Troutline

Upper Manistee River

Michigan·Grand Traverse & Northwest·44.60° N, 85.05° W
Flow
231 CFS
Manistee River near Grayling
Water Temp
56°F
Manistee River near Grayling
Condition
Above Normal
Weather
71°F
Smoke
near Bear Lake
Latest report: The Northern Angler · 7 days ago

Insights

Flow
231 CFS — wading range
Solid water for fishing.
Water Temp
Water 56°F — prime
Active-feeding window.
Pressure
Pressure dropping
Fish often move up to feed before a front.
Wind
Wind 0 mph — calm
Easy casting and clean surface presentations.

The Upper Manistee is the quieter twin to the more famous Au Sable a few miles east — same sandy, spring-fed headwaters country near Grayling, but with less traffic and a reputation as Michigan's best self-sustaining trout stream. It fishes like a big spring creek: cold, clear water running over sand and gravel, tea-stained from the cedar swamps, holding browns and brook trout that reproduce on their own with no stocking to prop them up. Because the plumbing is groundwater rather than snowmelt, flows stay unusually stable and the water stays cold and fishable through summer when freestone rivers give up.

Most of the upper river is thirty to sixty feet wide with an easy gradient, a sand-and-gravel bottom, and enough sweepers, logjams, and undercut banks to hold fish and eat flies. Above M-72 it's genuinely small and intimate — skinny water through the Deward tract you can wade and cast a dry to a specific bank. From M-72 through the gear-restricted flies-only stretch down to CCC Bridge it's the classic wade-and-cast trout fishing the river is known for, technical enough on the flats to reward a good drift. Below CCC Bridge the river grows, wade access thins, and it becomes a drift-boat float — the same water where modern Michigan streamer fishing was largely pioneered, throwing big articulated sculpin and lamprey patterns to the bank for browns pushing 20 inches.

The signature event is the Hex — the giant Hexagenia limbata mayfly that hatches after dark in late June and July and brings the river's largest browns up to eat off the surface in the loudest, sloppiest rises you'll hear all season. The trade-off is that the best of it is a hatch-timing game: the river rewards being here for a specific evening — Hendricksons in May, sulphurs and brown drakes in June, the Hex in late June and July — more than it rewards a random midsummer afternoon. Note that this reach sits above the Hodenpyl and Tippy dams, so it's a resident-trout fishery; the steelhead and salmon runs are on the lower Manistee below Tippy, a separate fishery.

Fishing Reports

Latest reports from local fly shops

Species

  • Brown Trout
    Primary · May-Jul, Sep-Nov · 8-20"+

    The dominant trophy species and the reason to be here. Best on the Hex at night in June and July, and on streamers stripped to the bank pre-spawn in fall. Wild and self-sustaining throughout the reach.

  • Brook Trout
    Common · May-Jul · 6-12"

    Native holdover, most common in the upper and headwater reaches above M-72 and around cold tributary mouths. A willing dry-fly fish in the skinny Deward water.

  • Rainbow Trout
    Present · May-Jul · 8-16"

    Introduced but self-sustaining, a minority of the catch above the dams. Mixed in with browns through the flies-only water and downstream floats.

Ideal wading flow180–320 CFS
Blow-out>600 CFS
Ideal water temp50–62°F

Late May through July is prime — Hendricksons tail into sulphurs, then the brown drake and the Hex bring the biggest browns up after dark. September through November is streamer season for big pre-spawn browns. Spring fishes on BWO, Hendricksons, and streamers. Because the river is spring-fed, flows are stable year-round and it rarely blows out; heavy rain colors it and bumps flows but it clears fast. The Grayling gauge typically runs about 200-280 cfs; the Sherman gauge, farther downstream and drainage-fed, runs roughly 1,000-1,300 cfs.

Sections

4 sections on this river

Deward Tract / Headwaters (above M-72)

WadeBrook Trout · Grayling · Brown Trout · Rainbow Trout

Small, skinny spring-creek water through the old Deward logging-era tract — sand and gravel, tight casting, tea-stained flow. Wild brook trout and small brown trout in the most intimate water on the river; a candidate reach for Arctic grayling reintroduction.

Best for: Wade fishing dry flies and small nymphs to specific banks; solitude. Brook trout and small brown trout.

Flies-Only Water: M-72 to CCC Bridge

Wade & FloatBrook Trout · Brown Trout · Rainbow Trout

The classic upper-Manistee trout water — 30-50 ft wide, gravel riffles and sand flats, logjams, and clear tea-stained current, including the named runs Yellow Trees, Miracle Mile, The Settlement, and Burnt Cabin. Michigan's gear-restricted flies-only reach and the heart of the Hex fishery for wild brown trout and brook trout.

Best for: Wade dry-fly and nymph fishing during hatches; night fishing the Hex for the biggest brown trout of the year.

CCC Bridge to Sharon

FloatBrown Trout · Rainbow Trout

The river widens and deepens below the flies-only water — more drift-boat water, fewer wade sites, and big-brown streamer country where modern Michigan articulated-streamer fishing was largely pioneered. Sculpin and lamprey patterns thrown to the bank for trophy brown trout.

Best for: Streamer fishing from a drift boat for large brown trout; evening dries.

Sharon to Sherman (above Hodenpyl Dam)

FloatBrown Trout · Rainbow Trout

The largest of the wadeable trout water — a broad, deeper drift-boat float running down toward the top of Hodenpyl Pond near Mesick, the downstream end of the self-sustaining trout river before the Consumers Energy dams. Streamers and hatch-window dries for brown trout and rainbow trout.

Best for: Float fishing streamers and hatch-window dries for brown trout and rainbow trout.

Regulations

Current fishing rules and restrictions

Regulations vary by reach. The M-72-to-CCC-Bridge stretch is Michigan's gear-restricted flies-only water, open year-round; below CCC Bridge is managed as a Type 4 trout stream. The general inland-trout harvest season runs the last Saturday in April through September 30.

  • Flies-only / gear-restricted reach — M-72 downstream to Sunset Trail Rd (CCC Bridge): open year-round, artificial flies only; use or possession of scented material, live/dead/preserved bait, or organic/processed food prohibited in the water or on shore.
  • Flies-only reach possession: brook and brown trout season last Saturday in April through September 30; daily limit 2 trout (no more than one 18" or greater); minimum sizes brook 10", brown 18".
  • CCC Bridge downstream toward Sharon and Sherman: managed as a Type 4 trout stream, open year-round; brook and brown trout harvestable only during the regular trout season, rainbow trout harvestable year-round.
  • Headwaters above M-72 (Deward reach): standard inland trout-stream regulation, traditional last-Saturday-April through September 30 season.
  • A Michigan all-species fishing license is required; it covers trout (no separate trout stamp).

The M-72-to-CCC-Bridge flies-only designation is the rule most relevant to fly anglers and the heart of the Hex fishery. Confirm exact reach boundaries and Type designations against the current Michigan Fishing Guide and Fisheries Order FO-200 before your trip — inland trout rules apply on an April 1 to March 31 cycle.

Source: Michigan DNR — Inland Trout & Salmon Regulations. Regulations change annually — verify before fishing.

Access & Logistics

Getting there, fly shops, and lodging

Getting There

Grayling, MI

~3.5-4 hrs from Detroit, ~4 hrs from Grand Rapids, ~45 min from Traverse City to the CCC Bridge water

Fly Shops

Camping & Lodging

The CCC Bridge State Forest Campground sits right on the flies-only water and is the fly-angler social hub, especially on Hex nights. Additional state forest campgrounds and rustic sites line the river; motels and lodges are in Grayling and Traverse City.

Access is good but spread out — named bridge crossings and DNR sites string down the whole reach. Grayling is the closest full-service town for the upper water; Traverse City (Cherry Capital, TVC) is the regional airport about 40 miles west of the CCC Bridge water. DNR access sites and state forest land are free public access; no fees beyond a Michigan license.

Conditions data is live from public monitoring networks. Regulations change annually — always verify current rules with your state fish & wildlife agency before fishing.

More in Michigan

View all 12 rivers

Grand Traverse & Northwest

Boardman RiverMI

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.

Pine RiverMI

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.

Other regions

Au Sable RiverMI

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.

Jordan RiverMI

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.

Lower Manistee RiverMI

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.

Muskegon RiverMI

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.

Pere Marquette RiverMI

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.

Pigeon RiverMI

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.