Ontonagon River Lake Run — Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout

Peak run · Coho salmon as of 1 October 2026

23.7 miles of run water on the Ontonagon River, from Lake Superior up to the end of the mainstem. 6 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.

23.7corridor miles
42NHD reaches
6species that run
Lake Superiorthe lake they come from

Six species run the Ontonagon, more than any of its Superior neighbours, over a 23.74-mile corridor across 42 NHD reaches — pierheads to 0.73, river mouth to 2.37, lower river the rest of the way. No barrier closes it; NID lists no structure on this mainstem, so the corridor runs to the end of it, a claim rather than a gap.

Steelhead are what these rivers are fished for, Sept–May, peaking late April into May — later than downstate, because the ice goes out later. Coho run Sept–Oct, and pink salmon Aug–Sept with a September peak, naturalised in Superior since the 1956 Thunder Bay escape and heaviest in odd-numbered years. Coaster brook trout enter Sept–Oct between 45 and 55°F and are largely protected; coaster browns run Sept–Nov, 45 to 58°F, peak October. Lake trout make a fall movement into the lower river, Oct–Nov, 42 to 55°F — the tributary edge of a fishery that spawns mainly on the lake's reefs, and under its own Great Lakes seasons and limits.

The questions about this river

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

What runs the Ontonagon 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 late September into October.
Steelhead — Sept–May peak Apr–May First runners. The run these rivers are fished for. A fall push from September and the spring run that peaks late April into May — later than downstate, because the ice goes out later.
Lake-run brown trout — Sept–Nov peak Oct45–58°F First runners. Coaster browns — the lake-run ecotype naturalised on this shore. Runs with the autumn steelhead; peak October.
Pink salmon — Aug–Sept peak Sep Tail-off. Naturalised in Superior since the 1956 Thunder Bay escape and heaviest in odd-numbered years; peak early September.
Lake-run brook trout — Sept–Oct 45–55°F Tail-off. Coaster brook trout, running the stream mouths in early autumn. Superior's own fish and largely protected — check the Fishing Guide before keeping one.
Lake trout — Oct–Nov peak Oct–Nov42–55°F Staging, 1 day out. A fall movement out of the lake into the lower river; peak mid-October to mid-November. Not a salmon run in scale — lake trout spawn mainly on the lake's own reefs and this is the tributary edge of that.

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	0.0–0.7
Mouth	the river mouth	0.7–2.4
Lower	the lower river	2.4–23.7

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 Ontonagon River on the live map →
The Ontonagon 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.

Coasters are a managed restoration fishery under special catch-and-release regulations on much of this shore, and the rules differ river by river. Read the state guide for the water you are on.

Lake trout carry their own seasons and bag limits in the Great Lakes and their tributaries, and they are not the trout limits.

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.
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.
Pink salmon Light spinning tackle is enough — a 6'6"–7' rod and 6–10 lb line. Small pink and orange spinners, spoons and flies.
Lake-run brook trout Catch and release, and tackle chosen to make that survivable: barbless hooks, a net that keeps the fish in the water, and heavy enough line to land it fast rather than play it out.
Lake trout Spinning: medium-heavy tackle, 12–17 lb line, spoons and heavy jigs worked deep in the lower river and off the pierheads.

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