Kent County
Rogue River
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USGS Site: 04118500 • Rogue River near Rockford • View full data ↗
The Rockford gauge sits about three miles below the dam, inside the run water rather than above it — unusually good placement for this page. It reports flow only; there is no thermometer on it.
Public Access Points
Salmon & Steelhead on the Rogue
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
Building
Typical: Sep 2 – Nov 2, peak Sep 23 – Oct 13
Late. These fish come up the whole Grand before they turn into the Rogue.
Coho Coho Salmon
Building
Typical: Sep 16 – Nov 18, peak Oct 4 – Oct 31
Steelhead Steelhead
First fish
Typical: Sep 28 – Apr 18, peak Oct 28 – Dec 23
The Rogue is a steelhead river before it is a salmon river, and the spring run is the bigger one — local shops put it at roughly 30% of the fish in autumn and 70% in spring. Fish hold in the dam pool through the winter.
Upstream limit
Rockford Dam DNR’s Grand River assessment says dams on the lower Rogue, Flat and Thornapple block spawning runs.
Whose fish
Stocked Read the stocking record carefully here — the Rogue’s rainbow history is full of Eagle Lake, Shasta, Harrietta and Arlee plants, which are inland rainbows and not steelhead.
Access
Peppler Park at the Rockford Dam, Pickett Park, Rogue River Park in Belmont, and the bridges at Jericho, Childsdale and Packer Drive. Mostly wadeable below the dam — one of the easiest rivers in West Michigan to get into. Some reaches have soft bottoms and fish better from a boat.
Regulations
Type 4 water, with a rule specific to this river: between the Rockford Dam and the Grand you may keep up to five rainbow trout a day, no more than three of 15 inches or over and no more than one of 20 inches or over, year round. Check the current DNR guide before you go.
What to throw
Steelhead standards — single eggs, beads, small stoneflies, swung buggers. Heavier tubes and articulated streamers while the salmon are in.
More: the salmon run tracker for where every river stands today, and steelhead rivers for whose fish these are and what you may keep.
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