BirdTrout
Big Cannon Creek, Michigan
15.1 mapped river miles, draining 28 square miles, in the Manistee River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 13.8 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 13.8 miles away, at Manistee River Near Grayling — 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: 04123500.
The character of the water
Fifteen and a tenth mapped miles of medium stream in the Manistee River watershed, a median 13.6 feet wide, draining 28.41 square miles at Strahler order 2. MDNR types 3.2 miles, 21 percent of it, from river mile 12.8 to the mouth, as Cold, a cold stream on low gradient. The class describes the valley segment rather than the water, so no measured temperature exists here; the nearest gauge, on the Manistee River near Grayling, is 13.8 miles off. Regulation is uniform: 14.4 miles Type 1, last Saturday in April through September 30th, artificial lures and all types of natural bait permitted, with a creel of 5 fish, no more than 3 trout 15" or greater, and zero Arctic Grayling. Two public units total 163,184 acres, the Traverse City Management Unit and the Pere Marquette State Forest Cadillac Unit. It enters the Manistee River directly. No access sites, walk-in access, or launches are mapped, and no survey or stocking record accompanies 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 12.8–0.0 | 3.2 | cold | Cold stream · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 3.2 of the 15.1 miles NHD carries for this stream — 21% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, 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.
Questions about this river
- Big Cannon Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Big Cannon Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Big Cannon Creek — access, parking and public land
- Big Cannon Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 14.4 of the 15.1 mapped miles; 0.7 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 14.4 mi |
RM 15.1–0.0 | 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. Manistee River (BR 37), 1.1 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Deward Area; downstream: Junction with North Branch Big Manistee.
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 163,185 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Traverse City Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 113,281 |
| Pere Marquette State Forest - Cadillac Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 49,904 |
Species
Trout water by MDNR's classification, which types it cold — a statement about the water's temperature, not a fish record. No MDNR survey or stocking record for this river is 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.
Big Cannon Creek sits in HUC 8 04060103, the Manistee River watershed, and drains 28 square miles, Strahler order 2 at the mouth. 19 NHD reaches carry the name for 15.1 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.