BirdTrout
Comins Creek, Michigan
6.9 mapped river miles, draining 10 square miles, in the Au Sable River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 4.4 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 4.4 miles away, at Au Sable River At Mio — 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: 04136500.
The character of the water
At a median width of 5.1 feet this is narrow water, a third-order small stream draining 9.81 square miles across 6.9 mapped miles to the Au Sable River at river mile 0.0. MDNR types 5.3 of those miles, 77 percent, better coverage than most creeks in the watershed carry. The upper 3.2 typed miles, from river mile 6.9 down to 3.5, come back cool as a warm transitional stream; from river mile 2.3 to 0.2 the typing turns cold, 2.1 miles of it, with high gradient throughout. Those classes describe the valley segment, not the water, and there is no measured temperature for this creek; the nearest gauge, Au Sable River at Mio, lies 4.4 miles off. Type 1 regulations cover 6.7 miles, last Saturday in April through September 30th, five fish with no more than three 15 inches or greater. One access site is recorded, a launch, with no walk-in access.
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 6.9–3.5 | 3.2 | cool | Warm transitional stream · high gradient |
| RM 2.3–0.2 | 2.1 | cold | Cold stream · high gradient |
MDNR has classified 5.3 of the 6.9 miles NHD carries for this stream — 77% of it. The typed water splits 3.2 mi cool, 2.1 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.
Questions about this river
- Comins Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Comins Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Comins Creek — access, parking and public land
- Comins Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 6.7 of the 6.9 mapped miles; 0.2 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 6.7 mi |
RM 6.9–0.0 | 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. Main Branch AuSable River (BR 15), 1.7 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Upper Section: Co. 612, Lower Section: Mio Dam; downstream: Upper Section: Luzerne Co. Pk., Lower Section: Alcona Line.
Access
1 mapped MDNR access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Comins Flats (RM 0.0). 0 walk-in, 1 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 116,722 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Huron National Forest | United States Forest Service | 109,786 |
| Au Sable National Scenic River | — | 6,936 |
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.
Comins Creek sits in HUC 8 04070007, the Au Sable River watershed, and drains 10 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 20 NHD reaches carry the name for 6.9 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.