Chinook salmon Run in Wisconsin

Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, king salmon — 6 Wisconsin rivers on this map carry a run of it, Lake Michigan. 6 of them are inside a window as of 1 October 2026.

Wisconsin's chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha — the king — is a single-lake fish here: six rivers, all of them Lake Michigan water. The window is month-grained, August through October with a September peak, and it is the same on every one of the six. The Sheboygan carries the longest corridor at 40.7 miles, with the East Twin close behind at 40.4; then the Milwaukee at 29.8, the Kewaunee at 26.1, the Oconto at 14.0 and the Peshtigo at 9.4. The spread from forty miles to nine is most of what distinguishes one of these runs from another.

A king is a dark, heavy salmon with a black gum line and black spots on both lobes of the tail — the gum line separates it from a coho at the net. Eight to twenty pounds in the run, and the occasional thirty. Kings hold off the mouth until the river cools into the 60s F, then move on a rise; they stop feeding as they ripen, so a take is territorial rather than hungry.

Where these rivers are

6 run rivers on Lake Michigan — the Wisconsin shore, each in the colour of its own run stage today.

Lake Michigan — the Wisconsin shore6 run rivers on this shore, 6 inside a window today Peak run

Drawn 1 October 2026. The ground is the subbasin mesh the app scores in, so the coastline is where the mesh stops rather than a separate shoreline; the mark at each river is its mouth, drawn for every river including the handful whose whole run corridor is under a mile and has no line to show.

Where it runs, and when

Ranked by the rivers the staging estimator models first — the sixteen systems with a USGS temperature gauge behind them — then by corridor miles. Neither is a measure of fishing, and nothing on this page ranks a fishery.

River	Lake	Window	Peak	Miles	Stage
Sheboygan River	Michigan	Aug–Oct	Sep	40.7	Peak run
East Twin River	Michigan	Aug–Oct	Sep	40.4	Peak run
Milwaukee River	Michigan	Aug–Oct	Sep	29.8	Peak run
Kewaunee River	Michigan	Aug–Oct	Sep	26.1	Peak run
Oconto River	Michigan	Aug–Oct	Sep	14.0	Peak run
Peshtigo River	Michigan	Aug–Oct	Sep	9.4	Peak run

Stage as of 1 October 2026. It moves every day and this page does not — current conditions are here.

Identification

A dark, heavy salmon with a black gum line and black spots on both lobes of the tail. The gum line is the field mark that separates it from a coho at the net.

Size

Eight to twenty pounds in the run, and the occasional thirty.

Behaviour in the river

Kings hold off the mouth until the river cools into the 60s F and then move on a rise. They stop feeding as they ripen, so a take is territorial rather than hungry.

Tackle and tactics

Spinning: a medium-heavy 8'6"–9' rod, 15–20 lb line, heavy spoons and crankbaits off the pier, skein or spawn under a float in the river.
Fly: a 8–9 weight with sink tip, egg patterns and heavy leeches, 12–15 lb tippet. A king in a fast river is a tackle problem before it is a fishing one.

Regulations

Great Lakes tributary rules are not the inland trout rules, and they differ by river and often by reach. Wisconsin's regulation summary is here; the state's own guide is the regulation.

The rest of the run

Open the lake-run map →Every run river, with where the fish are holding today.Or get BirdTrout on the App Store