Sturgeon River (Baraga County) Lake Run — Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout

Peak run · Coho salmon as of 1 October 2026

41.3 miles of run water on the Sturgeon River, from Lake Superior up to Prickett. 7 species run it, on windows curated from MDNR guidance.

Open this river in the app

The run corridor The mouth Prickett — the run stops here

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.

41.3corridor miles
62NHD reaches
7species that run
Lake Superiorthe lake they come from

The Baraga County Sturgeon is 41.3 miles across 62 NHD reaches, and most of that is upstream zone — river mile 8.12 to the ceiling at 41.33. The ceiling is Prickett, USACE NID MI00193, source agency the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Below it, pierheads hold the first 1.13 miles, the river mouth 1.13 to 3.01, and the lower river 3.01 to 8.12.

Lake sturgeon are what this river has that its Lake Superior neighbours do not. They spawn on the gravel immediately below Prickett Dam, which is as far up as the fish can get, Apr–June with a May peak triggered by temperature rather than date — starting around 55°F and finished above about 64°F. Namé is a clan animal to the Ojibwe of this bay, and the assessment work below the dam is the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's as much as the state's; the fishery is catch-and-release for a state-threatened species. Steelhead run Sept–May, coho and pinks in autumn, coaster brook trout in both May–June and Sept–Oct, and lake trout Oct–Nov. All windows are month-grained.

The questions about this river

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

What runs the Sturgeon 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.
Lake-run brook trout — Sept–Oct peak Sep–Oct45–55°F Peak run. Coaster brook trout staging for the spring spawn; peak late September into October. Special catch-and-release regulations apply on this water.
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 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.
Lake-run brook trout — May–June peak May–Jun45–55°F Off-season. Coaster brook trout, the spring entry after ice-out; peak late May into June. A managed restoration fishery under special catch-and-release regulations — very few fish, and the point of the entry is that they exist. Check the Fishing Guide before you go.
Lake sturgeon — Apr–June peak May55–64°F Off-season. Spawns on the gravel immediately below Prickett 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. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's river and its fish — namé is a clan animal to the Ojibwe of this bay, and the assessment work below the dam is the Band's as much as the state's. Prickett blocks the migration outright — everything above it is upstream of the run. 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

Prickett 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 MI00193 'Prickett', River or Stream Name 'Sturgeon River', Source Agency Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

The run water, mouth to ceiling

Zone	What it is	River miles
Pier	the pierheads and the harbour mouth	0.0–1.1
Mouth	the river mouth	1.1–3.0
Lower	the lower river	3.0–8.1
Upstream	above the first holding water, up to the ceiling	8.1–41.3

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 Sturgeon River (Baraga County) on the live map →
The Sturgeon 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.

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 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.

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.
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.
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 trout Spinning: medium-heavy tackle, 12–17 lb line, spoons and heavy jigs worked deep in the lower river and off the pierheads.
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 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