By mid to late August in most years, the fish have begun to move upstream, and many are caught in Michigan’s cooler and faster streams and rivers, especially from the Grand River northward. Coho salmon, a pacific salmon species, were the first salmon to become firmly established in the Great Lakes in the early 1960s.
Perch and lake trout on southern Lake Michigan lead this sprawling raw As is typical for this time of year, if I’m not fishing for salmon or trout, I’m using a streamer tied on a jig.
Salmon come first. The runs usually start as a trickle in late July and early August – when the water temperatures in Lake Michigan begin to drop and river levels are high, the fish come sooner rather than later. Warm temps in the rivers combined with low water flows will delay the start. By September, things are really starting to roll.
When do Chinook salmon run in Michigan?
The beginning of September marks what Michigan anglers have been very familiar with for the past 55 years – the salmon run, with coho and Chinook salmon staging off river mouths around the entire shoreline of Lake Superior to run for spawning.
A inquiry we ran across in our research was “When is the best time to see salmon run?”.
Best time to see salmon run. Salmon spawning season takes place yearly in early to mid-October. However, you’ll see the largest schools of millions of sockeyes in the dominant years only, which occur once in four years. The last dominant year was 2018, and the next one is expected in 2022. During sub-dominant years (2019, 2023), you will also.
When does the salmon run normally begin?
The Washington, or winter run, begin entering the Salmon River in late October and continue through Spring. They feed aggressively on the abundant salmon eggs in the Fall, thus making it a very good time to go steelhead fishing. Using egg sacs or egg imitating flies and plastics are your best options.
What kind of fish are in season in Michigan this fall?
Anticipate much higher fall runs of Chinook and coho salmon to rivers and ports scattered across Lake Huron, a strong pink salmon run in the St. Marys River and northern Lake Huron and good catches of nice-sized Atlantic salmon and steelhead.