Michigan

The spring-fed river American trout conservation was born on — Trout Unlimited was founded on its banks in 1959, and the flies-only, catch-and-release "Holy Water" below Grayling still grows wild browns and brookies. It's a match-the-hatch dry-fly river whose signature event is the after-dark Hexagenia hatch in late June.

The wild, walkable half of the Au Sable's trout branches — roughly 14 miles of protected public frontage through the George Mason Tract, flies-only catch-and-release, with the signature after-dark Hex hatch and wild browns and brookies.

A spring-fed wild-trout river running from the Forks down to West Grand Traverse Bay in downtown Traverse City — also known as the Ottaway River. It's the water the Adams dry fly was born on, and after one of the Midwest's largest dam-removal projects it runs free again from the headwaters to the bay: wild brook trout up top, heavy browns and a famous night Hex hatch in the middle, and a lower reach that warms into steelhead and salmon water.

The fastest trout river in the northern Lower Peninsula — a cold, gravel-bottomed freestone that drops roughly seven feet per mile above Tippy Dam. Everything in it is wild: two strains of brown, headwater brook trout, and an unusual population of acrobatic McCloud-strain rainbows. A National Scenic River, and one of Michigan's busiest summer canoe runs, so fish it early, late, or after Labor Day. Trout season only — closed October 1 through late April.

Michigan's finest self-sustaining trout stream — 60-plus miles of cold, spring-fed water near Grayling holding wild browns, brook trout, and rainbows, with a flies-only reach from M-72 to CCC Bridge and the state's marquee after-dark Hex hatch.

Michigan's first designated Natural River (1972) — a small, cold, spring-fed brook-trout stream running the protected Jordan Valley to Lake Charlevoix. Technical, tight-canopy wade water up top for native brookies, a float below Graves Crossing for the Hex and its biggest browns, and lake-run fish in the lower river.

The Pigeon threads the wildest country in Michigan's Lower Peninsula — the 106,000-acre Pigeon River Country State Forest, home of the state's elk herd. A cold, spring-fed, tannin-tinted stream holding wild brook, brown, and rainbow trout, it fishes small and technical up top and opens to lake-run browns near Mullett Lake. Blue Ribbon and Natural River water.

The fast one of the Tip of the Mitt — dropping roughly 14 feet per mile on its run north to Burt Lake, the Sturgeon near Wolverine is reputed to be the steepest, hardest-pushing river in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. A cold, spring-fed Blue Ribbon freestone with real riffle-and-run structure holding wild brook, brown, and rainbow trout, plus fall lake-run browns and a modest steelhead run out of Burt Lake. Strong current makes wading a genuine consideration.

The big migratory tailwater below Tippy Dam near Wellston — thousands of Lake Michigan steelhead, Chinook, and coho stack under the dam, drawing spey swingers and drift boats fall through spring, over a resident 20-inch-plus brown trout fishery in the cold water up top.

West Michigan's do-everything tailwater below Croton Dam — cold, steady Consumers Energy releases hold wild browns and rainbows up top while some of the Great Lakes' heaviest steelhead and king-salmon runs stack the length of it. A big drift-boat river and Midwest spey destination, famous for its Gray Drake hatch.

Michigan's blue-ribbon spring creek and a National Wild & Scenic river — the famous 8.5-mile flies-only, catch-and-release water from M-37 to Gleason's Landing grows wild browns descended from the first brown trout ever stocked in North America, and the lower river fills with Lake Michigan steelhead, Chinook, and coho on the fall and spring runs. Log-jam water fished by wade and low-profile drift boat, with a signature after-dark Hex hatch in late June.

A Grand River tributary running through Rockford just north of Grand Rapids, split by the Rockford Dam into two fisheries: Lake Michigan steelhead and salmon stack in the lower seven miles, while wild browns, rainbows, and brook trout hold in the small trout water above. Coldest, best trout water sits near Rockford; the lower river warms to marginal in midsummer.