# 2020 Grand River Fish Ladder Updates



## wilsonm

Webber, Portland and Grand Ledge were opened back up for the year. Just a handful out today trying their luck at Webber and 6th Street. Water not to high and pretty clear.


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## riverbob

your right on time, started hookin silver fish, this weekend, above 6th. st,,,,,, there starting to move.


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## westsidepolack

Buddy of mine has been killing it on the grand. He's insane on how many he hooks up with.


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## westsidepolack

The river isn't high because we've had such a week winter


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## westsidepolack

Weak!


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## wilsonm

Besides steelhead, there are also good numbers of another species that are starting to congregate below of all the dams on the Grand all the way to Eaton Rapids, but time will be running out soon.


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## Out-Kast

wilsonm said:


> Besides steelhead, there are also good numbers of another species that are starting to congregate below of all the dams on the Grand all the way to Eaton Rapids, but time will be running out soon.


Good buddy of mine landed a nice one yesterday on the Grand. Fish was released to breed another day!


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## wdf73

Any steelhead showing up yet?


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## Trout King

wdf73 said:


> Any steelhead showing up yet?


Showing up where? A lot of fish are wrapping up in the upper river already. Fresher fish are beginning to show.


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## wdf73

Trout King said:


> Showing up where? A lot of fish are wrapping up in the upper river already. Fresher fish are beginning to show.


I fish upstream quite a way. Usually on a small trib. I did get out the other day and found a few. Also broke my steelhead rod!


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## wilsonm

Webber dam fish ladder was opened up 12 days ago and Grand Ledge and Portland were opened up yesterday to allow salmonid passage. When river temps get down to around 40 degrees in December and steelhead movement through the ladders ceases, we will close them until early spring when river temps get back up above 40. Same as in years past, although we opened up Webber a tad early this year. Won't be long before some coho's show up. Hopefully the weather cooperates and the river starts cooling down. Coho's get up to Webber pretty quick and they are in good shape compared to river kings and will take spinners as long as the river temps come down. They are also pretty good size this year. We would also love to hear any reports from people who fish the Webber to Lyons stretch for coho's. PM me if you wish. Good luck!


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## Tommy O

Thanks for the update!


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## wilsonm

We stopped by and cleaned out 6th Street ladder this morning. Lots of coho's moving up through the ladder as it was packed full of fish. Did see one king landed while we were there and handful more jumping and in the ladder, but looked to be about 95% or more coho's. A couple skipper steelhead mixed in also.


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## wilsonm

We checked and cleaned the Grand ladders today. Because of the ladder design, it's hard to tell if there are fish in Grand Ledge and Portland ladders when we start draining them down. Didn't see anything at Grand Ledge. At Portland, there were a few coho up on the apron and a few people fishing. At Webber, there were about 30 coho in the ladder. Looked like 3 steelhead, 1 or 2 kings and about 100 8-10 inch channel cats. Not many fishermen, but it looks like access is shut down for fishermen on the spill side due to construction on the center wall. At 6th Street, fishing pressure today was down some and it looked like fish numbers were down some from a couple days ago and last week. There were still some cohos and a few steelhead starting to showing up.


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## westsidepolack

I have a random question. Do you still need to be a certain distance away from the fish ladder to fish at 6th street? I always see guys standing right next to it almost casting into it. I remember some years ago seeing a sign saying that you can't fish within 60 feet from the fish ladder.


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## wilsonm

There is a city ordinance that prohibits fishing within 50ft? of the ladder entrance. I can't remember what exactly the distance is. It's more of a safety thing, but it doesn't seem to be enforced by the city. DNR regulations are that you can't fish in a fish ladder. I'm sure someone else on here remembers exactly what the sign says.


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## MR FISHBONZ

Wilsonm, was that you I spoke with at the weber ladder about fishing a coho in nearby trib? If so thank you for your time! I was the lonely fisherman there bummed about the west side access haha!


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## wilsonm

That must have been my fellow technician Matt if that was Wednesday. I was down in the ladder getting a log unstuck and fending off 10,000 spiders.


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## Fishndude

wilsonm said:


> That must have been my fellow technician Matt if that was Wednesday. I was down in the ladder getting a log unstuck and fending off 10,000 spiders.


As a tax-paying citizen please tell your Boss, for me, that you deserve a Spider Bonus. Thank you.


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## MR FISHBONZ

I can imagine that those ladders are holding some state record spiders. Thank to you and your team for keeping our fish passages clean.


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## oworm

There was someone fishing in the ladder last week


westsidepolack said:


> I have a random question. Do you still need to be a certain distance away from the fish ladder to fish at 6th street? I always see guys standing right next to it almost casting into it. I remember some years ago seeing a sign saying that you can't fish within 60 feet from the fish ladder.


 There's a yellow line painted on the asphalt path adjacent to the handrail. I'm pretty sure that's probably the boundary mark


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## fishinfever

Sec. 9.187. - Fishing Prohibited.

SHARE LINK TO SECTIONPRINT SECTIONDOWNLOAD (DOCX) OF SECTIONSEMAIL SECTIONCOMPARE VERSIONS
No person shall catch, kill or attempt to catch any fish within, upon or adjacent to an area of the Grand River located between Sixth Street and I-196 having as its boundary on the north, the north line of Fourth Street extended easterly, and as its boundary on the south, a line sixty (60) feet south of the south face of the Fish Ladder and thirty (30) feet from the east face of the Fish Ladder and adjacent spectator viewing area on the west bank of the Grand River. No person shall engage in fishing within any area of the City of Grand Rapids or in the Grand River where signs have been posted prohibiting fishing. Such signs shall be placed within one hundred (100) feet of the bank along such prohibited area.

(Ord. No. 75-77, 8-19-75; Ord. No. 97-53, § 1, 11-18-97)


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## westsidepolack

They clearly don't enforce that down at the fish ladder because i always see guys standing right next to it fishing


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## slowpaya

does anyone have Alex s(T K) telephone number.were supposed to go on the water but i cant find his tele #.please p.m. thanks
bill


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## Sparky23

Few times a year they right a few tickets down there for it. Normally when the water is over the bank and they are fishing for fish on the sidewalk.


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## Mr Burgundy

wilsonm said:


> We checked and cleaned the Grand ladders today. Because of the ladder design, it's hard to tell if there are fish in Grand Ledge and Portland ladders when we start draining them down. Didn't see anything at Grand Ledge. At Portland, there were a few coho up on the apron and a few people fishing. At Webber, there were about 30 coho in the ladder. Looked like 3 steelhead, 1 or 2 kings and about 100 8-10 inch channel cats. Not many fishermen, but it looks like access is shut down for fishermen on the spill side due to construction on the center wall. At 6th Street, fishing pressure today was down some and it looked like fish numbers were down some from a couple days ago and last week. There were still some cohos and a few steelhead starting to showing up.


Any idea on when you will be checking the ladders again? Tnks for all ur hard work too, much appreciated


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## wilsonm

We were doing other things, but did stop by Webber today to clean and check it. Pretty similar to last week as far as fish numbers in the ladder. There were about 35 coho in the ladder. Did see one small steelhead also. About a half dozen people fishing.


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## oworm

Sparky23 said:


> Few times a year they right a few tickets down there for it. Normally when the water is over the bank and they are fishing for fish on the sidewalk.


LOL


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## wilsonm

We checked and cleaned out the ladders today. There were about 30 coho in Webber this morning and 3 or 4 people fishing. The coho are starting to color up. There were a few coho around Portland dam also and about 7 guys were fishing there. We didn't see any fish moving through at 6th St this afternoon, but we didn't stay long. Maybe 10 people tops fishing there when we were there.


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## wilsonm

Cleaned the ladders on the Grand today. About 25 coho's in Webber, a mix of males and potted out females. The females pretty olive in color and the males pretty colored up. Didn't see any steel there. 3 or 4 people fishing. About a half dozen people fishing Portland. 6th street had about a dozen people fishing, but there was some steelhead there. Saw a few hitting the dam, going thru the ladder and saw a few hook ups. Our apologies to the couple guys fishing close to the ladder outlet as we sent alot of leaves and vegetation down thru the ladder when cleaning the grate. It takes a while for all that to clear out of the ladder and out to the river, but it has to be done.


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## MickL

Does potted out mean spawned out? If so, it sounds to me that these hens spawned below Webber and then continued swimming upstream and will die somewhere above the dam.... comes as a surprise to me.


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## wilsonm

MickL said:


> Does potted out mean spawned out? If so, it sounds to me that these hens spawned below Webber and then continued swimming upstream and will die somewhere above the dam.... comes as a surprise to me.


still full of eggs


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## MickL

wilsonm said:


> still full of eggs


ok, good, now i understand


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## Hollowaychamps

Grands been good to me and a buddy this year. Cohos still hanging in there & snapping but not much fight left in them. Yet to boat a Steelhead. One King. Hope to see some Steely move up soon. Thank you for your ladder reports & work!






























Sent from my SM-G960U using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## wilsonm

Hollowaychamps said:


> Grands been good to me and a buddy this year. Cohos still hanging in there & snapping but not much fight left in them. Yet to boat a Steelhead. One King. Hope to see some Steely move up soon. Thank you for your ladder reports & work!
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> Sent from my SM-G960U using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


That's great to see. The whole reason I started doing these ladder reports a few years back was because we were seeing lots of coho's upstream in the ladders at times, but hardly anyone was fishing for them during the week. I remember seeing about 150 coho in Webber ladder and not one person fishing there one day. Same for the Joe at Berrien Springs. Often times lot's of coho steelhead or both going through and it's a ghost town. What we saw a 6th street a couple days ago was encouraging as far as steelhead go


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## TK81

wilsonm said:


> That's great to see. The whole reason I started doing these ladder reports a few years back was because we were seeing lots of coho's upstream in the ladders at times, but hardly anyone was fishing for them during the week. I remember seeing about 150 coho in Webber ladder and not one person fishing there one day. Same for the Joe at Berrien Springs. Often times lot's of coho steelhead or both going through and it's a ghost town. What we saw a 6th street a couple days ago was encouraging as far as steelhead go


You need to PM a select few of us that have kids and jobs, Mike. 

I am almost always a day late and a dollar short for the cojos. They just don't stick around long enough for me to make a plan, and I'd rather be a ways downstream of the circus.

I stopped by and looked in one of my local spots one day about three weeks back and they were "stacked like cordwood". I stopped back three days later and they were pretty much gone. Oh well, snooze and you lose.


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## slowpaya

out for a few hours,1 king,lots of fish around,then the wind and chop came up.


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## The Mediocre Fisherman

TK81 said:


> You need to PM a select few of us that have kids and jobs, Mike.
> 
> I am almost always a day late and a dollar short for the cojos. They just don't stick around long enough for me to make a plan, and I'd rather be a ways downstream of the circus.
> 
> I stopped by and looked in one of my local spots one day about three weeks back and they were "stacked like cordwood". I stopped back three days later and they were pretty much gone. Oh well, snooze and you lose.


Been my plague for many years also.

My company used to do these team building exercise days every year in the fall, where we’d all meet at this place that hosted and specialized in that kinda thing. The place is located right on the boardwalk of a popular Grand trib. There I would sit, glancing out the window as much as I could throughout the day, seeing folks catching coho, excited for 5pm when I could go grab my gear. Sure enough, like clockwork, I’d finally get out there and not a fish in sight. Same day 

Been many other times too where the family would go for walks along the trail on that river, and fishermen EVERYWHERE, fish on stringers. Come back that evening when I could... nothing.


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## fisheater

Hollowaychamps said:


> Grands been good to me and a buddy this year. Cohos still hanging in there & snapping but not much fight left in them. Yet to boat a Steelhead. One King. Hope to see some Steely move up soon. Thank you for your ladder reports & work!
> View attachment 588543
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> 
> Sent from my SM-G960U using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


Hollowaychamps,
I see you’re paddling. Just curious if you were spotting a vehicle, or paddling upriver either at the start or end of the day?


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## wilsonm

We checked and cleaned the ladders on the Grand today. This morning, Webber had 6 coho and 2 small steelhead in it. There were some fish surfacing just above the ladder in the impoundment. Not anything to report from Grand Ledge or Portland. There were about 15 people fishing 6th Street early in the afternoon with a few steelhead seen hitting the dam.


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