Cranberry River Lake Run — Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout

Peak run · Coho salmon as of 1 October 2026

8.8 miles of run water on the Cranberry River, from Lake Superior up to the end of the mainstem. 4 species run it, on windows curated from WDNR 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 WDNR 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.

8.8corridor miles
24NHD reaches
4species that run
Lake Superiorthe lake they come from

The Cranberry is a short Lake Superior tributary on the Wisconsin side — 8.8 corridor miles across 24 NHD reaches, with no barrier inside the run. NID lists no structure on this mainstem, so the corridor runs to the end of it; that is a claim in the records rather than a gap in them. Three zones lie between the lake and the top: the pierheads and harbour mouth from river mile 0.0 to 1.44, the river mouth from 1.44 to 2.78, and the lower river from 2.78 to 8.77.

Steelhead are what this coast is fished for, Sept–May with the peak April into early May as the ice goes out. Coho run Sept–Oct, thin beside the steelhead, peaking in September; lake-run browns Sept–Nov, peaking October. Coasters run the stream mouths Sept–Oct under special catch-and-release rules. The windows here are month-grained.

The questions about this river

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

What runs the Cranberry 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 Peak run. Thin beside the steelhead and worth knowing about; peak late September.
Steelhead — Sept–May peak Apr–May First runners. What this coast is fished for. A fall push from September into November and the spring run, peaking April into early May as the ice goes out.
Lake-run brown trout — Sept–Nov peak Oct First runners. Runs with the autumn steelhead; peak October.
Lake-run brook trout — Sept–Oct Tail-off. Coasters, running the stream mouths in early autumn. Superior's own fish and heavily restricted — check the WDNR regulations before keeping one.

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	0.0–1.4
Mouth	the river mouth	1.4–2.8
Lower	the lower river	2.8–8.8

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

The boating access record this site holds is MDNR's and covers Michigan only, so there is no access list here rather than a list of the wrong state's ramps. The WDNR publishes Wisconsin's.

Open the Cranberry River on the live map →
The Cranberry 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. Wisconsin'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.

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.
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.

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