BirdTrout
Van Etten Creek, Michigan
17.9 mapped river miles, draining 280 square miles, in the Au Sable 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 Au Sable River Near Au Sable — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The character of the water
Draining 279.95 square miles into the Au Sable River watershed, this is a fifth-order river by Strahler ordering, though the channel itself stays modest: a median width of 13.9 feet across 17.9 mapped miles, with the NHD network putting the total at 20.77 miles. MDNR has typed 10.0 of those miles, 48 percent of the mapped length, running from river mile 17.9 down to the mouth, and classes that whole span as warm stream with high gradient. Because the classification describes the valley segment rather than the water, no measured temperature exists here; the nearest gauge, on the Au Sable River near Au Sable, sits 11.1 miles off. The Pine River joins at river mile 0.0 after 11.8 miles of its own. Public land is essentially one holding: 89,736 acres across two units, of which the Au Sable State Forest Grayling Unit accounts for 89,732 and Van Etten Creek Park for 4. No access sites, walk-in areas, or launches are recorded.
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 17.9–0.0 | 10.0 | warm | Warm stream · high gradient |
MDNR has classified 10.0 of the 21 miles NHD carries for this stream — 48% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, warm. 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
- Van Etten Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Van Etten Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Van Etten Creek — access, parking and public land
- Van Etten Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 89,736 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Au Sable State Forest - Grayling Unit | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 89,732 |
| Van Etten Creek Park | Iosco County | 4 |
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.
Van Etten Creek sits in HUC 8 04070007, the Au Sable River watershed, and drains 280 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 24 NHD reaches carry the name for 20.8 miles in total — more than the 17.9 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.