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Pere Marquette River, Michigan

64 mapped river miles, draining 713 square miles across Lake, Mason counties, in the Pere Marquette-White subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 17.9 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 17.9 miles away, at Little Manistee River — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.

The character of the water

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 19.1 of the 64 miles NHD carries for this stream — 30% of it. The typed water splits 13.0 mi cool, 4.8 mi cold, 1.3 mi cold-transitional. 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.

Named stretches

Anglers name parts of this river. These are the names two or more independent sources use; each page says which sources, because a nickname is the one thing on this site that is not a measurement.

• Artificial Lures Water — The ten and a half miles below the flies-only water, from Gleason's Landing down to Rainbow Rapids. Bigger water, floated more than waded, and open to any artificial lure rather than flies alone.
• Flies-Only Water — Eight and a half miles of upper Pere Marquette from the M-37 bridge down to Gleason's Landing — gravel runs, deep bends and log jams, and the most heavily fished water on the river by a wide margin.

The lake run

The Pere Marquette River is a Lake Michigan tributary with 59.5 miles of run corridor on it — salmon, steelhead and lake-run brown trout, on their own calendar and under their own rules. Run timing, species and access on the Pere Marquette River →

Questions about this river

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

Regulations

MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 65.8 of the 63.9 mapped miles; 0.0 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 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. Pere Marquette River (BR 41), 42.0 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Broadway Road (USFS Road 5132); downstream: Indian Bridge.

Access

6 mapped MDNR access sites within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: The Forks (RM 63.9), M-37 Bridge (RM 63.2), Sulak - Upper Branch (RM 41.5), Walhalla Road Bridge (RM 28.5), Scottville Riverside Park (RM 16.3), Loomis Street (RM 0.0). 0 walk-in, 6 boat or canoe launches.

Public land on the river

11 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 151,935 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

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

Stocked, per the MDNR record: Brown trout, Rainbow trout. The most recent plants are Brown trout at Macdougalls (Lake Co., through 2026); Brown trout at Bowmans Bridge (Lake Co., through 2026); Brown trout at Rainbow Rapids (Lake Co., through 2026).

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

15 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.

• Big South Branch Pere Marquette River 52.2 mi · RM 22.5
• Black Creek 31.4 mi · RM 21.6
• Little South Branch Pere Marquette River 28.7 mi · RM 63.9
• Middle Branch Pere Marquette River 25.3 mi · RM 63.9
• Sanborn Creek 21.7 mi · RM 60.5
• Tank Creek 11.3 mi · RM 41.1
• Swan Creek 7.3 mi · RM 11.6
• Danaher Creek 5.8 mi · RM 56.7
• Lichte Creek 4.8 mi · RM 8.2
• India Creek 4.2 mi · RM 14.9
• Kinney Creek 4.1 mi · RM 47.1
• Saint Clair Creek 3.8 mi · RM 4.5

Pere Marquette River sits in HUC 8 04060101, the Pere Marquette-White subbasin, and drains 713 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 110 NHD reaches carry the name for 63.9 miles in total.

Other water nearby

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

• Whiskey Creek 0.7 mi
• India Creek 2.8 mi
• Swan Creek 3.2 mi
• Weldon Creek 3.5 mi
• Carr Creek 4.4 mi
• Lichte Creek 4.5 mi