Trailer ramp · Lake Michigan · Wisconsin

Breakwater Park Boat Ramp

Name: Breakwater Park Boat Ramp
Address: Oconto, WI, US
Telephone: (920) 834-7706

A public trailer ramp on Oconto River in Oconto, Oconto County, Wisconsin. Managed by Park & Recreation Dept..

Directions Call (920) 834-7706 All Michigan launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp — concrete ramp
Water: Oconto River
Accessible features: Listed by the agency
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: Park & Recreation Dept.
Owner: City
Location: Oconto, Oconto County, Wisconsin
Coordinates: 44.8951° N, 87.8302° 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 Oconto:

Muskellunge · September through November, with late October and November the heavy-fish window

Green Bay Muskie Fishing: The Lower Fox, Sturgeon Bay & Fall Trolling

The west-shore river mouths: Oconto and Peshtigo: Smaller tributaries on the Wisconsin west shore, stocked since 2010. Fewer fish and less pressure than the lower bay, and worth a fall pass on the way north.

Northern Pike · May and June, September through November, and January through February on Green Bay ice

Northern Pike Fishing on Lake Michigan

The Oconto and Peshtigo river marshes: Northwest Green Bay, Wisconsin. Vast shallow marsh and weed flats that warm ahead of everything else on the bay and hold pike from ice-out onward.

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.

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

Coho Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

The April and May coho run in southern Lake Michigan is the most beginner-friendly big-water salmon fishing in America — the fish school tight in the top 25 feet within a few miles of Chicago and the Indiana ports. A 4- to 6-pound coho on light tackle in 45-degree water is a better introduction to Great Lakes trolling than any king trip.

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 Smallmouth Bass Steelhead 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

Oconto City Docks1.0 mi · trailer ramp · WI
Oconto River Access2.8 mi · trailer ramp · WI
D.E. Hall Park4.1 mi · trailer ramp · WI
North Bay Shore Recreation Area Boat Ramp5.2 mi · trailer ramp · WI
Pensaukee River Access6.3 mi · trailer ramp · WI
Pensaukee WA7.9 mi · trailer ramp · WI

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Oconto City Park2.8 mi

Source

Launch facts are from the Wisconsin DNR, Public Boat Access Sites, retrieved 2026-10-05. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with Park & Recreation Dept. before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theWisconsin 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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