BirdTrout

Ottawa National Forest, Michigan

322,359 acres of public ground in Ontonagon, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron counties, managed by US Forest Service. 247 named streams run through it, of which 180 are designated trout water — 1787.0 miles of it. It is in the state's huntable-land layer.

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Map key
This unit — the ground this page is about
Other public land — state, federal and county ground around it
USGS gauge — a gauge, coloured by what it reads now
Water temperature — the colour of every stream on this ground

50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands the app paints. The colour is MDNR's classification of the valley segment, not a measurement, except at the gauge dots, which read live. Grey is water MDNR has not typed.

The unit in numbers

Assembled from OSM and PADUS ownership records, dissolved into one block: the section lines a state forest is surveyed in are not a fact about access, so they are not drawn and not counted twice.

322,359 ac
public ground
503.7 square miles · 328 separate blocks
US Forest Service
managing agency
Protected Area
247
named streams on it
2069.4 miles · 180 designated trout
Open access
public access
as recorded in the ownership file

Getting on it

Open to the public on foot without a permit, as the ownership file records it.

This unit is 328 separate blocks of ground rather than one, which is normal for public land held in surveyed sections: the blocks are not contiguous. The map above draws every one of them, and the ground between two of them belongs to somebody else. Boundaries, closures and anything posted on the ground are USDA Forest Service's to say.

Trout streams on this ground

Every named stream whose reaches touch this unit, longest first. 152 of them have a page of their own and are linked; the rest are in the app. Thermal class is MDNR's classification of the valley segment, over the reaches it has typed. "Now" is the live USGS reading where a gauge stands in that stream.

Stream Miles Class Now Designation
Sturgeon River Blue Ribbon 98.3 Cool 59.5°F Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Middle Branch Ontonagon River Blue Ribbon 70.7 Cool — Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4
East Branch Ontonagon River Blue Ribbon 59.1 Cold-transitional — Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4
West Branch Ontonagon River 49.8 Cool — Type 1, Type 2
Dead River 45.4 Cold — Type 2
Presque Isle River 42.1 Cool 59.7°F Type 2, Type 4
Black River Blue Ribbon 41.1 Cool — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Cisco Branch Ontonagon River 37.9 Warm — Type 2
West Branch Sturgeon River Blue Ribbon 34.0 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
South Branch Ontonagon River 33.2 Warm — Type 2
Ontonagon River 32.9 Warm — Type 1, Type 2
Baltimore River 32.6 Cool — Type 2, Type 4
Yellow Dog River 32.4 Cold — Type 2
Silver River 31.4 Cold — Type 2
Peshekee River 31.1 Cool — Type 2
South Branch Paint River 29.4 Cold — Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4
Big Iron River 27.5 Warm — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
East Branch Presque Isle River 26.4 Cool — Type 2
Mill Creek 24.2 Cool — Type 1
Tenmile Creek 23.4 Cool — Type 2
West Branch Otter River 23.0 Cold — Type 2, Type 4
Jackson Creek 22.6 Cold-transitional — Type 2
West Branch Iron River 21.4 Cool — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Little Presque Isle River 21.3 Cold — Type 2
West Branch Presque Isle River 21.2 Warm — Type 2
Perch River 20.8 Cold-transitional — Type 2
West Branch Firesteel River 20.5 Cold — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Cranberry River 20.0 Warm — —
Twomile Creek 19.5 Cold — Type 2
Mineral River 18.7 Warm 49.5°F —
Little Iron River 17.9 Warm — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Trout Creek 16.9 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Silver Creek 15.2 untyped — Type 2
Sidnaw Creek 14.8 Cold — Type 2, Type 4
Mulligan Creek 14.5 Cold — Type 2
Jumbo River 14.2 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Deer Creek 14.0 Warm — Type 2
Adventure Creek 13.1 Cool — Type 1, Type 2
Greenier Creek 12.2 untyped — Type 2, Type 3
Tenderfoot Creek 12.2 Warm — Type 2
Spring Creek 12.1 Cool — Type 1, Type 2
Halfway Creek 12.0 Warm — —
Iron River Blue Ribbon 11.7 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Stony Creek 11.6 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Little Cranberry River 11.3 Warm — —
Newholm Creek 11.3 Cold — Type 2
Sisson-Lilley Creek 11.1 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Tolfrey Creek 11.1 Warm — —
Floodwood River 11.0 Warm — —
Boulder Creek 10.5 Cold — Type 2
Tamarack River 10.4 Cold-transitional — Type 2, Type 3
Dead Stream 10.3 untyped — Type 2
Potato River 10.3 untyped — Type 2
Town Line Creek 9.9 Warm — —
Trout Brook 9.8 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Cherry Creek 9.5 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Wapato Creek 9.5 Warm — Type 2
Warbler Creek 9.5 untyped — Type 2
Pine Creek 9.4 Warm — —
East Branch Duck River 9.3 untyped — —
Slate River 9.3 Cold — Type 2
Duck Creek 9.2 Cold — Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4
Weir Creek 9.0 Cool — —
Argentine Creek 8.9 untyped — —
Mile and One-half Creek 8.4 Cool — Type 2
Montowibo Creek 8.4 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Sand Island Creek 7.7 Cold-transitional — Type 2
White Deer Creek 7.6 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Anderson Creek 7.5 Cold-transitional — Type 2
East Branch Mill Creek 7.5 Cool — —
Little Giant Creek 7.5 Cold — Type 2
Pine Creek 7.4 Cool — Type 2
West Branch Duck Creek 7.4 Warm — —
Baraga Creek 7.3 Cool — Type 2
Tank Creek 7.1 Cool — Type 1, Type 2
Hubbell Creek 7.0 Cold — Type 2
Little Silver River 7.0 Cold — Type 2
Merriweather Creek 6.8 Warm — Type 2
Wellington Creek 6.8 Cold — Type 2
Dishinaw Creek 6.7 Cold — Type 2
Elm Creek 6.6 untyped — Type 2
Pelton River 6.5 Cold — Type 2
Bebo Creek 6.3 Cool — —
Bond Creek 6.3 Cold — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Mason Creek 6.3 Warm — —
Shoemaker Creek 6.3 Cool — —
Wolf Creek 6.3 Cool — —
Dover Creek 6.2 Cool — Type 2
Shane Creek 6.2 untyped — Type 2
Smith Creek 6.2 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Marshall Creek 6.1 Cold — Type 2
Leveque Creek 5.9 Cold — Type 2
Imp Creek 5.8 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Sleepy Creek 5.8 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Spargo Creek 5.8 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Narrows Creek 5.7 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Cliche Creek 5.6 Cold — Type 2
Aldridge Creek 5.5 Cool — Type 2
Eden Creek 5.4 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Gurgle Creek 5.4 untyped — Type 2
Nelson Creek 5.4 Cold — Type 2
Wanagan Creek 5.4 untyped — Type 2
Canyon Creek 5.2 Cold — Type 2
Deadman Creek 5.2 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Mountain Creek 5.2 untyped — Type 2
Pine Creek 5.2 Cool — Type 2
Wiggle Creek 5.2 Cold — Type 2
Grosbeck Creek 4.9 Warm — Type 2
West Branch Sidnaw Creek 4.9 Cold — Type 2
Amundsan Creek 4.8 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Cunningham Creek 4.8 Warm — Type 2
Payseor Creek 4.8 Cool — Type 2
Sapsucker Creek 4.7 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Erickson Creek 4.6 Cool — —
Farmer Creek 4.6 Cool — —
Gipsy Creek 4.6 Cool — Type 2
Jug Creek 4.6 Cold — Type 2
Match Creek 4.6 untyped — —
Paystreak Creek 4.6 Warm — —
Perjury Creek 4.6 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Rapid River 4.5 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Namebinag Creek 4.4 Cool — Type 2
Patent Creek 4.4 Warm — —
Paulding Creek 4.4 Cold — Type 2
North Branch Iron River 4.3 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Deer Lick Creek 4.2 untyped — Type 1, Type 2
Little East Branch Huron River 4.2 Cold — Type 2
Tradition Creek 4.2 untyped — Type 2
Abitosse Creek 4.1 Cold — Type 2
Monarch Creek 4.1 Cold — Type 2
Farce Creek 4.0 untyped — Type 2
Pony Trail Creek 4.0 untyped — Type 2
Roselawn Creek 4.0 Cool — Type 2
Interior Creek 3.9 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Knute Creek 3.9 Cool — —
Snuffbox Creek 3.9 untyped — Type 2
Bingham Creek 3.8 untyped — Type 2
Cute Creek 3.8 untyped — Type 2
Langford Creek 3.8 untyped — —
Planter Creek 3.8 Cold — Type 2
Plover Creek 3.8 untyped — Type 1
Titmouse Creek 3.8 untyped — Type 2
Bush Creek 3.6 untyped — Type 2
Nash Creek 3.6 Cold — Type 2, Type 3
Finnegan Creek 3.5 Cool — Type 2
Orchard Creek 3.5 Cool — —
Tula Creek 3.5 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Finn Creek 3.4 untyped — Type 2
Mannis Creek 3.4 Cold — Type 2
South Branch Iron River 3.4 Cold-transitional — Type 2, Type 3
Sugar Camp Creek 3.4 Cold — Type 2
Hooded Creek 3.3 untyped — Type 2
Kidney Creek 3.3 untyped — —
Payne Creek 3.3 Cold — Type 1, Type 2, Type 4
Posse Creek 3.3 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Skoglund Creek 3.3 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Bonifas Creek 3.2 untyped — Type 2, Type 3
Creeper Creek 3.2 untyped — Type 2
McVichie Creek 3.2 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Tom Creek 3.2 Cold — Type 2
Autio Creek 3.0 untyped — Type 2, Type 3
Stindt Creek 3.0 Cold-transitional — —
Texas Creek 3.0 untyped — —
Gaylord Creek 2.9 Cold — Type 2
Iddings Creek 2.9 untyped — —
Paint Creek 2.9 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Poleface Creek 2.9 untyped — Type 2
Sagaigan Creek 2.9 untyped — Type 2
Sullivan Creek 2.9 Cold — Type 2
Crowned Creek 2.8 untyped — Type 2
Kirby Creek 2.8 Cold — Type 2
Buritts Creek 2.7 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Maronen Creek 2.7 Cold — Type 2
Tanager Creek 2.7 untyped — Type 2
Aho Creek 2.6 untyped — Type 2, Type 3
Dead Slough 2.6 untyped — Type 2
Good Creek 2.6 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Mendenhall Creek 2.6 Warm — Type 2
Plum Creek 2.6 Warm — —
Rolston Creek 2.6 untyped — Type 2
Salt Pork Creek 2.6 Cold — Type 2
Walton Creek 2.6 untyped — Type 2
Bessemer Creek 2.5 untyped — Type 2
Chickadee Creek 2.5 untyped — —
Copps Creek 2.5 untyped — Type 2
Buckless Creek 2.4 untyped — Type 2
Caribou Creek 2.4 untyped — —
Doe Creek 2.4 untyped — Type 2, Type 4
Farley Creek 2.4 untyped — —
Gijik Creek 2.4 untyped — —
Loggerhead Creek 2.4 untyped — —
Mitigwaki Creek 2.4 Cool — —
Dew Creek 2.3 untyped — —
Gates Creek 2.3 untyped — —
Humbug Creek 2.3 untyped — Type 2
Pori Creek 2.3 untyped — Type 2
Iris Creek 2.2 Cold — Type 2
Meander Creek 2.2 untyped — Type 2
Nuthatch Creek 2.2 untyped — Type 2
Song Creek 2.2 untyped — —
Calf Creek 2.1 Warm — —
Defoe Creek 2.1 untyped — —
Diggings Creek 2.1 Warm — —
Funks Creek 2.1 Cold — —
Hershley Creek 2.1 untyped — Type 2
Indian Creek 2.1 untyped — —
Kinglet Creek 2.1 untyped — Type 2
Mulligan Creek 2.1 untyped — —
Erickson Creek 2.0 untyped — Type 2
Greys Creek 2.0 untyped — Type 2
Redstart Creek 2.0 untyped — Type 2
Vine Creek 2.0 untyped — —
Bobolink Creek 1.9 untyped — Type 2
Junco Creek 1.9 Cool — —
Larochelle Creek 1.9 Cold — Type 2
Sargents Creek 1.9 untyped — Type 2, Type 3, Type 4
Towhee Creek 1.9 untyped — —
Whisky Hollow Creek 1.9 Cool — Type 2
Dorrie Creek 1.7 untyped — Type 2
Haskin Creek 1.7 untyped — Type 2
Irish Creek 1.7 Cool — Type 1
Sooty Creek 1.7 untyped — Type 2
Vesper Creek 1.7 untyped — —
Winslow Creek 1.7 Cold-transitional — Type 2
Reed Creek 1.6 untyped — Type 2
Trestle Creek 1.6 Cold-transitional — —
Brotherton Creek 1.5 Cold — Type 2
Buck Creek 1.5 untyped — —
Gleason Creek 1.5 Cool — —
Meto Creek 1.5 untyped — Type 2
Russell Creek 1.5 Cold-transitional — —
Berranger Creek 1.4 untyped — —
Connor Creek 1.4 Cool — Type 2
Cushman Creek 1.4 Cool — —
Town Line Creek 1.4 untyped — —
Acadian Creek 1.3 untyped — —
Canada Creek Blue Ribbon 1.3 Cool — —
Custer Creek 1.3 Cool — —
Veron Creek 1.3 untyped — Type 2
Crazy Creek 1.2 untyped — —
Bleat Creek 1.1 untyped — —
Emperor Creek 1.1 untyped — —
Knave Creek 1.0 untyped — —
Whelp Creek 1.0 untyped — —
Thayer Creek 0.8 untyped — —
Bowden Creek 0.7 untyped — —
Greenier Creek 0.4 untyped — —

The miles are the whole stream's, not the miles inside this boundary: a river does not stop at a property line and neither does its page.

Hunting

This ground is in Michigan's huntable public-land layer as national forest — 71% of the unit is covered by it. The seasons below are the 2025–2026 small-game seasons as the state's own digest publishes them; they are statewide except where a species is zoned, and the bars run 1 September to 31 August.

American woodcock 15 Sep – 29 Oct

Daily bag 3, possession 9. Federally set — woodcock is a migratory bird, so the season is a US Fish and Wildlife framework Michigan selects within, not a state season. The stamp is free but it is not optional, and it registers you with HIP.

Ruffed grouse 15 Sep – 14 Nov, 1 Dec – 1 Jan

Daily bag 5, possession 10. Split season — it closes for the two weeks of firearm deer and opens again December 1.

Northern bobwhite

Daily bag 5, possession 10. The Department of Natural Resources opens quail in 27 counties — Branch, Calhoun, Clinton, Eaton, Genesee, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Huron, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent, Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Montcalm, Oakland, Saginaw, St. Clair, St. Joseph, Sanilac, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Washtenaw and Wayne — and states that quail may be taken in those counties only. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.504(2), read August 2026. Section 3.504(3) lets the Department's director close any or all of those counties by interim order on the June breeding quail survey. An interim order is not carried in this app — check the digest for the county you are hunting. Effectively gone from Michigan outside a few southern counties — 1,769 recorded observations statewide against the grouse's 36,948.

Ring-necked pheasant

Daily bag 2, possession 4. Zoned — this ground is in Zone 1 — closed to pheasant. Male (rooster) only.

Sharp-tailed grouse

Daily bag 2, possession 4. The Department of Natural Resources opens sharp-tailed grouse only inside the zone 1 sharp-tailed grouse management unit, in the eastern Upper Peninsula, and states that the remaining portion of the state is closed. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.503(1) with the unit of 12.751, read August 2026. The unit lies within Chippewa and Mackinac counties but is not the whole of either. Its boundary is described as a chain of roads, rivers and section corners and is not drawn in this app — being in one of those two counties is not the same as being in the unit. Read 12.751 or the digest's map before you hunt. Beyond the daily and possession limits there is a season limit of 6 sharp-tailed grouse — Wildlife Conservation Order 3.503(2). It is the only season limit in this app. The free sharp-tailed grouse stamp is issued on request and becomes part of the licence. It is free and it is not optional. Do not confuse it with the spruce grouse, which shares the same Upper Peninsula country, is protected in Michigan and has no season at all.

Wild turkey (fall)

The Department of Natural Resources opens the fall season in its fall turkey management units, not statewide: unit M is the Upper Peninsula and unit I is the Lower Peninsula except Monroe county. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.303 with 12.654 and 12.675, read August 2026. Fall turkey is also quota-limited and licensed by unit. Being inside a unit is not the same as holding a tag for it — this app draws where the season is, not what you are licensed for. Exempt from the hunter-orange requirement.

Hunter orange: Small game hunters must wear a hunter-orange cap, hat, vest, jacket or rain gear as the outermost garment, visible from all sides. Camouflage counts if it is at least 50% orange. It applies August 15 – April 30, except when hunting waterfowl, crow, wild turkey and falconry.

No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.

Access sites and amenities

No public access site we have on record stands on this unit. We hold no trail or campground data at all, so what is here is what the state publishes as launches and walk-in access, and none of it falls on this ground.

When to come

The hatch calendar for the Upper Peninsula, which is the region this unit's centre falls in — the same regions the app's hatch panel uses. It is a regional record, not a survey of this ground: nobody has counted insects unit by unit. Year-round records (midges, scuds, sculpins) are left out. The seasons above are the other half of this calendar: the water is best before the ground is.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

What makes this unit distinctive

The Ottawa is the largest single block of federal ground in the state's index at 322,359 acres, spread across six western Upper Peninsula counties in 328 separate pieces, and it holds more named water than any other unit here: 247 streams, 180 of them designated trout water, 1,787 miles in all. Seven are Blue Ribbon — the Black, Canada Creek, the East and Middle Branches of the Ontonagon, the Iron, the Sturgeon and the West Branch Sturgeon. The Sturgeon is the longest at 98.3 miles. The forest spans seven watersheds, from the Black-Presque Isle in the west to the Sturgeon and Michigamme in the east, which is why the same page carries cold water and cool water in roughly equal measure under MDNR's classification. Seventy-one per cent of the unit falls inside the huntable-land layer; the rest is Forest Service ground the layer does not describe.

Regulations

Nothing on this page is a regulation. The fishing rules that apply to the water on this ground — the types, the seasons, the size limits and the gear restrictions — are on the Michigan fishing regulations page, built from the agency's own columns. The hunting seasons above come from the state's hunting digest, read against the 2025 licence year.

Watersheds it lies in

The subbasins this ground drains into. Each one has the whole basin's water on it.

Public land nearby

The nearest other blocks of public ground, centre to centre. Public land does not tile a state the way watersheds do, so this is nearness rather than adjacency.

Plan a weekend around it

The trip pages whose range reaches this ground — the water in the same drive, what is hatching, and a three-day plan built from it.