BirdTrout
West Branch Chippewa River, Michigan
4.0 mapped river miles, draining 52 square miles, in the Pine subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 15.6 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 15.6 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.
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 2.2–1.2 | 1.0 | warm | Warm stream · very low gradient |
| RM 0.7–0.3 | 0.3 | cool | Warm transitional small river · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 1.3 of the 4.0 miles NHD carries for this stream — 32% of it. The typed water splits 1.0 mi warm, 0.3 mi cool. 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
- West Branch Chippewa River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the West Branch Chippewa River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the West Branch Chippewa River — access, parking and public land
- West Branch Chippewa River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Access
1 mapped MDNR access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Winchester Dam (RM 4.0). 0 walk-in, 1 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
2 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 4,429 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Martiny Lakes State Game Area | Michigan DNR - Wildlife Division | 4,427 |
| Barryton Lions Club Riverside Park | Village of Barryton | 2 |
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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Chippewa River 91.8 mi · RM 0.0
- North Branch Chippewa River 50.3 mi · RM 0.0
- Brown Creek 2.0 mi · RM 1.2
- Helmer Creek 1.2 mi · RM 1.4
West Branch Chippewa River sits in HUC 8 04080202, the Pine subbasin, and drains 52 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 9 NHD reaches carry the name for 4.0 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.