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Grand Rapids West Side Dam, Michigan
Grand Rapids West Side Dam is the top of the Grand River run — 5 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Michigan.
Open in BirdTrout42.98, -85.675 · Kent County · NID MI00508. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Grand Rapids West Side Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Grand River — the top of the run out of Lake Michigan. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 42.2 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 Sixth Street 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. The run everybody in Grand Rapids can walk to; the fish hold in the pool below the dam in the middle of the city. 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: Sixth Street Dam, carried as the anadromous ceiling on our own river map
The structure
- Owner
- City of Grand Rapids Local Government
- Purpose
- Recreation
- Completed
- 1917
- Type
- Gravity
- Height
- 24 ft
- Length
- 520 ft
- Drainage
- 4,883 sq mi
- Condition
- Not Rated · 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand River at N Park St Ne at Grand Rapids, MI | 3.0 mi | 63.5 °F | — |
| Grand River at 6th St at Grand Rapids, MI | 0.2 mi | 63.8 °F | — |
| Grand River near Eastmanville, MI | 18.0 mi | 64.0 °F | 2,590 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. 2 of the gauges above are 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
- Riverside Park #2 1.9 mi · boat launch · Grand River
- Riverside Park #3 2.8 mi · boat launch · Grand River
- Johnson Park 5.4 mi · boat launch · Grand River
- Grandville 6.6 mi · boat launch · Grand River
- Knapp Street Bridge 7.0 mi · boat launch · Grand River
- Rogue River Mouth 7.3 mi · boat launch · Grand 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
- Nomad Anglers 1.2 mi · Grand Rapids
- Brenners Sporting Goods 4.9 mi · Comstock Park · +1-616-785-3388
- Thornapple Orvis 9.4 mi · Ada
- Mac Baits 26.5 mi · Holland
- Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop 28.9 mi · Hastings · +1 269-945-4106