BirdTrout
Middle Branch Clinton River, Michigan
18.1 mapped river miles, draining 79 square miles, in the Clinton 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 live reading
The nearest gauge is 4.9 miles away, at Clinton River At Sterling Heights — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — USGS carries no water-temperature series for it at all, so no number here comes from it.
The character of the water
Eighteen and one tenth of mapped miles of medium stream, a median 15.8 feet wide, draining 79.43 square miles at Strahler order 5 in the Clinton subbasin. The one typed reach runs 6.8 miles, river mile 13.1 down to 0.0, and MDNR calls it Warm, a warm stream on low gradient; that is 38 percent coverage, and because the class describes the valley segment rather than the water, no measured temperature exists here even though a gauge sits on the stream itself near Waldenburg. Much of what feeds it carries drain and ditch names, Healy Drain at 9.9 miles and Miller Drain at 7.5 among them, with Price Brook, 8.4 miles, entering at river mile 10.3. It joins the North Branch Clinton River, 49.2 miles long. No trout regulation type is recorded, no stocking history appears, and the only public land is the 28-acre Waldenburg Park, with no mapped access sites or launches.
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 13.1–0.0 | 6.8 | warm | Warm stream · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 6.8 of the 18.1 miles NHD carries for this stream — 38% 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
- Middle Branch Clinton River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Middle Branch Clinton River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Middle Branch Clinton River — access, parking and public land
- Middle Branch Clinton River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 28 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Waldenburg Park | — | 28 |
Species
No species records for this water in the files this site reads.
Hatches on this water
47 insects are recorded from southern 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 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
| Light Cahill Maccaffertium ithaca |
May–July | 55–68°F | #12–16 |
| Little Sulphur Ephemerella dorothea |
May–July | 50–62°F | #16–20 |
And 33 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
15 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- North Branch Clinton River 49.2 mi · RM 0.0
- Healy Drain 9.9 mi · RM 10.3
- Price Brook 8.4 mi · RM 10.3
- Miller Drain 7.5 mi · RM 0.5
- Gloede Ditch 4.8 mi · RM 2.4
- Yates Drain 3.8 mi · RM 13.1
- Lawson Drain 3.4 mi · RM 14.1
- Heydenreich Drain 2.7 mi · RM 3.3
- Cannon Drain 2.2 mi · RM 13.8
- Macomb Ditch 1.7 mi · RM 7.5
- Pingle Drain 1.5 mi · RM 3.9
- Hawald Drain 1.5 mi · RM 13.4
Middle Branch Clinton River sits in HUC 8 04090003, the Clinton subbasin, and drains 79 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 26 NHD reaches carry the name for 18.1 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.