BirdTrout
Crapo Creek, Michigan
8.0 mapped river miles, draining 21 square miles, in the Au Sable River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 13.1 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 13.1 miles away, at North Branch Au Sable River At Kelloggs Br — 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: 04135800.
The character of the water
This is one of the few streams in the watershed MDNR types warm along its whole measured length: 4.7 miles, 59 percent of the creek, classed as a warm stream on medium gradient from river mile 8.0 all the way to the confluence. It runs 8.0 mapped miles, third order, a median 14.4 feet wide, draining 20.95 square miles into the North Branch Au Sable River at river mile 0.0. The class describes the valley segment rather than the water, so no measured temperature exists here, and the nearest gauge, North Branch Au Sable River at Kelloggs Br, is 13.1 miles away, the longest such distance among these creeks. No trout regulation type is listed for this water, and no access sites, walk-in access, or launches are recorded. Three public land units total 178,693 acres nearby, the largest being the 130,704-acre Grayling Management Unit. The North Branch carries 14.2 blue ribbon miles below Dam No. 2.
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 8.0–0.0 | 4.7 | warm | Warm stream · medium gradient |
MDNR has classified 4.7 of the 8.0 miles NHD carries for this stream — 59% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, warm. 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
- Crapo Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Crapo Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Crapo Creek — access, parking and public land
- Crapo Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Public land on the river
3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 178,693 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Grayling Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 130,704 |
| Mackinaw State Forest - Gaylord Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 33,636 |
| Gaylord Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 14,353 |
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.
Crapo Creek sits in HUC 8 04070007, the Au Sable River watershed, and drains 21 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 11 NHD reaches carry the name for 8.0 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.