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Allegan City Dam, Michigan
Allegan City Dam is the top of the Kalamazoo River run — 5 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Michigan.
Open in BirdTrout42.525, -85.846667 · Allegan County · NID MI00489. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Allegan City Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Kalamazoo River — the top of the run out of Lake Michigan. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 36.4 miles of river below this structure.
| Species | In the river | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Chinook salmon | Aug–Oct | Fish stage off the harbour through August and enter as the river cools; the run peaks in October. |
| Coho salmon | Sept–Nov | Overlaps the chinook run and holds later; peak October and November. |
| Steelhead | Oct–May | Two runs on one calendar — a fall push from October that winters in the river, and the spring run that peaks March through April. |
| Lake-run brown trout | Sept–Nov | Runs with the salmon and stays after them; peak October. |
| Lake sturgeon | Apr–June | Spawns on the gravel immediately below Allegan City Dam, which is as far up as the fish can get. Peak is May, and the trigger is temperature rather than the date — the run starts around 55°F and is finished above about 64°F. Catch-and-release only — lake sturgeon is a Michigan state-threatened species and the possession season is closed on this water. Do not lift a fish out of the river. |
Curated calendar guidance from state run-timing prose, not regulation and not an observation of this river on any day. MDNR run-timing guidance and Michigan Fishing Guide prose, curated.
Ceiling cited as: EGLE Michigan Dam Inventory, DamName 'Allegan City Dam', River 'Kalamazoo River'
The structure
- Owner
- City of Allegan Local Government
- Purpose
- Recreation
- Completed
- 1900
- Type
- Earth
- Height
- 14 ft
- Length
- 450 ft
- Spillway
- Controlled, 150 ft wide
- Storage
- 1,100 acre-ft · 135 acre pool
- Drainage
- 1,523 sq mi
- Condition
- Poor · High hazard potential
From the National Inventory of Dams (USACE). Hazard potential is a downstream-consequence classification, not a statement about the structure's condition.
The water above and below
No designated coldwater reach within a mile and a half of this structure.
Water right now
| Gauge | Distance | Temp | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kalamazoo River at New Richmond, MI | 15.8 mi | 63.5 °F | 2,290 cfs |
| Kalamazoo River near Allegan, MI | 3.8 mi | — | 1,910 cfs |
Live from USGS. A gauge miles away is a gauge miles away — the distance column is there so you can discount it. A hydro dam's releases move the flow below it on a schedule the gauge sees and this page does not. 1 of the gauges above is not sending water temperature at all — a stopped gauge still answers with the last value it ever sent and nothing to say so, so those rows carry a modelled figure where one can be fitted, marked as modelled, and a dash where it cannot.
Getting to it
- Pike Lake 3.0 mi · boat launch · Pike Lake
- Echo Point 3.5 mi · boat launch · Lake Allegan
- Sheffer Lake 3.6 mi · boat launch · Sheffer Lake
- Miner Lake 3.6 mi · boat launch · Miner Lake
- Lake Allegan West 5.8 mi · boat launch · Lake Allegan
- Allegan Dam East 6.1 mi · boat launch · Kalamazoo River
Public access sites near the dam, straight-line distance. A dam itself is private property unless its owner says otherwise; these are the places the state lists as open.
Fly shops nearby
- Mac Baits 23.9 mi · Holland
- Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop 27.5 mi · Hastings · +1 269-945-4106
- Nomad Anglers 31.6 mi · Grand Rapids