BirdTrout
Middle Branch Pere Marquette River, Michigan
25 mapped river miles, draining 51 square miles across Lake county, in the Pere Marquette-White subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 17.6 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 17.6 miles away, at Muskegon River At Big Rapids — 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: 04121650.
The character of the water
A fourth-order stream of 25.4 mapped miles entirely within Lake County, 18.1 feet wide at the median, draining 51.41 square miles to the Pere Marquette River. MDNR types only 4.4 miles, 17 percent of the length: 2.0 miles Cool of the Warm transitional stream type with high gradient near the top, and 2.4 miles Cold with medium gradient from river mile 17.5 nearly to the mouth. Those classes describe the valley segment rather than the water, and no gauge sits on this branch; the nearest is 17.6 miles away. Type 1 regulation covers 23.1 miles, open from the last Saturday in April through September 30th, with August 1 to November 15 terminal gear restricted to single-pointed hooks and jigs no more than half an inch point to shank, or treble hooks no more than three-eighths of an inch on artificial lures. Two access sites, both launches. Stocking of brook, brown and rainbow trout ended in 1999.
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 24.4–21.4 | 2.0 | cool | Warm transitional stream · high gradient |
| RM 17.5–0.1 | 2.4 | cold | Cold stream · medium gradient |
MDNR has classified 4.4 of the 25 miles NHD carries for this stream — 17% of it. The typed water splits 2.4 mi cold, 2.0 mi 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
- Middle Branch Pere Marquette River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Middle Branch Pere Marquette River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Middle Branch Pere Marquette River — access, parking and public land
- Middle Branch Pere Marquette River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Middle Branch Pere Marquette River good for brook trout?
- Is the Middle Branch Pere Marquette River good for brown trout?
- Is the Middle Branch Pere Marquette River good for rainbow trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 23.1 of the 25.4 mapped miles; 2.3 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 23.1 mi |
RM 25.4–0.0 | 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 natural bait types allowed. Aug 1–Nov 15: terminal fishing gear restricted to single-pointed hooks & jigs ≤½" from point to shank or treble hooks ≤⅜" from point to shank only when attached to artificial lures.
Blue Ribbon. Little South Branch Pere Marquette River (BR 42), 8.9 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Curtis Bridge; downstream: Pere Marquette River.
Access
2 mapped MDNR access sites within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Roller Bridge (RM 7.3), The Forks (RM 0.1). 0 walk-in, 2 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 93,914 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Manistee National Forest - Baldwin Ranger District | United States Forest Service | 66,846 |
| Cadillac Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 26,440 |
| Pere Marquette River | Michigan DNR | 624 |
| Roller Bridge Boating Access Site | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 4 |
Species
MDNR's most recent survey on this river ran in 2022 at Pere Marquette River, Lake County, in a channel averaging 54.31 feet: brown trout, chinook salmon, coho salmon, rainbow trout, at 2,875 trout per acre and 189 pounds per acre. MDNR strata: medium, great lakes accessible, wild trout; regulation at the station, gear restricted.The station has been surveyed in 30 years since 1973.
- Brown trout surveyed
- Chinook salmon surveyed
- Coho salmon surveyed
- Rainbow trout surveyed
- Brook trout stocked only
Stocked, per the MDNR record: Brook trout, Brown trout, Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Brook trout, Brown trout at Section 14 (Lake Co., through 1999); Brook trout, Rainbow trout at 64th Avenue (Lake Co., through 1995).
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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Pere Marquette River 63.9 mi · RM 0.0
- Little South Branch Pere Marquette River 28.7 mi · RM 0.0
- Blood Creek 3.5 mi · RM 4.7
- Baker Creek 2.0 mi · RM 10.9
Middle Branch Pere Marquette River sits in HUC 8 04060101, the Pere Marquette-White subbasin, and drains 51 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 44 NHD reaches carry the name for 25.3 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.