There is no USGS gauge on this river. No flow, no water temperature, no normal to compare against — not a fault, simply a river nobody measures. The run status below leans on the calendar and on dated reports instead, and says so where it does.
Run status is rebuilt twice a day from the live gauge and the DNR's own run windows. The windows are typical timing, not a forecast — what actually moves fish is water temperature and a rise, and the run tracker carries both for every river at once.
Kings Chinook Salmon
Tailing off
Typical: Aug 21 – Oct 21, peak Sep 11 – Oct 1
UP rivers cool early, so the run starts early.
Coho Coho Salmon
Building
Typical: Sep 7 – Nov 9, peak Sep 25 – Oct 22
Steelhead Steelhead
First fish
Typical: Sep 21 – Apr 11, peak Oct 21 – Dec 16
Upstream limit
Manistique Dam DNR: potamodromous fish “can only migrate up to the MPI dam”. No ladder is described. Removal is named as a management priority, so this is the barrier most likely to change.
Whose fish
Stocked
Access
The dam in Manistique, the boardwalk, the river mouth. Wade.
Crowding
Light by Lower Peninsula standards.
Regulations
Upper Peninsula regulations differ from the Lower — check the right section of the guide.
What to throw
Standard run tactics.
DNR The state's weekly fishing report of Sep 30 named pink salmon and salmon on this water. Read the report.