Where do you access the Au Sable River lake run?

Where to access the Au Sable River lake run

The run corridor The mouth Foote Dam — the run stops here The piers — 9%

The pale water is where chinook were holding on 2026-09-30 — 91% of the run was still out on Lake Huron, which this picture does not reach. That day's gauge and lake readings were measured. Drawn 30 September 2026, north up, and it is a map of the river rather than of the lake it runs from.

No state boating access site falls inside the Au Sable River corridor's box. That is the record saying nothing rather than this page saying there is no way in. The run is 10.2 miles long and splits into the pier at river mile 0.0–1.1, the mouth at river mile 1.1–3.3, the lower at river mile 3.0–7.7 and the upstream at river mile 7.7–10.2; the pier and the mouth are boat and breakwall water and the miles above them are waded. The upstream end is Foote Dam, which is where the fish stop and where the water above holds resident trout instead. The nearest town we map is Alpena, 44.2 miles from the corridor's midpoint in a straight line, with the water south of the town.

10.2 corridor miles · Lake Huron · windows curated from MDNR guidance · page built 30 September 2026

Access sites

No state boating access site falls inside this corridor's bounding box. That is the record saying nothing, not this page saying there is no way in — road crossings and public ground are how a river like this is reached, and the public land layer on the live map is where to look.

Wade-in or boat, by zone

Pier — river mile 0.0–1.1 Breakwall and pier. Cast tackle and a long-handled net; no wading here.
Mouth — river mile 1.1–3.3 The harbour mouth and the first flat water. Boat and pier water, wadeable only where the river narrows above the turning basin.
Lower — river mile 3.0–7.7 The lower river — the holding water most of the run is caught in. Drift boat where it is wide enough, waded where it is not.
Upstream — river mile 7.7–10.2 Above the first holding water, up to the ceiling. Wading and bank fishing; too small or too shallow for most boats.

Zones are the corridor file's, cut on river mile. This site holds no wadeability survey, so the note beside each zone is what the zone is and not a promise about any particular bank.

The upstream end

Foote Dam, at 44.4353, -83.4406. Above it the water holds resident trout rather than run fish, so it is the top of the fishery as well as the top of the corridor.

Nearest towns

Straight-line distance from the corridor's midpoint to the towns we map. The roads are not mapped here, so these are not drive times.

Alpena44.2 miles away — the water is south of it

Nearby run rivers

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