BirdTrout
North Branch Chippewa River, Michigan
28 mapped river miles, draining 81 square miles, in the Pine subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 23.8 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 23.8 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
Twenty-eight mapped miles of fourth-order water at a median width of 18.1 feet, this North Branch drains 81.11 square miles in the Pine subbasin, and the NHD network attributed to it runs longer at 50.3 miles. MDNR types 27.7 miles, 55 percent of the mapped length, and the picture is flat and warming: 23.9 miles from river mile 28.0 down to 6.8 classed cool, a warm transitional stream at very low gradient, then 3.8 miles from river mile 3.8 to the mouth classed warm as a warm small river. Those classes describe the valley segment, not the water, so no measured temperature applies here; the nearest gauge sits 23.8 miles off. Eight public land units total 9,509 acres, nearly all of it the Gladwin Unit of the Au Sable State Forest at 8,224 acres, with no access sites, walk-in sites, or launches recorded. Schofield Creek enters at river mile 13.9. No trout regulation is listed.
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 28.0–6.8 | 23.9 | cool | Warm transitional stream · very low gradient |
| RM 3.8–0.0 | 3.8 | warm | Warm small river · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 27.7 of the 50 miles NHD carries for this stream — 55% of it. The typed water splits 23.9 mi cool, 3.8 mi 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
- North Branch Chippewa River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the North Branch Chippewa River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the North Branch Chippewa River — access, parking and public land
- North Branch Chippewa River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Public land on the river
6 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 8,910 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Au Sable State Forest - Gladwin Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 8,224 |
| Gladwin Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 418 |
| Meridian Park | County | 152 |
| Meridian County Park | Isabella County | 98 |
| Central Park | Village of Barryton | 16 |
| East River Park | Village of Barryton | 1 |
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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Chippewa River 91.8 mi · RM 0.0
- Schofield Creek 3.6 mi · RM 13.9
- Hogg Creek 2.9 mi · RM 5.8
- Hagerman Drain 2.8 mi · RM 6.5
North Branch Chippewa River sits in HUC 8 04080202, the Pine subbasin, and drains 81 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 52 NHD reaches carry the name for 50.3 miles in total — more than the 28.0 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.