BirdTrout
Crystal River, Michigan
10.8 mapped river miles, draining 45 square miles, in the Betsie-Platte 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.
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 gauge, and why there is no reading from it
The nearest gauge, 0.0 miles away at Crystal River At County Hwy 675 Nr Glen Arbor, Mi, is not reporting water temperature: USGS carries no water-temperature series for it at all. A stopped gauge repeats its last value in silence, so there is no live temperature here. Nor is there a model to put in its place: that gauge has too little record to fit one, and this site does not print a temperature it cannot stand behind.
The character of the water
Two regulation types split this Betsie-Platte subbasin stream: 3.7 miles under Type 1, open the last Saturday in April through September 30th, and 6.1 miles under Type 3, open January 1st through December 31st. Both allow artificial lures and all types of natural bait, with a creel of 5 fish, no more than 3 trout 15 inches or greater and zero Arctic grayling. The channel measures 10.8 mapped miles, 10.74 in the NHD, with a median width of 20.5 feet, a 45.4-square-mile drainage, and third-order Strahler ranking. MDNR typing is almost absent, 2 percent coverage, a single 0.2-mile cool reach described as warm transitional at very low gradient between river miles 6.3 and 0.7. That class describes the valley segment, not the water, and no temperature has been measured here; a gauge sits on the river itself near Glen Arbor, 0.0 miles away, but carries no July mean. Public land totals 68,440 acres across two units, including 31,554 acres of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
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 6.3–0.7 | 0.2 | cool | Warm transitional stream · very low gradient |
MDNR has classified 0.2 of the 10.7 miles NHD carries for this stream — 2% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cool. 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
- Crystal River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Crystal River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Crystal River — access, parking and public land
- Crystal River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 9.8 of the 10.8 mapped miles; 1.0 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 3.7 mi |
RM 10.8–7.1 | 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 3 6.1 mi |
RM 6.3–0.0 | January 1st–December 31st | Brook trout 15", Brown trout 15", 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.
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 68,440 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 36,886 |
| Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore | National Park Service | 31,554 |
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
Crystal River sits in HUC 8 04060104, the Betsie-Platte subbasin, and drains 45 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 14 NHD reaches carry the name for 10.7 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.