BirdTrout
Betsie River, Michigan
57 mapped river miles, draining 235 square miles across Benzie, Manistee counties, in the Betsie-Platte subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 16.5 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 16.5 miles away, at Manistee River — 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: 04124200.
The character of the water
Benzie and Manistee county river, 57.3 mapped miles at a median width of 33.9 feet, fourth order, draining 235.17 square miles of the Betsie-Platte subbasin. Most of the regulated length, 35.8 miles, is Type 4 and open January 1st through December 31st, with 15.5 miles of Type 1 from the last Saturday in April through September 30th. Both allow artificial lures and all natural bait types, and from August 1st through November 15th restrict terminal gear to single-pointed hooks and jigs half an inch or less from point to shank, or treble hooks three-eighths of an inch or less on artificial lures. Water near the lamprey barrier and fish passage facility is closed on two separate schedules. Brown, lake and rainbow trout go in at five sites through 2026, from 2,113.0 per mile at Orsini Access down to 839.2 at Kurick Rd. MDNR types 2.3 miles, 4 percent, describing the valley segment; no temperature is measured here. Nine launches; 16 public units total 76,398 acres.
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 45.8–45.7 | 0.0 | cool | Warm transitional small river · very low gradient |
| RM 33.1–15.8 | 1.2 | cold-transitional | Cold transitional small river · low gradient |
| RM 11.2–11.2 | 0.0 | cold | Cold stream · high gradient |
| RM 7.1–2.1 | 1.1 | cool | Warm transitional small river · very low gradient |
MDNR has classified 2.3 of the 57 miles NHD carries for this stream — 4% of it. The typed water splits 1.2 mi cold-transitional, 1.1 mi cool, 0.0 mi cold. 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.
The lake run
The Betsie River is a Lake Michigan tributary with 12.5 miles of run corridor on it — salmon, steelhead and lake-run brown trout, on their own calendar and under their own rules. Run timing, species and access on the Betsie River →
Questions about this river
- Betsie River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Betsie River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Betsie River — access, parking and public land
- Betsie River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Betsie River good for brown trout?
- Is the Betsie River good for rainbow trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 51.3 of the 57.3 mapped miles; 6.0 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 15.5 mi |
RM 49.6–33.6 RM 1.5–1.5 |
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" |
|
Type 4 35.8 mi |
RM 33.6–1.5 | January 1st–December 31st | Brook trout 7", Brown trout 10", 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 natural bait types allowed. Aug 1–Nov 15: terminal fishing gear restricted to single-pointed hooks & jigs ≤½" from point to shank or treble hooks ≤⅜" from point to shank only when attached to artificial lures.
Type 4: Closed to fishing August 1 - July 31: Within 100 feet upstream and downstream of lamprey barrier and fish passage facility.
Type 4: Closed to fishing August 1 - November 15: Within 300 feet upstream and downstream of lamprey barrier and fish passage facility.
Access
9 mapped MDNR access sites within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Grass Lake State Forest Campground (RM 49.3), Kurick Road (RM 33.5), County Line Bridge (RM 26.4), Homestead Dam (RM 13.8), Us-31 (RM 12.5), Grace Road (RM 11.1), River Road (RM 9.7), Lower River Road (RM 6.3), and 1 more. 0 walk-in, 9 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
16 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 76,398 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Traverse City Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 45,503 |
| Pere Marquette State Forest - Traverse City Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 23,689 |
| Betsie Valley State Trail | Michigan DNR | 3,033 |
| Interlochen to Kaleva Trail | Michigan DNR | 1,138 |
| Betsie River State Game Area | — | 716 |
| Misty Acres: The Borwell Preserve | Grand Traverse Regional Land Convervancy | 616 |
| Grass Lake Flooding State Wildlife Management Area | State Dept. of Natural Resources | 531 |
| Betsie River | Michigan DNR | 439 |
| Public Water Access Site | Michigan DNR | 382 |
| Railroad Point Natural Area | Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy | 213 |
Species
Stocked, per the MDNR record: Brown trout, Lake trout, Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Brown trout, Rainbow trout at Orsini Access (Manistee Co., through 2026); Brown trout at Kurick Rd (Manistee Co., through 2026); Brown trout at Co Line Br. (Manistee Co., through 2026).
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
6 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Rice Creek 8.0 mi · RM 11.2
- Little Betsie River 8.0 mi · RM 39.3
- Crystal Lake Outlet 6.7 mi · RM 8.4
- Dair Creek 5.3 mi · RM 20.2
- Pickerel Creek 4.1 mi · RM 49.6
- Grass Lake Creek 1.7 mi · RM 49.9
Betsie River sits in HUC 8 04060104, the Betsie-Platte subbasin, and drains 235 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 99 NHD reaches carry the name for 57.2 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.