Michigan's marquee salmon run, in the Tippy Dam tailwater near Wellston.
If Michigan has one address for the fall salmon run, this is it. The tailwater below Tippy Dam gathers as many staging chinook as any river in the state, and the same water turns into a steelhead factory from October clear through spring.
Chinook stack below Tippy Dam from the middle of September, with the heaviest push through the last week of September and the first two weeks of October. Numbers here are what draw anglers from three states.
Coho mix in through October. Fall steelhead follow the salmon in and keep coming as the water cools, with a strong winter holdover fishery and a heavy spring run in March and April.
The dam pool below Tippy is a spawn, skein, and fly game, and it gets crowded during the king peak. Below it, drift boats work the classic Tippy to High Bridge and High Bridge to Rainbow Bend floats with plugs, spawn bags, and egg flies. This is more of a float fishery than a wading river once you leave the dam.
Tippy Dam Recreation Area and the tailwater access below the dam, High Bridge, Rainbow Bend, and Bear Creek are the main launches and foot-access points. The upper tailwater near the dam sees heavy bank pressure during the run.