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Home › Waters › Michigan › Boardman River
River · Grand Traverse County in northwest Lower Michigan, running north from the Mayfield and Brown Bridge country into Traverse City and Grand Traverse Bay · Michigan

Boardman River Fishing Guides

A cold, sand-and-gravel northern Michigan trout river running into Traverse City, transformed by one of the largest dam removal projects in the Midwest.

Mist over a green river between wooded banks
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Boardman River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Boardman River

The Boardman is the river that made Traverse City a fishing town. It runs about thirty miles north through Grand Traverse County, spring-fed and cold, over the sand and gravel typical of northwest Lower Michigan, and empties into the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay in the middle of the city. Above town it is classic northern Michigan trout water: cedar-lined, tannin-tinted, with sweeping bends, deep outside corners and long shallow gravel runs. The reach above Brown Bridge Road where this gauge sits is among the most attractive water on the river.

What sets the last fifteen years apart is restoration. A sequence of dam removals through the 2010s, among the largest such projects in the region, reopened long stretches of the river to natural flow and to fish movement, and the sediment and temperature regime has been settling ever since. Resident brown trout are the primary fishery and hold through the upper and middle river. Brook trout persist in the colder feeder water. In the lower river below town, steelhead and salmon run up from the bay, giving the system a second and completely different seasonal fishery. Note that the river was officially renamed the Ottaway River in 2023 in recognition of Anishinaabe history, though the USGS station and most local usage still say Boardman.

Guides fish it by wading and by small drift boat depending on the reach, and access along the upper river is good through state and county land. It is a river worth reading carefully rather than covering fast. The gauge here reports discharge and stage but not water temperature, which matters in a system this dependent on cold water, so anglers working the marginal summer stretches should carry a thermometer and fish the shaded upper water when the days get hot.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Boardman River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Brown Bridge Quiet Area near Mayfield - trail and bank access on the upper river at the former impoundment.
Forks Campground at the confluence of the branches - developed access at the top of the mainstem.
Scheck's Place State Forest Campground - riverside camping and wading access on the upper river.
Shumsky access site off Supply Road - established launch and parking on the middle river.
Beitner Park in Traverse City - lower river access with parking and a canoe launch.
Sabin and Boardman dam sites - restoration-area access below the former impoundments.
Union Street dam area in Traverse City - lower river access for steelhead and salmon runs.

Seasons

Spring: high water and the steelhead run in the lower river, with the upper river settling into good trout fishing by May.
Summer: prime wading months on the upper river, with strong evening hatches and best fishing in the shaded cedar reaches.
Fall: brown trout turn aggressive before the spawn and salmon push up from the bay into the lower river.
Winter: cold and quiet, with limited trout fishing and steelhead holding in the lower river between thaws.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Boardman River?

As of Sep 17, 6:15 am, the USGS gauge BOARDMAN R ABOVE BROWN BRIDGE ROAD NR MAYFIELD, MI reads 150 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Boardman River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Steelhead on the Boardman River in Michigan.

Are there fishing guides on the Boardman River?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Boardman River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Boardman River?

Brown Bridge Quiet Area near Mayfield - trail and bank access on the upper river at the former impoundment. Forks Campground at the confluence of the branches - developed access at the top of the mainstem. Scheck's Place State Forest Campground - riverside camping and wading access on the upper river. Shumsky access site off Supply Road - established launch and parking on the middle river. Beitner Park in Traverse City - lower river access with parking and a canoe launch. Sabin and Boardman dam sites - restoration-area access below the former impoundments. Union Street dam area in Traverse Cit...

When is the best time to fish the Boardman River?

Spring: high water and the steelhead run in the lower river, with the upper river settling into good trout fishing by May. Summer: prime wading months on the upper river, with strong evening hatches and best fishing in the shaded cedar reaches. Fall: brown trout turn aggressive before the spawn and salmon push up from the bay into the lower river. Winter: cold and quiet, with limited trout fishing and steelhead holding in the lower river between thaws.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Boardman River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Michigan agency site: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/fishing/fishing-regulations