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Boyne River Dam, Michigan
Boyne River Dam is the top of the Boyne River run — 4 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Michigan.
Open in BirdTrout45.1958, -84.952 · Charlevoix County · NID MI00515. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Boyne River Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Boyne River — the top of the run out of Lake Michigan. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 4.0 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. |
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: USACE NID MI00515 'Boyne River', River or Stream Name 'Boyne River', Source Agency Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The structure
- Owner
- Boyne USA Inc Private
- Purpose
- Hydroelectric, Recreation
- Completed
- 1904
- Type
- Earth
- Height
- 37 ft
- Length
- 865 ft
- Spillway
- Uncontrolled, 20 ft wide
- Storage
- 1,390 acre-ft · 80 acre pool
- Drainage
- 58 sq mi
- Condition
- Satisfactory · Low hazard potential
- Status
- Normal Operations
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
- Boyne River 0.67 mi from the dam · Cold stream (MDNR VSEC) · typed Cold
Coldwater designation is the state's own classification. A dam sits on one river and this list is every designated reach within a mile and a half of it, so a tributary mouth shows up here too.
Water right now
| Gauge | Distance | Temp | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan River near East Jordan, MI | 9.6 mi | — | 176 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
No listed public access site within 8 miles of this dam.
Fly shops nearby
- Bearcub Outfitters 12.4 mi
- The Outfitter 16.3 mi
- North Shore Outfitters 32.7 mi · Northport