BirdTrout

Boardman River, Michigan

28 mapped river miles, draining 251 square miles across Grand Traverse county, in the Boardman-Charlevoix subbasin watershed. A USGS gauge stands in it, but its record is too short for a measured July mean, so what this page knows about its temperature is today's reading and MDNR's classification of the water itself.

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Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish

USGS gauge — live water temperature

Water temperature — the colour of the river, and of every dot on it

58 64 70

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 18.4 miles away, at Manistee River Near Sherman — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — USGS carries no water-temperature series for it at all, so no number here comes from it.

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: 04126970.

The character of the water

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.

MDNR has classified 8.2 of the 28 miles NHD carries for this stream — 29% of it. The typed water splits 7.2 mi cold, 0.8 mi cool, 0.2 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.

Named stretches

Anglers name parts of this river. These are the names two or more independent sources use; each page says which sources, because a nickname is the one thing on this site that is not a measurement.

• The Forks — Where the North and South branches of the Boardman meet to make the mainstem, and the water immediately below it. Small, quick and gravel-bottomed — roughly twenty-five feet wide, with overhanging cedar most of the way.

The lake run

The Boardman River is a Lake Michigan tributary with 1.1 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 Boardman River →

Questions about this river

• Boardman River fishing report — what it reads right now
• When to fish the Boardman River — hatches, seasons and temperature
• How to get to the Boardman River — access, parking and public land
• Boardman River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
• Is the Boardman River good for brook trout?
• Is the Boardman River good for brown trout?
• Is the Boardman River good for rainbow trout?

Regulations

MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 27.4 of the 28.2 mapped miles; 0.8 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.

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.
Type 4: Closed to fishing whenever weir is in place: Downstream side of Front Street Bridge to upstream side of pedestrian bridge.

Blue Ribbon. Boardman River (BR 25), 19.3 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Junction with N. & S. Branches; downstream: T26N, R11W, Sec. 3.

Access

4 mapped MDNR access sites within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Forks (RM 27.8), Scheck's Place State Forest Campground (RM 23.5), Boardman River Scheck's Place (RM 23.3), Shumsky Road (RM 13.0). 1 walk-in, 3 boat or canoe launches.

Public land on the river

21 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 92,839 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

Species

MDNR's most recent survey on this river ran in 2019 at Boardman River, Grand Traverse County, in a channel averaging 43.25 feet: brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, at 774 trout per acre and 40 pounds per acre. MDNR strata: medium, land-locked, wild trout; regulation at the station, type 1.The station has been surveyed in 17 years since 1960.

• Brook trout surveyed
• Brown trout surveyed
• Rainbow trout surveyed
• Chinook salmon stocked only
• Coho salmon stocked only
• Lake sturgeon stocked only

Stocked, per the MDNR record: Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Lake sturgeon, Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Chinook salmon at Boardman River Net Pen (Grand Traverse Co., through 2026); Coho salmon, Lake sturgeon, Rainbow trout at Weir (Grand Traverse 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.

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

7 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.

• North Branch Boardman River 27.3 mi · RM 28.2
• South Branch Boardman River 13.3 mi · RM 28.2
• Jaxon Creek 8.0 mi · RM 13.5
• Carpenter Creek 5.9 mi · RM 23.8
• Swainston Creek 5.7 mi · RM 18.7
• Kids Creek 4.4 mi · RM 0.8
• East Creek 4.2 mi · RM 19.1

Boardman River sits in HUC 8 04060105, the Boardman-Charlevoix subbasin, and drains 251 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 28 NHD reaches carry the name for 28.2 miles in total.

Other water nearby

The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.

• East Arm Acme Creek 1.1 mi
• Manistee River 1.9 mi
• Acme Creek 2.2 mi
• Bakers Creek 2.8 mi
• Fourmile Creek 3.6 mi
• East Branch Mitchell Creek 3.8 mi