BirdTrout
Silver Creek, Michigan
11.0 mapped river miles, draining 16 square miles, in the Manistee River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 11.1 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 11.1 miles away, at Manistee River Near Sherman — 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: 04124000.
The character of the water
Silver Creek is small water in the Manistee River watershed, a median 6.9 feet across, draining 15.58 square miles at Strahler order 4. The mapped length is 11.0 miles against 17.91 miles of channel in the NHD, and it enters the 190.1-mile Manistee River at river mile 0.0. MDNR types only 2.1 miles, 12 percent of the stream, as Cold, a high-gradient cold stream between river mile 11.0 and 6.3; the class applies to the valley segment, not measured water; the nearest gauge lies 11.1 miles away on the Manistee River near Sherman. Type 1 regulations cover 10.4 miles, open from the last Saturday in April through September 30th, artificial lures and all types of natural bait, five fish with no more than three trout 15" or greater. Five public land units totaling 247,176 acres flank the corridor, led by the Traverse City Management Unit at 113,281 acres. No access sites, walk-in access, or launches are recorded, and no surveys or stocking are on file.
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 11.0–6.3 | 2.1 | cold | Cold stream · high gradient |
MDNR has classified 2.1 of the 17.9 miles NHD carries for this stream — 12% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, 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
- Silver Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Silver Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Silver Creek — access, parking and public land
- Silver Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 10.4 of the 11.0 mapped miles; 0.6 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 10.4 mi |
RM 11.0–0.0 | 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.
Public land on the river
5 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 247,176 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Traverse City Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 113,281 |
| Cadillac Management Unit | Michigan DNR | 59,656 |
| Pere Marquette State Forest - Cadillac Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 49,904 |
| Cadillac State Forest Area | State Dept. of Natural Resources | 24,323 |
| Silver Creek State Forest Campground | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 12 |
Species
Trout water by MDNR's classification, which types it cold — a statement about the water's temperature, not a fish record. No MDNR survey or stocking record for this river is 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Silver Creek sits in HUC 8 04060103, the Manistee River watershed, and drains 16 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 37 NHD reaches carry the name for 17.9 miles in total — more than the 11.0 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.