Hand / carry-in launch · Lake Michigan · Indiana

Winding Creek Cove Launch

Name: Winding Creek Cove
Address: IN, US
Telephone: (219) 873-1400

A public hand / carry-in launch on Trail Creek in LaPorte County, Indiana. Managed by City of Michigan City.

Directions Call (219) 873-1400 All Michigan launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Hand / carry-in launch — carry-down launch
Water: Trail Creek
Parking: Parking lot
Accessible features: Listed by the agency
Fee: No fee listed
Managed by: City of Michigan City
Location: LaPorte County, Indiana
Coordinates: 41.7196° N, 86.8801° W

Directions as listed: From US35 and E. 8th Street junction, go E 0.7 mile on E. 8th St.

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

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

Coho Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

Michigan City and Burns Harbor: Indiana's short shoreline punches above its weight in spring. Shallow, warm and close to the launch, with fish frequently inside 30 feet of water.

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

Yellow Perch Fishing on Lake Michigan

Michigan City and the Burns Ditch area, Indiana: Indiana's small share of shoreline concentrates fish. The pier at Michigan City is a genuine perch spot in August and September.

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

Trail Creek Marina0.7 mi · trailer ramp · IN
Washington Park1.4 mi · trailer ramp · IN
New Buffalo8.9 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Galien River11 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Portage Marina (Burns Waterway)17 mi · trailer ramp · IN
Pastrick Marina29 mi · trailer ramp · IN

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Every public launch around Michigan City and Portage, closest first.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Old Michigan City Light1.3 mi · deactivated
Michigan City East Light1.8 mi
Michigan City Breakwater Light1.9 mi

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Indiana Dunes National Park10 mi · dunes

Source

Launch facts are from the Indiana DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife, Fishing Access Sites, retrieved 2026-10-27. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with City of Michigan City before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theIndiana DNR.

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

Lake Michigan launches Indiana launches Launches near Michigan City Launches near Portage Lake Michigan field guide Indiana shoreline