BirdTrout
Prior Creek, Michigan
9.6 mapped river miles, draining 22 square miles across Ogemaw county, in the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 19.7 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 19.7 miles away, at Au Sable River At Mio — 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: 04136500.
The character of the water
Typing coverage here is unusually complete: MDNR types 8.5 of 9.6 mapped miles, 89 percent, and the entire typed length from river mile 8.5 to the mouth comes back cold-transitional, a cold transitional stream on high gradient. A second cold entry appears in the record with 0.0 typed miles. Those classes describe the valley segment rather than the water, so there is no measured temperature for this creek, and the nearest gauge, Au Sable River at Mio, lies 19.7 miles off. The channel is small, a median width of 10.1 feet on a fourth-order drainage of 21.76 square miles in Ogemaw County, and it meets the Rifle River at river mile 0.0. Ammond Creek enters at 0.9, Bailer Creek at 4.0. Type 1 regulations cover 9.2 miles, last Saturday in April through September 30th, five fish with no more than three 15 inches or greater. Brook trout were stocked in 1981. One access site is recorded, walk-in, with no launch.
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 8.5–0.0 | 8.5 | cold-transitional | Cold transitional stream · high gradient |
| RM 0.0–0.0 | 0.0 | cold | Cold stream · very low gradient |
MDNR has classified 8.5 of the 9.5 miles NHD carries for this stream — 89% of it. The typed water splits 8.5 mi cold-transitional, 0.0 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
- Prior Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Prior Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Prior Creek — access, parking and public land
- Prior Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Prior Creek good for brook trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 9.2 of the 9.6 mapped miles; 0.4 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 9.2 mi |
RM 9.6–0.0 | 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 types of natural bait may be used.
Access
1 mapped MDNR access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Rifle River At Peters Road Crossing (RM 0.2). 1 walk-in, 0 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 20,136 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Au Sable State Forest - Roscommon Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 20,136 |
Species
Stocked, per the MDNR record: Brook trout. The most recent plants are Brook trout at Prior Creek (Ogemaw Co., through 1981); Brook trout at Prior Creek (Ogemaw Co., through 1981); Brook trout at Prior Creek (Ogemaw Co., through 1981).
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
3 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Rifle River 68.0 mi · RM 0.0
- Ammond Creek 5.5 mi · RM 0.9
- Bailer Creek 4.5 mi · RM 4.0
Prior Creek sits in HUC 8 04080101, the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin, and drains 22 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 14 NHD reaches carry the name for 9.5 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.