Where do you access the Manistee River lake run?

Where to access the Manistee River lake run

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 30 September 2026, north up, and it is a map of the river rather than of the lake it runs from.

8 state boating access sites fall inside the Manistee River corridor in MDNR's own record, 374 parking spaces between them — First Street, Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Lower and Eastlake Penny Park. The run is 29.9 miles long and splits into the pier at river mile 0.0–1.8, the mouth at river mile 1.8–5.4, the lower at river mile 5.4–20.1 and the upstream at river mile 20.1–29.9; the pier and the mouth are boat and breakwall water and the miles above them are waded. The upstream end is Tippy Dam, which is where the fish stop and where the water above holds resident trout instead. The nearest town we map is Baldwin, 29.3 miles from the corridor's midpoint in a straight line, with the water north-west of the town.

29.9 corridor miles · Lake Michigan · windows curated from MDNR guidance · page built 30 September 2026

State access sites inside the corridor

From the MDNR Boating Access Sites record, filtered to this corridor's bounding box. 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.

Site	Type	Parking	Notes
First Street	boat launchManistee River	282	restroom · feeMunicipal
Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Lower	boat launchManistee River	43	restroom · feeDnr-Prd
Eastlake Penny Park	boat launchManistee Lake	25	restroom · feeMunicipal
Arthur Street	boat launchManistee Lake	22	restroom · feeMunicipal
Tippy Dam State Recreation Area Upper	boat launchTippy Dam Pond - Manistee River	2	feeDnr-Prd
Bridge Street	boat launchManistee River	—	Municipal
Manistee River Tippy Dam South	walk in	—
Manistee River Tippy Dam State Recreation Area	walk in	—

Wade-in or boat, by zone

Pier — river mile 0.0–1.8 Breakwall and pier. Cast tackle and a long-handled net; no wading here.
Mouth — river mile 1.8–5.4 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 5.4–20.1 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 20.1–29.9 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

Tippy Dam, at 44.2583, -85.9383. 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.

Baldwin29.3 miles away — the water is north-west of it
Cadillac36.0 miles away — the water is west of it
Traverse City42.1 miles away — the water is south-west 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