Trailer ramp · Lake Michigan · Michigan

Benton Harbor

Name: Benton Harbor
Address: MI, US
Telephone: 269-426-4013

A public trailer ramp on Saint Joseph River in Berrien County, Michigan. Managed by Warren Dunes State Park.

Directions Call 269-426-4013 All Michigan launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp
Water: Saint Joseph River
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: Warren Dunes State Park
Owner: DNR-PRD
Location: Berrien County, Michigan
Coordinates: 42.1041° N, 86.4653° W

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 St. Joseph River:

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

St. Joseph and South Haven: The southern basin warms first and fishes best in June, then again when fish stage off the St. Joseph River in late summer. Long runs west to find 55-degree water are normal by mid-July.

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

Coho Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

St. Joseph and Benton Harbor: The St. Joseph River plume brings warm, stained water out onto the lake in April. Work the mud line where clear meets dirty — the coho ride the edge of it.

Steelhead · June through August offshore; October through April in the tributaries, peaking in March

Steelhead Fishing on Lake Michigan

The St. Joseph River: Southern Michigan's steelhead river, with a fish ladder at Berrien Springs and a run that starts earlier in fall than the northern rivers.

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.

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 Walleye Yellow Perch

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

Riverview Drive0.2 mi · hand / carry-in launch · MI
Marina Island0.2 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Black River Park23 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Galien River24 mi · trailer ramp · MI
New Buffalo25 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Lake Macatawa50 mi · trailer ramp · 6 lanes · MI

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

St. Joseph North Pier Inner Light1.7 mi
St. Joseph North Pier Outer Light1.7 mi

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Source

Launch facts are from the Michigan DNR, State Sponsored Developed Boating Access Sites, retrieved 2026-10-05. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with Warren Dunes State Park before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theMichigan 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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