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Foote Dam, Michigan
Foote Dam is the top of the Au Sable River run — 4 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Huron.
Open in BirdTrout44.435343, -83.440631 · Iosco County · NID MI00169. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Foote Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Au Sable River — the top of the run out of Lake Huron. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 10.2 miles of river below this structure.
| Species | In the river | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Steelhead | Oct–May | The run that carries these rivers now. Fall push from October, spring peak in April. |
| Chinook salmon | Aug–Oct | Thin and variable; peak September. Lake Huron's alewife collapsed in 2003-04 and the chinook fishery went with it. Carried as a thin run rather than dropped, because fish still return to the stocked rivers — but a Huron chinook run is not a Lake Michigan one and this layer will not draw it as though it were. |
| Pink salmon | Aug–Sept | Naturalised, and heaviest in odd-numbered years — the two-year life cycle is what makes the run alternate. |
| Atlantic salmon | Sept–Nov | Michigan first stocked Atlantics in the Au Sable in 1972 and the programme continues; 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 MI00169 'Foote', Consumers Energy Company, River or Stream Name 'Au Sable River', Source Agency FERC
The structure
- Owner
- Consumers Energy Company Public Utility
- Purpose
- Hydroelectric
- Completed
- 1918
- Type
- Gravity
- Height
- 51 ft
- Length
- 4100 ft
- Spillway
- Controlled
- Storage
- 30,000 acre-ft · 1,800 acre pool
- Drainage
- 1,832 sq mi
- Condition
- Satisfactory · High 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
No designated coldwater reach within a mile and a half of this structure.
Water right now
| Gauge | Distance | Temp | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Au Sable River near Au Sable, MI | 0.3 mi | 66.2 °F | 1,190 cfs |
| Au Sable River near Sidtown, MI | 6.9 mi | 64.8 °F | — |
| Au Sable River near Glennie, MI | 11.6 mi | 61.5 °F | — |
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.
Getting to it
No listed public access site within 8 miles of this dam.
Open this water on the map →Every reach around it coloured by today's water temperature, with the access points along it.