BirdTrout
Open the map
Rockford Dam, Michigan
Rockford Dam is the top of the Rogue River run — 4 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Michigan.
Open in BirdTrout43.120513, -85.561868 · Kent County · NID MI00572. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Rockford Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Rogue River — the top of the run out of Lake Michigan. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 5.6 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: Rockford Dam, carried as the anadromous ceiling on our own river map and as OpenStreetMap way 'Rockford Dam'
The structure
- Owner
- City of Rockford Local Government
- Purpose
- Recreation
- Completed
- 1888
- Type
- Gravity
- Height
- 19 ft
- Length
- 232 ft
- Spillway
- Controlled, 182 ft wide
- Storage
- 180 acre-ft · 23 acre pool
- Drainage
- 225 sq mi
- Condition
- Satisfactory · Significant 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 | 8.4 mi | 63.3 °F | — |
| Grand River at 6th St at Grand Rapids, MI | 11.4 mi | 63.8 °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. 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
- Summit Road 1.9 mi · canoe launch · Rogue River
- Friske Drive 2.7 mi · canoe launch · Rogue River
- Rogue River Mouth 4.1 mi · boat launch · Grand River
- Camp Lake 6.3 mi · boat launch · Camp Lake
- Lime Lake 7.2 mi · boat launch · Lime Lake
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
- Brenners Sporting Goods 6.7 mi · Comstock Park · +1-616-785-3388
- Thornapple Orvis 11.7 mi · Ada
- Nomad Anglers 12.1 mi · Grand Rapids
- Parsley's Sport Shop 23.8 mi · Newaygo
- Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop 34.8 mi · Hastings · +1 269-945-4106