BirdTrout
Kunze Creek, Michigan
13.4 mapped river miles, draining 32 square miles, in the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 5.8 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 5.8 miles away, at Au Sable River Near Au Sable — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Low gradient defines this one. MDNR types 10.5 of its 13.4 mapped miles, 79 percent, and the whole typed length from river mile 13.3 down to 1.2 comes back cool, a warm transitional stream on low gradient. That class describes the valley segment rather than the water, so there is no measured temperature for this creek; the nearest gauge, Au Sable River near Au Sable, sits 5.8 miles off. The channel runs a median width of 12.6 feet on a third-order drainage of 32.19 square miles and enters the Tawas River at river mile 0.0. Public land is extensive around it, three units totalling 57,319 acres, led by Huron National Forest at 51,627 and Tuttle Marsh National Wildlife Area at 5,292, but no access sites, walk-in access or launches are recorded on the stream itself. The data carries no trout regulations, no surveys and no stocking history here, so what lives in it is not documented in this record.
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 13.3–1.2 | 10.5 | cool | Warm transitional stream · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 10.5 of the 13.4 miles NHD carries for this stream — 79% 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
- Kunze Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Kunze Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Kunze Creek — access, parking and public land
- Kunze Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 56,919 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Huron National Forest | United States Forest Service | 51,627 |
| Tuttle Marsh National Wildlife Area | United State Forest Service | 5,292 |
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.
Kunze Creek sits in HUC 8 04080101, the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin, and drains 32 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 35 NHD reaches carry the name for 13.4 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.