BirdTrout
Bear Creek, Michigan
3.3 mapped river miles, draining 136 square miles, in the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 12.2 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is MDNR's classification of the water itself.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 23.1 miles away, at Au Sable River — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — it has sent no water temperature for 720 days, since 8 October 2024, so no number here comes from it.
The character of the water
A medium stream in the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin, Bear Creek carries a median width of 8.6 feet and drains 136.03 square miles at Strahler order 5, with 3.3 miles mapped against 4.98 miles in the NHD. MDNR has typed only 1.4 miles of it, 28 percent of the mapped length, and calls that segment Cool, a warm transitional stream on high gradient. The class describes the valley segment rather than the water, so no measured temperature exists here; the nearest gauge, Rifle River near Sterling, stands 12.2 miles away. A single public land unit touches the creek, the 33,124-acre Au Sable State Forest Gladwin Unit, and the record lists no access sites, no walk-in access, and no launches. The East Branch Au Gres River, 18.8 miles long, joins at river mile 0.0. The record does not cover this water for fish surveys, stocking, or counties, and no trout regulation type is listed for it.
Thermal classification
MDNR types this water from its valley, not from a thermometer in it. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.
| Reach | Typed miles | Band | MDNR type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 3.3–3.3 | 1.4 | cool | Warm transitional stream · high gradient |
MDNR has classified 1.4 of the 5.0 miles NHD carries for this stream — 28% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cool. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water MDNR's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
Questions about this river
- Bear Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Bear Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Bear Creek — access, parking and public land
- Bear Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 33,124 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Au Sable State Forest - Gladwin Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 33,124 |
Species
No species records for this water in the files this site reads.
Hatches on this water
53 insects are recorded from northern lower Michigan, which is the region this river sits in. That is a claim about the region and not a survey of this stream: nobody has recorded which of them has been caught here. Open the river in the app and the hatch panel will narrow it to the ones whose temperature window today's reading is inside.
| Insect | Peak | Water | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish Eggs Other |
October–January and April | 33–60°F | #10–16 |
| Little Black Stonefly Allocapnia / Capnia spp. |
January–April | 34–46°F | #16–18 |
| Little Brown Stonefly Taeniopteryx / Strophopteryx spp. |
February–April | 38–50°F | #12–16 |
| Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. |
March–May and September–November | 38–58°F | #16–22 |
| Blackfly Simulium spp. |
April–June | 40–65°F | #18–22 |
| Blue Quill Paraleptophlebia adoptiva |
April–May | 44–56°F | #16–18 |
| Cranefly Tipula spp. |
April–June and September–October | 40–65°F | #6–10 |
| Grannom Brachycentrus spp. |
April–May | 48–58°F | #14–16 |
| Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie Rhyacophila spp. |
April–June and September–October | 45–68°F | #10–14 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Alderfly Sialis spp. |
May–June | 52–66°F | #10–14 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
And 39 more — the year-round records, mostly: midges, scuds and sculpins, which are in the water every day and are therefore never the news.
Tributaries and watershed
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Bear Creek sits in HUC 8 04080101, the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin, and drains 136 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 5 NHD reaches carry the name for 5.0 miles in total — more than the 3.3 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.