BirdTrout

Tawas River, Michigan

6.1 mapped river miles, draining 153 square miles across Iosco county, in the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 11.5 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is MDNR's classification of the water itself.

Open in BirdTrout →

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 11.5 miles away, at Au Sable River Near Au Sable — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.

The lake run

The Tawas River is a Lake Huron tributary with 6.0 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 Tawas River →

Questions about this river

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

Regulations

MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 6.0 of the 6.1 mapped miles; 0.1 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 types of natural bait may be used.

Public land on the river

3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 47 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

Species

• Chinook salmon stocked only
• Coho salmon stocked only
• Lake trout stocked only
• Northern pike stocked only
• Rainbow trout stocked only
• Splake stocked only
• Walleye stocked only

Stocked, per the MDNR record: Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Lake trout, Northern pike, Rainbow trout, Splake, Walleye. The most recent plants are Rainbow trout at Tawas River (Iosco Co., through 2026); Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Lake trout, Northern pike, Rainbow trout, Splake, Walleye at Tawas City (Iosco Co., through 2016).

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

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

• Silver Creek 24.3 mi · RM 6.1
• Kunze Creek 13.4 mi · RM 5.2
• Dead Creek 9.9 mi · RM 0.6
• Cold Creek 8.9 mi · RM 1.8
• Gray Creek 7.0 mi · RM 5.3
• Sims Creek 6.9 mi · RM 4.1

Tawas River sits in HUC 8 04080101, the Au Gres-Rifle subbasin, and drains 153 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 12 NHD reaches carry the name for 6.1 miles in total.

Other water nearby

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

• Kunze Creek 2.3 mi
• Sims Creek 2.4 mi
• Gray Creek 2.8 mi
• Cold Creek 2.8 mi
• Tuttle Ditch 3.2 mi
• Fountain Creek 3.3 mi