to ask you about your report. No mailing list, no spam.

Before you go

License

Michigan requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Michigan all-species fishing license (covers trout and salmon). Outside the bass possession season, every bass must be released immediately; check the current Michigan Fishing Regulations for Great Lakes trout and salmon limits.

Access

Launches and harbors named in DNR reports: Elk Rapids and the Center Road launch on East Bay, Elmwood Marina on West Bay, and Suttons Bay on the Leelanau side.

About this water

A large bay of northern Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Antrim counties, Michigan, divided by the Old Mission Peninsula into East and West arms.

Fishing Grand Traverse Bay: the full guide

Two arms

Michigan DNR reports Grand Traverse Bay as two waters, East and West, on either side of the Old Mission Peninsula, with Suttons Bay and Elk Rapids as further reporting points. Lake trout, chinook salmon, cisco and smallmouth bass are the species its weekly reports return to.

Lake trout and salmon

In DNR reports from 2025 and 2026, lake trout came to anglers trolling 70 to 150 feet of water in both arms and jigging around Power Island in 50 to 100 feet. In September 2026, Elk Rapids boats took lake trout and chinook 80 to 90 feet down over 100 to 140 feet, chinook were caught around the Boardman River mouth in West Bay, and lake trout came from the west bank north of Elmwood Marina.

Smallmouth

In early June 2026 the DNR reported smallmouth on the breaks in 5 to 15 feet in West Bay and moving shallow to spawn in East Bay, taken on swimbaits and tubes, with more bass entering the Elk River as it warmed; Onema Bay and Suttons Bay also produced. Michigan allows catch-and-immediate-release bass fishing all year, but bass may be kept only during the possession season.

Common questions

What depths do lake trout use?

DNR reports regularly put them in 70 to 150 feet of water, with jigging around Power Island in 50 to 100 feet.

When do chinook show?

DNR reports from late summer have chinook around the Boardman River mouth and off Elk Rapids by early September.

Can I keep bass in spring?

Only during the possession season; outside it, Michigan bass fishing is catch-and-immediate-release.

Is fishing good at Grand Traverse Bay right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Torch Lake14 miPlatte River30 miLake Charlevoix33 miBetsie River38 miAu Sable River46 miHiggins Lake51 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 44.9000, -85.5500 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 5, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.