Kewaunee River Lake Run — Salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout

Peak run · Chinook salmon as of 1 October 2026

26.1 miles of run water on the Kewaunee River, from Lake Michigan 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.

26.1corridor miles
77NHD reaches
4species that run
Lake Michiganthe lake they come from

The Kewaunee is a Wisconsin tributary of Lake Michigan with 26.1 miles of run corridor cut into 77 NHD reaches — a finer-grained network than anything near it on this shore. It divides into two zones only: the pierheads and harbour mouth to river mile 2.37, then lower river all the way to 26.1. There is no barrier inside the run, since NID lists no structure on this mainstem, so the corridor is taken to run to its end — a claim rather than a gap.

Chinook stage off the harbour through August and run as the river cools on an August-to-October window, peaking early to mid September, ahead of the Michigan shore. Coho follow and overlap them, peaking mid to late September. Lake-run browns make a moderate run with and behind the salmon, peaking October. Steelhead carry October through May on two runs: a fall push that winters in the river and a spring run peaking late March into April. The windows are month-grained.

The questions about this river

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

What runs the Kewaunee 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.

Chinook salmon — Aug–Oct peak Sep Peak run. Stage off the harbour through August and run as the river cools; peak early to mid September, ahead of the Michigan shore.
Coho salmon — Sept–Oct peak Sep Peak run. Behind the chinook and overlapping them; peak mid to late September.
Steelhead — Oct–May peak Mar–Apr Staging, 1 day out. Two runs on one calendar — a fall push from October that winters in the river, and the spring run peaking late March into April.
Lake-run brown trout — Oct–Nov peak Oct Staging, 1 day out. A moderate run with and behind the salmon; peak October.

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 coordinate is cited for the top of this run. WDNR's C.D. Besadny facility takes eggs at a seasonal weir rather than a permanent barrier. The corridor is drawn to the end of the mapped mainstem, which is where the record stops.

The run water, mouth to ceiling

Zone	What it is	River miles
Pier	the pierheads and the harbour mouth	0.0–2.4
Lower	the lower river	2.4–26.1

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 Kewaunee River on the live map →
The Kewaunee 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.

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.

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