BirdTrout

Mitchell Creek, Michigan

7.5 mapped river miles, draining 18 square miles across Mecosta county, in the Muskegon River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 12.9 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is MDNR's classification of the water itself.

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Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish

USGS gauge — live water temperature

Water temperature — the colour of the river, and of every dot on it

58 64 70

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 12.9 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.

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.

MDNR has classified 3.1 of the 12.2 miles NHD carries for this stream — 25% of it. The typed water splits 1.6 mi cool, 1.5 mi 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

• Mitchell Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
• When to fish Mitchell Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
• How to get to Mitchell Creek — access, parking and public land
• Mitchell Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
• Is Mitchell Creek good for brook trout?
• Is Mitchell Creek good for brown trout?
• Is Mitchell Creek good for rainbow trout?

Regulations

MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 7.0 of the 7.5 mapped miles; 0.5 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.

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.

Public land on the river

6 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 15,301 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

Species

• Brook trout stocked only
• Brown trout stocked only
• Rainbow trout stocked only

Stocked, per the MDNR record: Brook trout, Brown trout, Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Brook trout, Brown trout, Rainbow trout at Madison Rd. (Mecosta Co., through 1999).

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.

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.

• Muskegon River 231.0 mi · RM 0.0

Mitchell Creek sits in HUC 8 04060102, the Muskegon River watershed, and drains 18 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 16 NHD reaches carry the name for 12.2 miles in total — more than the 7.5 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.

Other water nearby

The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.

• Ewing Creek 2.8 mi
• Buckhorn Creek 3.6 mi
• Ryan Creek 4.2 mi
• McDuffee Creek 4.6 mi
• Cold Spring Creek 5.2 mi
• Pease Creek 5.3 mi