Great Lakes salmon and steelhead · Wisconsin

When Salmon and Steelhead Run in Wisconsin

Q: When do salmon run in Wisconsin?

2 runs are inside its published window right now: Fall run, salmon and trout, September 1 to December 31; Strawberry Creek Chinook, October 1 to October 21. Every one of those windows on this page is drawn from a sentence an agency wrote, and the sentence is printed next to it so you can see how precise it really is.

Q: Does this page tell me whether I can fish in Wisconsin right now?

Open seasons in Wisconsin are set by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, linked on this page. Seasons, bag limits, gear rules and licence requirements are law, they change inside a season, and they often differ from one stretch of a river to the next. This page publishes run timing, which is biology; a run window is not an open season.

Q: Are the numbers on this page fish counts?

No. They are water temperature and discharge from 6 U.S. Geological Survey gauges on Wisconsin rivers, read live and shown with the time each measurement was taken. Where a fish count exists, the programme that publishes it is linked on this page.

Q: Why does water temperature matter to a salmon run?

Because a Great Lakes tributary run turns on the streams cooling down. New York State puts the optimum range for steelhead migration at 45 to 58 degrees F and says the run intensifies through October as the streams drop into it. The gauge readings above let you see where a river sits against that.

Q: Which Wisconsin rivers does this page cover?

6: Root River, Kewaunee River, Milwaukee River, Sheboygan River, Oconto River, Peshtigo River. They are the rivers people search by name, each with a reporting USGS gauge. 5 of the 6 carry a working water temperature sensor; the rest report discharge only, and the table says so.

Wisconsin runs two counting facilities on Lake Michigan tributaries and publishes what goes through them on a fixed weekly schedule. That schedule is itself the clearest statement the state makes about when its runs happen.

Runs on this page

each with the sentence it came from

Species

Chinook, Steelhead

Rivers read live

USGS gauges

In window today

Fall run, salmon and trout, Strawberry Creek Chinook

Seasons, limits and licence rules are set by your state agency.

The calendar

Wisconsin run by run

Each bar below spans January to December, with today marked, and draws the quoted sentence underneath it. Where an agency describes a run by season rather than by month, the card carries the sentence without a bar.

Fall run, salmon and trout

In the window now

September 1 to December 31

The Department of Natural Resources posts Root River facility updates every week from September through December, which is the fall run. The Strawberry Creek Chinook facility in Door County works a much tighter window.

Updates are posted at 4 p.m. every Tuesday or Wednesday from September through December and March through May.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Spring steelhead run

Window has passed

March 1 to May 31

The other half of the same schedule. In one recent spring the Root River facility started on 17 March, finished processing on 13 April, and put 2,681 steelhead through in five days of work.

The Root River Steelhead Facility was started for the spring season on Tuesday, March 17. The fifth and final fish processing day was Monday, April 13.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Strawberry Creek Chinook

In the window now

October 1 to October 21

Door County. Three weeks, and that is the whole thing.

Species: Chinook salmon Location: On Strawberry Lane off of County Highway U, east of Sturgeon Bay and south of the ship canal in Door County Dates: Typically operates the first three weeks of October

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Right now

What Wisconsin rivers are doing today

Live water temperature and discharge from USGS gauges, with the time each reading was taken. These are river conditions, not fish counts.
River	Water temp	Flow
Root Riverat 60th Street near Caledonia	Loading	Loading
Kewaunee Rivernear Kewaunee	Loading	Loading
Milwaukee Riverat Milwaukee	Loading	Loading
Sheboygan Riverat Sheboygan	Loading	Loading
Oconto Rivernear Oconto	Loading	Loading
Peshtigo Riverat Peshtigo	Loading	Loading

Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values service. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge list verified 2026-08-24.

A salmon held in fast white water full of bubbles, photographed from underwater at the foot of a fish passage structure — A coho at the base of a fish ladder at Lower Lake Creek Falls in Oregon, in water so aerated it reads as static. Every dam between the sea and the spawning gravel is a place where a run can stall, which is one reason flow matters as much as the calendar does. “The Greatest Journey (52547039906)” — BLM Oregon & Washington — Public Domain

The rivers themselves

What is particular about Wisconsin

The Kewaunee River facility runs on a slightly different calendar from the Root: the state posts there every Tuesday from March through April and again from October through early November. In one recent spring 5,410 fish went through it. Both facilities process fish on fixed weekdays, and both make the point that the actual days depend on water conditions and on how many fish are in the weir.

We will post new information to this site every Tuesday at 4 p.m. from March through April and October through early November.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

A deep red coho salmon with a dark green hooked head, photographed underwater just above a bed of pale gravel — A coho on the spawning gravel, photographed by the Bureau of Land Management on the Salmon River in Oregon. The colour and the hooked jaw are what an adult does to itself after it enters fresh water; the fish that left the ocean a few weeks earlier was plain silver. That change is why a run window and a spawning window are different questions. “Coho Spawning on the Salmon River (16148779468)” — Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington — Public Domain

Fish counts

Where to find real fish numbers

Fish passage counts are published by the programmes that run the counting stations, linked below with what each one reports.

Where the actual fish counts are published

Wisconsin DNR Root River Steelhead Facility reportNumbers of fish processed at the facility, posted at 4pm every Tuesday or Wednesday from September through December and March through May.
Wisconsin DNR Besadny Anadromous Fisheries Facility reportKewaunee River counts, posted every Tuesday at 4pm from March through April and October through early November.

A bright red sockeye salmon with a green head and an open hooked jaw, half out of the water in a shallow stream — A spawning male sockeye. Sockeye are the run that most obviously needs a particular kind of river: they rear as fry in a lake, so a system without one gets no sockeye at all, however good the gravel is. “July 2010, Spawning male sockeye (6990781448)” — US Environmental Protection Agency — Public Domain

Common questions

Wisconsin salmon run timing FAQ

When do salmon run in Wisconsin?

Does this page tell me whether I can fish in Wisconsin right now?

Are the numbers on this page fish counts?

Why does water temperature matter to a salmon run?

Which Wisconsin rivers does this page cover?

What is the difference between when a run happens and when the fish spawn?

Often months. A run is the migration out of salt or lake water and up the river. Spawning happens after it, sometimes immediately and sometimes not at all for half a year. Michigan puts it plainly for steelhead: fish enter the streams from late October, overwinter there, and do not spawn until March or April. Where a source gave us one and not the other, the card above says which one it is describing.

A slow river running past a mown riverside park under a clear blue sky — Wisconsin water. Everything on this page is about the weeks in which fish move through it. “Racine October 2023 114 (Root River and Cedar Bend Park)” by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

The rest of the Wisconsin year

Plan the rest of your Wisconsin calendar

Every state with a runThe national picture, and the states with no run at all.Wisconsin lakesStill water rather than moving water, with its own conditions.Wisconsin fall foliageThe colour on the bank while the fall run is going up.

Other Great Lakes states

More Midwest states with a run

Run windows on this page are quoted from the agency named beside each one. River conditions come from the U.S. Geological Survey and are readings, not forecasts and not fish counts. Fishing seasons, bag limits, gear rules and licence requirements for Wisconsin are set by the agency linked here, and a run window is not an open season. For rules, see Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. National picture: every state with a salmon or steelhead run →
Hero image: “Racine October 2023 114 (Root River and Cedar Bend Park)” by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0