Manistee River Lake Run — Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout

Peak run · Chinook salmon as of 1 October 2026

29.9 miles of run water on the Manistee River, from Lake Michigan up to Tippy Dam. 5 species run it, on windows curated from MDNR guidance.

Open this river in the app

The run corridor The mouth Tippy 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 Michigan, which this picture does not reach. That day's gauge and lake readings were measured. Drawn 1 October 2026, north up, and it is a map of the river rather than of the lake it runs from.

29.9corridor miles
79NHD reaches
5species that run
Lake Michiganthe lake they come from

Tippy Dam is the ceiling on the Manistee — USACE NID MI00200, Consumers Energy Company, source agency FERC — and it closes a 29.9-mile corridor of 79 NHD reaches off from Lake Michigan. The pierheads and harbour mouth run to river mile 1.79, the mouth to 5.37, the lower river to 20.09, and from there to 29.88 the corridor is above the first holding water and up against the dam.

The windows here carry the estimator's dates rather than months: chinook 15 August to 31 October, coho 1 September to 30 November, steelhead 1 October to 31 December with a spring run peaking March through April, and lake-run brown trout 20 October to 31 January. The river also carries lake sturgeon, April through June with a May peak, triggered by temperature rather than date — starting around 55°F and finished above about 64°F — spawning on the gravel immediately below Tippy, which is as far up as the fish can get. That run is a remnant, monitored rather than fished, assessed each spring by MDNR and the Little River Band. Possession is closed on this water and the fishery is catch-and-release.

The questions about this river

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

What runs the Manistee 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. This river is one of the sixteen the staging estimator models, so the window is shown in the estimator's dated form. Those dates are one statewide set, the same on all sixteen rivers, and no more river-specific than the months they restate — what the estimator adds here is the daily staging read, not a sharper calendar.

Chinook salmon — 15 Aug – 31 Oct peak 15 Aug – 15 Oct Peak run. Fish stage off the harbour through August and enter as the river cools; the run peaks in October.
Coho salmon — 1 Sep – 30 Nov peak 15 Sep – 15 Nov Peak run. Overlaps the chinook run and holds later; peak October and November.
Steelhead — 1 Oct – 31 Dec peak 15 Oct – 15 Dec Staging, 1 day out. 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 — 20 Oct – 31 Jan peak 1 Nov – 15 Jan Off-season. Runs with the salmon and stays after them; peak October.
Lake sturgeon — Apr–June peak May55–64°F Off-season. 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.

The ceiling

Tippy Dam is where the run stops. Everything above it is upstream of the fishery — a fish cannot pass it, so the water above holds resident trout and not run fish, whatever the calendar says.

USACE NID MI00200 'Tippy', Consumers Energy Company, River or Stream Name 'Manistee River', Source Agency FERC

The run water, mouth to ceiling

Zone	What it is	River miles
Pier	the pierheads and the harbour mouth	0.0–1.8
Mouth	the river mouth	1.8–5.4
Lower	the lower river	5.4–20.1
Upstream	above the first holding water, up to the ceiling	20.1–29.9

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

State boating access sites inside the corridor's box, from the MDNR Boating Access Sites record. A ramp is not a wade-in — these are where a boat and a car go, and the bank between them is a question for the public land layer on the live map.

First Street boat launch · Manistee River · 282 parking spaces · restroom · fee · Municipal
Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Lower boat launch · Manistee River · 43 parking spaces · restroom · fee · Dnr-Prd
Eastlake Penny Park boat launch · Manistee Lake · 25 parking spaces · restroom · fee · Municipal
Arthur Street boat launch · Manistee Lake · 22 parking spaces · restroom · fee · Municipal
Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Upper boat launch · Tippy Dam Pond - Manistee River · 2 parking spaces · fee · Dnr-Prd
Bridge Street boat launch · Manistee River · Municipal
Manistee River Tippy Dam South walk in
Manistee River Tippy Dam State Recreation Area walk in

Open the Manistee River on the live map →
The Manistee 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.

Lake sturgeon is a Michigan state-threatened species. Possession is closed on this water and the fishery is catch-and-release. The MDNR rehabilitation strategy and the Fishing Guide are the rules; this page is not.

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.

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.
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.
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.
Lake sturgeon Catch and release only, and this is the one species on this surface where the tackle note is a handling note. Do not lift a sturgeon out of the water, do not hold it vertically, and support it fully if it must be moved.

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