BirdTrout
Tank Creek, Michigan
8.6 mapped river miles, draining 18 square miles, in the Pere Marquette-White subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 22.7 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 22.7 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
A third-order small stream of 8.6 mapped miles running a median 7.7 feet wide, Tank Creek gathers just 18.31 square miles of drainage in the Pere Marquette-White subbasin. The public land around it is enormous relative to the creek: four units totaling 117,719 acres, led by the Baldwin Ranger District of the Manistee National Forest at 66,846 acres and the Manistee National Forest at 50,225. None of that land carries a formal access site, a walk-in site, or a launch. Winnepesaug Creek, 5.3 miles long, joins at the mouth. Type 1 regulation covers 8.0 miles, open the last Saturday in April through September 30, with terminal gear restricted to small single hooks or trebles from August 1 through November 15. MDNR types 3.6 miles, 32 percent of the length: a 0.1-mile cold reach at high gradient near river mile 7.2, the rest cool. No measured temperature exists; the nearest gauge is 22.7 miles away.
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 8.4–8.1 | 0.3 | cool | Warm transitional stream · medium gradient |
| RM 7.2–7.2 | 0.1 | cold | Cold stream · high gradient |
| RM 5.6–1.3 | 3.2 | cool | Warm transitional stream · medium gradient |
MDNR has classified 3.6 of the 11.3 miles NHD carries for this stream — 32% of it. The typed water splits 3.5 mi cool, 0.1 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
- Tank Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Tank Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Tank Creek — access, parking and public land
- Tank Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 8.0 of the 8.6 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 8.0 mi |
RM 8.6–0.0 | 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 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.
Public land on the river
4 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 117,719 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Manistee National Forest - Baldwin Ranger District | United States Forest Service | 66,846 |
| Manistee National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 50,224 |
| Pere Marquette River | Michigan DNR | 624 |
| Undedicated | Michigan DNR | 25 |
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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Winnepesaug Creek 5.3 mi · RM 0.0
Tank Creek sits in HUC 8 04060101, the Pere Marquette-White subbasin, and drains 18 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 36 NHD reaches carry the name for 11.3 miles in total — more than the 8.6 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.