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Prickett Dam, Michigan
Prickett Dam is the top of the Sturgeon River (Baraga County) run — 8 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Superior.
Open in BirdTrout46.7244, -88.6683 · Baraga County · NID MI00193. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Prickett Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Sturgeon River (Baraga County) — the top of the run out of Lake Superior. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 41.3 miles of river below this structure.
| Species | In the river | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Steelhead | Sept–May | The run these rivers are fished for. A fall push from September and the spring run that peaks late April into May — later than downstate, because the ice goes out later. |
| Coho salmon | Sept–Oct | Peak late September into October. |
| Pink salmon | Aug–Sept | Naturalised in Superior since the 1956 Thunder Bay escape and heaviest in odd-numbered years; peak early September. |
| Lake-run brown trout | Sept–Nov | Coaster browns — the lake-run ecotype naturalised on this shore. Runs with the autumn steelhead; peak October. |
| Lake-run brook trout | May–June | Coaster brook trout, the spring entry after ice-out; peak late May into June. A managed restoration fishery under special catch-and-release regulations — very few fish, and the point of the entry is that they exist. Check the Fishing Guide before you go. |
| Lake-run brook trout | Sept–Oct | Coaster brook trout staging for the spring spawn; peak late September into October. Special catch-and-release regulations apply on this water. |
| Lake trout | Oct–Nov | A fall movement out of the lake into the lower river; peak mid-October to mid-November. Not a salmon run in scale — lake trout spawn mainly on the lake's own reefs and this is the tributary edge of that. |
| Lake sturgeon | Apr–June | Spawns on the gravel immediately below Prickett 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 Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's river and its fish — namé is a clan animal to the Ojibwe of this bay, and the assessment work below the dam is the Band's as much as the state's. Prickett blocks the migration outright — everything above it is upstream of the run. 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: USACE NID MI00193 'Prickett', River or Stream Name 'Sturgeon River', Source Agency Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The structure
- Purpose
- Hydroelectric, Recreation
- Completed
- 1931
- Type
- Multi-Arch
- Height
- 54 ft
- Length
- 628 ft
- Spillway
- Controlled, 72 ft wide
- Storage
- 13,687 acre-ft · 773 acre pool
- Drainage
- 400 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Falls River near L'anse, MI | 10.7 mi | 49.1 °F | 18 cfs |
| Sturgeon River near Alston, MI | 0.3 mi | 58.1 °F | 108 cfs |
| Gomanche Creek at Indian Road near L'anse, MI | 14.6 mi | 49.1 °F | 0 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
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.