Jordan River Lake Run — Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout

Peak run · Coho salmon as of 1 October 2026

23.2 miles of run water on the Jordan River, from Lake Michigan up to the end of the mainstem. 4 species run it, on windows curated from MDNR guidance.

Open this river in the app

The run corridor The mouth The end of the mainstem

The colour is this river's run stage today, read off MDNR run-timing guidance. Where along the corridor the fish are is not modelled here — only the sixteen rivers the staging estimator covers carry that. Drawn 1 October 2026, north up, and it is a map of the river rather than of the lake it runs from.

23.2corridor miles
33NHD reaches
4species that run
Lake Michiganthe lake they come from

The Jordan is a 23.2-mile corridor of 33 NHD reaches running to Lake Michigan with no barrier inside it; NID lists no structure on this mainstem, so the corridor runs to the end of it, which is a claim rather than a gap in the record. The pierheads and harbour mouth take the first 0.99 miles, the river mouth reaches 2.97, and the lower river carries from there to 23.24.

Its calendar is the thing that sets it apart. Chinook run late August into late September and peak in early September — six weeks ahead of the big harbour rivers, because the Jordan is cold enough to take fish the week they arrive. Coho follow on a September-to-October window peaking mid-September into early October, and lake-run browns make a moderate run behind the salmon, peaking October. Steelhead hold the long end of the year, October through May, with a fall push into November that winters in the river and a spring run peaking March through May. These windows are month-grained.

The questions about this river

One page each, answered from the same records as this one.

What runs the Jordan River

Each window is calendar guidance curated from the state's own run-timing prose, not a regulation and not an observation. The stage beside it is this site's reading of that window against 1 October 2026.

Coho salmon — Sept–Oct peak Sep–Oct Peak run. Peak mid-September to early October.
Chinook salmon — Aug–Sept peak Sep Tail-off. Late August into late September, peaking early September — six weeks ahead of the big harbour rivers, because the Jordan is cold enough to take fish the week they arrive.
Steelhead — Oct–May peak Mar–May Staging, 1 day out. Two runs on one calendar — a fall push from October into November that winters in the river, and the spring run, peaking March through May.
Lake-run brown trout — Oct–Nov peak Oct Staging, 1 day out. A moderate run behind the salmon; peak October.

The ceiling

No barrier inside the run. The corridor runs to the end of the mainstem, which is a claim from the National Inventory of Dams rather than a gap in the data — the NID lists no structure on this river.

No barrier inside the run. NID lists no structure on this mainstem, so the corridor runs to the end of it — a claim, not a gap.

The run water, mouth to ceiling

Zone	What it is	River miles
Pier	the pierheads and the harbour mouth	0.0–1.0
Mouth	the river mouth	1.0–3.0
Lower	the lower river	3.0–23.2

River miles from the harbour mouth, walked up the NHDPlus HR mainstem. Fish arrive at the bottom of this table and work up it as the river cools and rises.

Access

No state boating access site falls inside this corridor's box. That is the record saying nothing, not this page saying there is no way in — the public land layer on the live map is the better answer for a river fished from the bank.

Open the Jordan River on the live map →
The Jordan River river page — gauges, temperature and regulations by reach →

Regulations

Great Lakes tributary rules are their own rules: seasons, gear and possession on run water differ from the inland trout regulations, and they differ by river and often by reach. Michigan's regulation summary is here, and the state's own guide is the regulation.

Tackle

General guidance by species, not by river — there is no record of what a given river fishes best with, and a page that invented one would be worse than a page that says so.

Coho salmon Spinning: a medium 7'–8'6" rod, 10–14 lb line, small spoons and spinners. Coho chase, and a moving bait outfishes a still one.
Chinook salmon 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.
Steelhead Float fishing: a long 10'6"–13' rod, 8–12 lb main line, spawn bags, beads or jigs under a slip float — the method that covers a run without wading it.
Lake-run brown trout Spinning: a medium 7'–8' rod, 8–12 lb line, minnow plugs and spoons fished at dusk and after dark, which is when these fish move.

Nearby run rivers

The next corridors up and down this shore, nearest first.

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