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Splake in Michigan
Salvelinus fontinalis × Salvelinus namaycush — a hatchery hybrid, stocked in Michigan, holding water between 52 and 62°F. Michigan's own fisheries records name 1 water here.
Splake is a hatchery cross of a female lake trout and a male brook trout, and Michigan is the only state on this map whose files carry one at all. What they carry is a stocking record: three waters named in MDNR's file, none of them a river with a page here, because splake go into inland lakes and into parts of the Great Lakes rather than into streams.
Twelve to twenty inches, holding 52 to 62°F and out of room above 68 — between its two parents, as everything about it is. The identification is the same problem: brook trout vermiculations on the back but paler, spots without the blue halos, and a tail forked more than a brook trout's and far less than a lake trout's. Michigan sets a minimum size for splake by name, which is more than the other three states do for any trout.
- 52–62°FWater, preferred
- 12–20"Typical length
- HybridIn Michigan
- 1Waters listed here
What it is
Salmonidae — a hatchery hybrid of two char · Salvelinus fontinalis × Salvelinus namaycush
- Intermediate between its parents, which is the whole identification problem: brook-trout vermiculations on the back, but paler and less defined.
- A tail forked more than a brook trout's and far less than a lake trout's — the usual tiebreak.
- Spotting pale rather than red, without the blue halos.
- Lower fins white-edged, as in both parents.
Typical length in Michigan is 12 to 20 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
A hatchery hybrid, stocked into inland lakes and parts of the Great Lakes. Michigan is the only state on this map that ships a splake record at all, and it is a stocking record.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tawas River | 2 stocking records | 2016 |
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 splake 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.
- Cedar River Menominee
- Au Sable River Iosco
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
Splake hold 52–62°F water and are under real stress above 68°F. On this map's own colours that band is cold, cold-transitional 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: Autumn, and largely academic: splake are a hatchery cross of a female lake trout and a male brook trout, and reproduction in the wild is rare enough that the fishery is the stocking.
How to catch it
Stocked inland lakes, and the cold water near the bottom of them. Not a stream fish.
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.
- Woolly Bugger (Black) streamer · #2–12 — Minnows + Dace, Giant Black Stonefly (Salmonfly), Hellgrammite
- Woolly Bugger (Olive) streamer · #2–12 — Cranefly, Damselfly, Dragonfly
- Woolly Bugger (Brown) streamer · #2–12 — Crayfish, Dragonfly, Leech
- Muddler Minnow streamer · #4–10 — Minnows + Dace, Grasshopper, Sculpin
- Zonker streamer · #2–8 — Minnows + Dace, Crayfish, Sculpin
- Circus Peanut streamer · #2–6 — Crayfish, Sculpin
- Balanced Leech streamer · #8–14 — Leech
- Black Ghost streamer · #4–10 — Minnows + Dace
- Clouser Crayfish streamer · #4–8 — Crayfish
- Game Changer streamer · #2–6 — Sculpin
- Kreelex streamer · #2–8 — Minnows + Dace
- Mickey Finn streamer · #4–10 — Minnows + Dace
Rules for splake in Michigan
Michigan sets a minimum size per species under each of its four stream regulation types, and these are that column for splake. 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 | 10" | 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 | 10" | 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 | 10" | 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
Stocked inland lakes, and the cold water near the bottom of them. Not a stream fish.
- 52–62°F preferred
- 68°F upper limit
- cold, cold-transitional 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
- Brown trout in Michigan Salmo trutta
- Rainbow trout in Michigan Oncorhynchus mykiss
Splake 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.