BirdTrout
Hunt Creek, Michigan
11.7 mapped river miles, draining 35 square miles across Montmorency county, in the Thunder Bay subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 16.2 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 16.2 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
Eleven and seven tenths of mapped miles of medium stream in the Thunder Bay subbasin, 11.64 by NHD measure, a median 12.9 feet wide, draining 34.68 square miles at Strahler order 3, all of it in Montmorency County. Blue Ribbon designation covers 8.1 miles, from the Research Station down to the Thunder Bay River — 76.0 miles long, met at river mile 0.0, the receiving water. Type 1 regulation covers 8.0 miles, last Saturday in April through September 30th, artificial lures and all types of natural bait permitted, creel 5 fish. MDNR types 2.2 miles from river mile 11.0 to 4.0 as Cold, a cold stream on high gradient — 19 percent of the length, describing the valley segment rather than the water, so no measured temperature exists here; the nearest gauge, the Au Sable River at Mio, is 16.2 miles off. Four public units total 79,976 acres, including the 712-acre Hunt Creek Fisheries Research Area. Rainbow trout were stocked at Hunt Creek Road, 1998 through 2002.
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 11.0–4.0 | 2.2 | cold | Cold stream · high gradient |
MDNR has classified 2.2 of the 11.6 miles NHD carries for this stream — 19% 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
- Hunt Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Hunt Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Hunt Creek — access, parking and public land
- Hunt Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Hunt Creek good for rainbow trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 8.0 of the 11.7 mapped miles; 3.7 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 8.0 mi |
RM 8.2–0.0 | 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. Hunt Creek (BR 34), 8.1 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Research Station; downstream: Thunder Bay River.
Public land on the river
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 79,976 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Mackinac State Forest - Atlanta Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 69,120 |
| Au Sable State Forest - Grayling Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 8,649 |
| Hunt Creek | Michigan DNR | 1,496 |
| Hunt Creek Fisheries Research Area | — | 712 |
Species
Stocked, per the MDNR record: Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Rainbow trout at Hunt Creek Road (Montmorency Co., through 2002).
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
3 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Thunder Bay River 76.0 mi · RM 0.0
- Sage Creek 4.0 mi · RM 3.8
- Fuller Creek 1.8 mi · RM 8.8
Hunt Creek sits in HUC 8 04070006, the Thunder Bay subbasin, and drains 35 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 18 NHD reaches carry the name for 11.6 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.