BirdTrout
Houghton Creek, Michigan
9.5 mapped river miles, draining 30 square miles across Ogemaw county, in the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 16.9 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 16.9 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
MDNR types 6.1 of this creek's 9.5 mapped miles, 64 percent, and every typed mile comes back cold: a cold stream on medium gradient from river mile 7.1 down to the mouth, where it meets the Rifle River. The class describes the valley segment rather than the water, so there is no measured temperature here, and the nearest gauge, Au Sable River at Mio, sits 16.9 miles off. The channel runs a median width of 16.8 feet on a fourth-order drainage of 29.55 square miles in Ogemaw County. A 2022 survey at 22.98 feet mean width returned 791 trout per acre and 214 pounds per acre, brown and rainbow trout, under Type 1 regulations. Those regulations cover 9.1 miles, last Saturday in April through September 30th. Rainbow trout stocking has run since 1985 and continues through 2024 at 39.6 fish per mile. Two public land units total 4,490 acres, most of it Rifle River State Recreation Area, with one access site and one launch.
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 7.1–0.0 | 6.1 | cold | Cold stream · medium gradient |
MDNR has classified 6.1 of the 9.5 miles NHD carries for this stream — 64% 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
- Houghton Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Houghton Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Houghton Creek — access, parking and public land
- Houghton Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Houghton Creek good for brown trout?
- Is Houghton Creek good for rainbow trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 9.1 of the 9.5 mapped miles; 0.4 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 9.1 mi |
RM 9.5–0.0 | 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.
Access
1 mapped MDNR access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: The Ranch (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, 4,490 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Rifle River State Recreation Area | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 4,480 |
| City Park | — | 10 |
Species
MDNR's most recent survey on this river ran in 2022 at Houghton Creek, Ogemaw County, in a channel averaging 22.98 feet: brown trout, rainbow trout, at 791 trout per acre and 214 pounds per acre. MDNR strata: small, great lakes accessible, wild trout; regulation at the station, type 1.The station has been surveyed in 13 years since 2000.
Stocked, per the MDNR record: Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Rainbow trout at Houghton Creek (Ogemaw Co., through 2024).
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
5 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Rifle River 68.0 mi · RM 0.0
- Wilkins Creek 6.1 mi · RM 4.0
- Bixby Creek 2.4 mi · RM 7.1
- Brooks Creek 1.5 mi · RM 7.5
- Simmons Creek 1.2 mi · RM 7.8
Houghton Creek sits in HUC 8 04080101, the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin, and drains 30 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 30 NHD reaches carry the name for 9.5 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.