BirdTrout
Beaver Creek, Michigan
14.6 mapped river miles, draining 70 square miles, in the Au Sable River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 3.5 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 3.5 miles away, at South Branch Au Sable River Near Luzerne — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The pills above go to USGS. These are this site's pages for the same gauges — a thirty-day chart, the monthly means, the record, and today's reading against the five-year normal for today: 04135700.
The character of the water
Beaver Creek is a medium stream in the Au Sable River watershed, 14.6 mapped miles against 20.32 in the NHD, running 15.6 feet wide at the median and draining 69.93 square miles at Strahler order 3. MDNR types 9.8 miles, 48 percent of it: 6.8 miles of Cool from river mile 13.3 to 0.0, a warm transitional stream on low gradient, and 3.0 miles of Cold-transitional on high gradient. Those classes describe the valley segment, not the water, and no measured temperature exists; the gauge on the South Branch Au Sable River near Luzerne is 3.5 miles away. Type 1 regulations cover 14.0 miles, last Saturday in April through September 30th, artificial lures and all types of natural bait, 5 fish with no more than 3 trout 15" or greater. Three public land units total 224,225 acres. One access site and one launch are recorded, with no walk-in access. Little Beaver Creek enters at river mile 7.7.
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 13.3–0.0 | 6.8 | cool | Warm transitional stream · low gradient |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 3.0 | cold-transitional | Cold transitional stream · high gradient |
MDNR has classified 9.8 of the 20 miles NHD carries for this stream — 48% of it. The typed water splits 6.8 mi cool, 3.0 mi cold-transitional. 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
- Beaver Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Beaver Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Beaver Creek — access, parking and public land
- Beaver Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 14.0 of the 14.6 mapped miles; 0.6 miles carry no type in this dataset. Always check the current Michigan Fishing Guide before you fish — this is a copy, and the Guide is the rule.
| Type | Where | Season | Minimum sizes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Type 1 14.0 mi |
RM 14.6–0.0 | Last Saturday in April–September 30th | Brook trout 7", Brown trout 8", Rainbow trout / steelhead 10", Lake trout 10", Chinook salmon 10", Coho salmon 10", Pink salmon 10", Atlantic salmon 10" |
Creel across all types: 5 fish, with no more than 3 trout 15“ or greater. Zero (0) Arctic Grayling. Tackle: Artificial lures and all types of natural bait may be used.
Blue Ribbon. South Branch AuSable River (BR 17), 7.0 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Roscommon; downstream: Main Branch AuSable.
Access
1 mapped MDNR access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Meads Landing (RM 0.0). 0 walk-in, 1 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 224,225 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Grayling Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 130,704 |
| Au Sable State Forest - Grayling Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 89,732 |
| Camp Grayling Military Reservation | State Dept. of Natural Resources | 3,790 |
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
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- South Branch Au Sable River 51.5 mi · RM 0.0
- Little Beaver Creek 0.3 mi · RM 7.7
Beaver Creek sits in HUC 8 04070007, the Au Sable River watershed, and drains 70 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 48 NHD reaches carry the name for 20.3 miles in total — more than the 14.6 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.