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Tippy Dam, Michigan
Tippy Dam is the top of the Manistee River run — 5 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Michigan.
Open in BirdTrout44.2583, -85.9383 · Manistee County · NID MI00200. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Tippy Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Manistee River — the top of the run out of Lake Michigan. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 29.9 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 Tippy 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. A remnant run, monitored rather than fished — MDNR and the Little River Band assess it below the dam each spring. 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 MI00200 'Tippy', Consumers Energy Company, River or Stream Name 'Manistee River', Source Agency FERC
The structure
- Owner
- Consumers Energy Company Public Utility
- Purpose
- Hydroelectric, Recreation
- Completed
- 1918
- Type
- Gravity
- Height
- 82 ft
- Length
- 830 ft
- Spillway
- Controlled
- Storage
- 27,620 acre-ft · 1,330 acre pool
- Drainage
- 1,451 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
- Manistee River 0.08 mi from the dam · Cold transitional large river (MDNR VSEC) · typed Cold-transitional
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manistee River near Wellston, MI | 0.2 mi | 63.0 °F | 1,530 cfs |
| Manistee River near Mesick, MI | 9.3 mi | 62.4 °F | 1,110 cfs |
| Pine River at High School Bridge Nr Hoxeyville, MI | 9.5 mi | 52.0 °F | 209 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.
Getting to it
- Manistee River Tippy Dam South 0.1 mi · walk in
- Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Upper 0.2 mi · boat launch · Tippy Dam Pond - Manistee River
- Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Lower 0.3 mi · boat launch · Manistee River
- Manistee River Tippy Dam State Recreation Area 0.7 mi · walk in
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
- Schmidt Outfitters 3.2 mi · Wellston
- Andy's Tackle Box 4.7 mi · Brethren
- Johnson's Pere Marquette Lodge 24.8 mi · Baldwin
- Ed's Sport Shop 25.1 mi · Baldwin
- Baldwin Bait & Tackle 25.2 mi · Baldwin