BirdTrout
Open the map
Brown trout in Michigan
Salmo trutta — introduced to Michigan, holding water between 54 and 66°F. Michigan's own fisheries records name 20 waters here.
The first brown trout in North American water went into the Pere Marquette in April 1884, and the Pere Marquette is on the list below — with the Manistee, the Au Sable and its north branch, the Pine, the Middle Branch Pere Marquette and the Platte — as a river MDNR's own surveys and stocking records put brown trout in. Twenty waters with a page here carry that record and twenty more are named without one.
An introduced fish that has outlasted the introduction: eight to eighteen inches is the usual range, holding 54 to 66°F and hanging on to 75, which is a wider and warmer band than the brook trout it shares the state with. It takes the larger water and the deeper bends for the same reason. Michigan's minimum size is set per species and the brown trout's is not the brook trout's.
- 54–66°FWater, preferred
- 8–18"Typical length
- IntroducedIn Michigan
- 20Waters listed here
What it is
Salmonidae — true trout, genus Salmo · Salmo trutta
- Butter-brown to bronze flanks, paling to cream on the belly.
- Black and rust-red spots, most of them ringed in a pale halo — spots on a light ground, where a brook trout carries light marks on a dark ground.
- No vermiculations on the back, and no white-and-black edge on the lower fins.
- Tail square to very slightly forked, and largely unspotted.
Typical length in Michigan is 8 to 18 inches. That is a curated range for water of this kind, not an average of any survey: MDNR's abundance file counts fish per acre and per mile and records no lengths at all, and no other state on this site publishes lengths either.
Native or stocked
Introduced. The first brown trout planted in North American water went into the Pere Marquette in April 1884, from German eggs by way of the Northville hatchery — the river is still fished for the descendants.
Where to find it in Michigan
Waters MDNR's own files put this fish in — a survey station where it was counted, or a planting site where it was stocked — matched to the river pages on this site by position, not by name. Surveyed water is listed first: a survey is a fish somebody counted, a stocking is a fish somebody put there.
| Water | Record | Latest |
|---|---|---|
| Manistee River | 6 survey stations, 180 stocking records | 2026 |
| Pere Marquette River | 13 survey stations, 52 stocking records | 2026 |
| Au Sable River | 4 survey stations, 65 stocking records | 2026 |
| North Branch Manistee River | 20 survey stations | 2022 |
| Houghton Creek | 16 survey stations | 2022 |
| Gamble Creek | 14 survey stations | 2019 |
| North Branch Au Sable River | 13 survey stations | 2019 |
| Pine River | 11 survey stations | 2019 |
| Middle Branch Pere Marquette River | 5 survey stations, 6 stocking records | 2022 |
| West Branch Sturgeon River | 6 survey stations | 2019 |
| Platte River | 4 survey stations, 4 stocking records | 2026 |
| Bear Creek | 5 survey stations | 2019 |
| South Branch Au Sable River | 3 survey stations, 6 stocking records | 2022 |
| Boardman River | 4 survey stations | 2019 |
| Little Bear Creek | 4 survey stations | 2019 |
| Bigelow Creek | 3 survey stations | 2019 |
| Little South Branch Pere Marquette River | 1 survey station, 4 stocking records | 2022 |
| Little Manistee River | 1 survey station, 2 stocking records | 2022 |
| Rifle River | 65 stocking records | 2026 |
| Muskegon River | 55 stocking records | 2026 |
Other Michigan waters in the same record
Named in MDNR's files without a river page here to link to — mostly lakes and Great Lakes water, which for brown trout is where the fish is. Listed rather than dropped: a page that showed nothing would read as a data failure when it is the actual shape of the fishery.
- Battle Creek Eaton
- Bellamy Creek Ionia
- Black River Gogebic
- Blue Creek Berrien
- Brandywine Creek Cass
- Brush Creek Van Buren
- Buck Creek Kent
- Cedar River Gladwin
- Clam River Clare
- Coldwater River Barry
- Dickinson Creek Calhoun
- Dowagiac Creek Cass
- Dowagiac River Cass
- Duck Creek Ionia
- Grand River Ottawa
- Gun River Allegan
- Indian River Schoolcraft
- Little Muskegon River Mecosta
- Little Sturgeon River Cheboygan
- McCoy Creek Berrien
Where that is on the map
Every subwatershed this site covers in Michigan as a faint dot, and the ones holding the waters listed above lit. A coverage map with this species on it — the map on the front of the site is the map.
When to fish for it
Brown trout hold 54–66°F water and are under real stress above 75°F. On this map's own colours that band is cold, cold-transitional, cool water, which is what the river pages and the live map are painting when they run green and blue. The season follows the temperature rather than the calendar: the water is in the band early and late in the day through the summer, and all day either side of it.
Spawning: Late October into December, on gravel riffles, later in the season than the rainbow and overlapping the brook trout.
What is hatching in Michigan, month by month, from the same seed the app's hatch panel reasons from. These are the state's recorded hatches, not this species' — trout eat what is in the water.
| Month | Peaking |
|---|---|
| January | Aquatic Worm, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Fish Eggs, Hellgrammite, Leech and 6 more |
| February | Aquatic Worm, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Hellgrammite, Leech, Little Black Stonefly and 6 more |
| March | Aquatic Worm, Blue-Winged Olive, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Hellgrammite, Leech and 7 more |
| April | Aquatic Worm, Blackfly, Blue Quill, Blue-Winged Olive, Cranefly, Damselfly and 15 more |
| May | Alderfly, Aquatic Worm, Blackfly, Blue Quill, Blue-Winged Olive, Caterpillar and 24 more |
| June | Alderfly, Aquatic Worm, Black Ant, Blackfly, Brown Drake, Caterpillar and 32 more |
| July | Annual Cicada, Aquatic Worm, Black Ant, Caterpillar, Crayfish, Cream Cahill and 30 more |
| August | Annual Cicada, Aquatic Worm, Black Ant, Caterpillar, Cinnamon Flying Ant, Crayfish and 25 more |
| September | Aquatic Worm, Black Ant, Blue-Winged Olive, Caterpillar, Cinnamon Flying Ant, Cranefly and 22 more |
| October | Aquatic Worm, Blue-Winged Olive, Cranefly, Crayfish, Cricket, Damselfly and 13 more |
| November | Aquatic Worm, Blue-Winged Olive, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Fish Eggs, Hellgrammite and 7 more |
| December | Aquatic Worm, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Fish Eggs, Hellgrammite, Leech and 5 more |
How to catch it
Larger and slightly warmer water than brook trout will hold: undercut banks, logjams, deep bends and the shaded seams under cover. The most nocturnal of the five.
Patterns from this site's book, chosen by the insects recorded from Michigan's own regions and filtered to the kinds worth putting in front of this fish. Each one has its tying recipe.
- Hare's Ear Nymph nymph · #10–18 — Alderfly, Black Ant, Cream Cahill
- Pheasant Tail Nymph nymph · #12–22 — Blue Quill, Blue-Winged Olive, Damselfly
- Parachute Adams dry fly · #12–20 — Blue Quill, Brown Drake, Blue-Winged Olive
- Chubby Chernobyl dry fly · #8–14 — Annual Cicada, Giant Black Stonefly (Salmonfly), Golden Stonefly
- Elk Hair Caddis dry fly · #12–20 — Grannom, Green Sedge, Little Black Caddis
- Foam Beetle terrestrial · #12–18 — Black Ant, Cricket, Grasshopper
- Prince Nymph nymph · #10–18 — Green Sedge, Isonychia / Slate Drake, Little Black Stonefly
- Rusty Spinner dry fly · #14–20 — Cream Cahill, Isonychia / Slate Drake, Light Cahill
- RS2 emerger · #16–24 — Blue Quill, Blue-Winged Olive, Midge
- Griffith's Gnat dry fly · #18–24 — Blackfly, Midge, Cinnamon Flying Ant
- LaFontaine Sparkle Pupa emerger · #12–18 — Grannom, Green Sedge, Little Sister Caddis
- Partridge & Orange Soft Hackle wet fly · #12–18 — Alderfly, Little Black Caddis, Little Sister Caddis
Rules for brown trout in Michigan
Michigan sets a minimum size per species under each of its four stream regulation types, and these are that column for brown trout. The creel is a trout total across species, not a limit on this one. Snapshot taken 2026-08-16 — the book on the water is the book.
| Type | Minimum size | Season | Creel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type 1 1960 waters | 8" | Last Saturday in April–September 30th | 5 fish, with no more than 3 trout 15“ or greater. Zero (0) Arctic Grayling. |
| Type 2 14 waters | 12" | Last Saturday in April–September 30th | 5 fish, with no more than 3 trout 15“ or greater. Zero (0) Arctic Grayling. |
| Type 3 59 waters | 15" | January 1st–December 31st | 5 fish, with no more than 3 trout 15“ or greater. Zero (0) Arctic Grayling. |
| Type 4 133 waters | 10" | January 1st–December 31st | 5 fish, with no more than 3 trout 15“ or greater. Zero (0) Arctic Grayling. |
The full Michigan regulation page →
Habitat notes
Larger and slightly warmer water than brook trout will hold: undercut banks, logjams, deep bends and the shaded seams under cover. The most nocturnal of the five.
- 54–66°F preferred
- 75°F upper limit
- cold, cold-transitional, cool on this map's colours
The four thermal classes named there are the ones every river on this site is painted with, at breaks of 58, 64 and 70°F. A river page showing cold water is showing water inside this fish's band; that is the whole point of the colour.
The other trout in Michigan
- Brook trout in Michigan Salvelinus fontinalis
- Rainbow trout in Michigan Oncorhynchus mykiss
- Lake trout in Michigan Salvelinus namaycush
Brown trout in the other states
The same fish, on different water and under different rules. Michigan's sand-bottomed rivers, Wisconsin's driftless springs, Minnesota's North Shore, Virginia's mountain brook water and North Carolina's tailwaters and freestone gradient are five fisheries, and the limits differ with them.
Open the trout map →Every trout stream near you, coloured by today's water temperature.