Hand / carry-in launch · Lake Michigan · Illinois

12th Street Beach Boat Launch

Name: 12th Street Beach Boat Launch
Address: Chicago, IL, US
Telephone: (312) 745-2910

A public hand / carry-in launch on Lake Michigan in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Managed by Chicago Park District.

Directions Call (312) 745-2910 All Michigan launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Hand / carry-in launch — non-motorized launch
Water: Lake Michigan
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: Chicago Park District
Location: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Coordinates: 41.8604° N, 87.6101° W

In Northerly Island Park.

Before you launch

Lake Michigan is big water

The pier-head channel is the dangerous part of the trip. An onshore wind stacks waves where the channel meets the lake, and the run home can be far worse than the run out. Check the wind direction against the harbor mouth before you leave the ramp.

Longshore currents and structural rip currents at the piers. Lake Michigan produces more drowning fatalities than any other Great Lake, and most of them happen to swimmers near breakwalls and piers, not to anglers offshore.
Sudden north-to-northwest wind shifts. The lake runs 300 miles north to south, so a northerly builds enormous fetch and turns a flat morning into a five-foot afternoon on the south end.
Seiche events. Wind and pressure can push water to one end of the basin and let it slosh back, producing fast, unexpected water-level swings — one on the Chicago shoreline in 1954 killed several people on a pier.

Read how to read a Great Lakes marine forecast and trailering and launching on big water. Pack the big-water safety kit.

From this launch

What to fish on Lake Michigan

Our Michigan fishing guides name spots at or near Chicago:

Coho Salmon · Late March through May in the southern basin, then north to Ludington and Manistee by July

Coho Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

Chicago harbors — Montrose, Burnham and Calumet: Coho stack along the Chicago lakefront in April and May, often in the top 15 feet. Calumet Harbor and the water off the Indiana line hold the warmest, dirtiest water in the basin, which is exactly what the fish want early.

Yellow Perch · July through October in the southern basin; December through March on Green Bay ice

Yellow Perch Fishing on Lake Michigan

Montrose and Burnham harbors, Chicago: Perch inside the harbor walls and along the outside breakwalls from July into October. Fishable entirely from shore, which makes this the most accessible perch water on the lake.

Brown Trout · March through May, with a second window from October into December near harbors and river mouths

Brown Trout Fishing on Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan brown trout are a shallow-water, cold-weather fishery and the Wisconsin shore from Racine to Algoma is the heart of it. From ice-out through May, browns hold inside 20 feet along the harbors and river mouths, catchable from a small boat or a pier.

Chinook Salmon · Late June through Labor Day, with the staging run building through the last two weeks of August

Chinook Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is still the most reliable king salmon water in the United States, and the stretch from St. Joseph to Frankfort will put a 15-pound fish in the box on an ordinary July morning. You will work deeper and farther offshore than your father did, but the fish are there.

Lake Trout · May and June on shallow rock, July through September deep, plus a fall reef concentration

Lake Trout Fishing on Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan lake trout are the most dependable fish in the lake — they are there in numbers when the kings are not, and they will bite in flat, hot, bright conditions that shut a salmon program down. Fish the reefs and the deep basin edges, and expect to work 100 to 180 feet down from July on.

Lake Whitefish · December through March through the ice; October through April from a boat in Grand Traverse Bay

Lake Whitefish Fishing on Lake Michigan

Grand Traverse Bay is the marquee whitefish water on Lake Michigan and it produces from a boat in open water as well as through the ice, which very few whitefish fisheries do. Fish 60 to 120 feet on the deep flats and the fish are there most of the year.

Muskellunge Northern Pike Smallmouth Bass Steelhead Walleye

Michigan by season

SpringCoho in close, browns on the beach SummerKings go deep and the fleet goes with them FallStaging kings and the river run WinterHarbor ice, tributary steelhead, and open water for the brave

Next ramp over

Nearest Michigan launches

Burnham Harbor Boat Launch0.2 mi · trailer ramp · 3 lanes · IL
Diversey Harbor Boat Launch4.9 mi · trailer ramp · 2 lanes · IL
63rd Street Beach Boat Launch5.1 mi · hand / carry-in launch · IL
Jackson Park Inner Harbor Boat Launch5.9 mi · trailer ramp · IL
Montrose Harbor Boat Launch7.2 mi · hand / carry-in launch · IL
Rainbow Beach Boat Launch7.7 mi · hand / carry-in launch · IL

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Every public launch around Chicago, closest first.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Chicago Harbor Southeast Guidewall Light2.0 mi
Chicago Harbor Light2.2 mi
Four Mile Crib Light3.5 mi

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

12th Street0.4 mi
Margaret T Burroughs (31st St. Beach)1.4 mi
Ohio Street Beach2.3 mi

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Chicago Lakefront Trail2.2 mi · drive

Source

Launch facts are from the Chicago Park District, Northerly Island Boat Launch - 12th Street Beach, retrieved 2026-10-27. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with Chicago Park District before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theIllinois DNR.

Chart shoreline generalized from Natural Earth (public domain). Not for navigation. Something wrong or missing? Write to contact@greatamericanlakes.com.

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