Find your next day on the water.For businesses: claim your free listing
Legendary Fly GearFish Like a Legend
Search

West Branch Sturgeon River

Type
Freestone river, Michigan (Midwest)
Designation
Blue Ribbon
USGS gauges
None on it; nearest shown
Guides
None listed
Shops
2 nearby

Today on the West Branch Sturgeon River

Reading the gauge…

Regulations & access Guides & shops

The West Branch Sturgeon River is a freestone river in Michigan, listed as Blue Ribbon by Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

More about the West Branch Sturgeon River

The nearest USGS gauge on the same stream system is shown, labelled. 2 shops nearby are listed here; the nearest destination hub is Grayling & the Au Sable.

Updated · Sources: Blue Ribbon Trout Streams, USGS Water Data

Representative photograph of similar water; not a photograph of this place.
Representative photograph, not this water.
Where it is

West Branch Sturgeon River is a freestone river in Michigan. Our destination hub Grayling & the Au Sable is 37 mi away in a straight line. Michigan has 4 waters named West Branch Sturgeon River in the USGS Geographic Names Information System; this page is the stream whose mouth is in Cheboygan County, the one the agency list names.

Nearest gauge (not on this water)
Reading the gauges…

Check any river's flow

Follow West Branch Sturgeon River for flow alerts

Pick one of its USGS gauges and hear from us when the flow moves into or out of its usual range for the date, or crosses a flow you set. We check the public USGS reading every 2 hours and email only when it crosses, at most once every 6 hours. Flow alone is not a fishing forecast or a safety call.

Follow this water

Signed in: one step. Otherwise we email a confirmation link first. Every alert has one-click links to stop it.

Where to fish

About this

Start from the agency's public access map. Nothing on this page grants or implies access: check the agency map, posted signs and landowner permission before you fish.

Nothing on this page grants or implies access.

Michigan where to fish

West Branch Sturgeon River on the map

About this

Gauges, shops and guides within 40 miles

Map of West Branch Sturgeon River: gauges, shops and guides

RestroomsAccess map

Map of West Branch Sturgeon River with 1 USGS gauge, and shops and guides with an exact address within 40 miles.

Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenFreeMap · © OpenMapTiles

Restrooms near West Branch Sturgeon River

Restrooms near West Branch Sturgeon River

Restrooms within 2 miles of West Branch Sturgeon River in a straight line, nearest first, with what anglers found when they went. The map says a restroom is there, not whether it is clean or open today.

No restroom mapped within 2 mi yet — add one you know.

Campgrounds, fishing access sites and boat ramps often have one that isn't on the map yet.

Restroom locations and map details: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License, read Oct 24, 2026. Ratings, answers and photos are members' own; who shared them is never shown, and every photo is reviewed before it appears. Visits older than 18 months no longer count. Distances are straight-line miles, not driving. Nothing here grants access to private land. Community guidelines.

More water near West Branch Sturgeon River

  • The Black River flowing dark and smooth through northern forest in Cheboygan CountyBlue Ribbon
    Photo credit

    The Black River in Cheboygan County, Michigan. Photo: SweetCanadianMullet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    Black River

    Michigan · about 23 mi

    Rainbow, brown & brook trout

  • The Au Sable River curving through green floodplain forest, seen from the Highbanks bluffBlue RibbonRepresentative photo · not Pigeon River
    Photo credit

    The Au Sable River from the Highbanks, Huron-Manistee National Forests. Photo: Jessica Piispanen / USFWS, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Not Pigeon River.

    Pigeon River

    Michigan · about 12 mi

  • The Manistee River curving around a wooded island below forested hillsBlue RibbonRepresentative photo · not Boyne River
    Photo credit

    The Manistee River, Michigan. Photo: Eric Schmuttenmaer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Not Boyne River.

    Boyne River

    Michigan · about 13 mi

  • The shallow, clear Boardman River flowing between spruce and pine near Traverse CityBlue RibbonRepresentative photo · not Jordan River
    Photo credit

    The Boardman River in the Brown Bridge Quiet Area, near Traverse City. Photo: Phoenix-Five, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Not Jordan River.

    Jordan River

    Michigan · about 20 mi

  • Canoeists on the Pere Marquette River in autumn, between colourful woodsBlue RibbonRepresentative photo · not East Branch Black River
    Photo credit

    The Pere Marquette River in autumn, Manistee National Forest. Photo: Yetiwriter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Not East Branch Black River.

    East Branch Black River

    Michigan · about 22 mi

  • The broad Muskegon River near Newaygo between banks of red and orange autumn treesBlue RibbonRepresentative photo · not Cedar River
    Photo credit

    The Muskegon River near Newaygo, Michigan. Photo: Marc Steensma, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Not Cedar River.

    Cedar River

    Michigan · about 27 mi

Sources Michigan where to fishUSGS NHDPlus High Resolution flowlines (position)Overture Maps places (guide map points)

Where the map point comes from

Position: a point on the mapped channel of “West Branch Sturgeon River”, halfway along its length in Michigan, from the USGS high-resolution hydrography (NHDPlus HR), read 4 Nov 2026. It marks the water, not a particular access or reach.

The map shows USGS gauges (tap one for its flow reading), and shops and guides within 40 miles that publish a street address on their own website. Everyone else is in the lists below.

Regulations

About this

Seasons, limits, special regulations and closures for each reach are on the agency pages below. Read them before you go.

Official designation: Blue Ribbon

Each comes from the agency's own published list; where the list names a reach it is quoted. A designation applies to the listed reach, not necessarily the whole water. Listed in the finder under trout.

The water on the map

About this

Measured from the NHDPlus High Resolution (flowlines and waterbodies) (U.S. Geological Survey, read 2026-11-04) for this water’s own mapped feature. Rounded figures; they describe the channel, not today’s conditions.

Whole West Branch Sturgeon River, not only this reach.

Length
18.7 mi (17.6 in MI)
Drains
73.6 sq mi
Drop
368 ft · 19.7 ft/mi
Flows into
Sturgeon River
Watershed
Cheboygan

Guides and shops near West Branch Sturgeon River

About this

Listings marked Unclaimed are built from open map records and the business's own website: confirm licensing, rates, dates and hours directly.

Guides

No guide within 40 miles yet.

All Michigan guides

2 shops nearby

All Michigan shops

How these are chosen

Guides whose own website names this water come first, nearest first. Distances are straight-line.

Shops: fly shops first. A distance is shown when the shop’s website gives its location (within 60 miles); otherwise the shop is in one of the towns within 25 miles of the water.

Guide and shop listings come from the Legendary directories.

Species and hatches

About this

The hatch and season chart for this water's region.

When the bugs come off

Regional hatch months: Great Lakes
About this chart

2 hatches charted for the region, not measured on this water. From Michigan DNR.

  1. January: no charted hatch
  2. February: no charted hatch
  3. March: no charted hatch
  4. April: no charted hatch
  5. May: no charted hatch
  6. June: 2 charted hatches
  7. July: 1 charted hatch
  8. August: no charted hatch
  9. September: no charted hatch
  10. October: no charted hatch
  11. November: no charted hatch
  12. December: no charted hatch

Hex (Hexagenia) (June to July) · Mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies (June)

Grayling & the Au Sable

About this

Grayling sits at the head of the Au Sable River in northern Lower Michigan, with the upper Manistee River a few miles west and the Boardman River toward Traverse City.

Destination hub · 37 mi away in a straight line

Open the hubPlan a trip here

Gear checklist

About this

What to bring on a guided float fishing trip: rain gear, polarized sunglasses, sun protection, a dry bag and your license. Most guides supply rods and flies. Estimated prices and where to buy.

A woman rows a drift boat while a man stands in the bow and casts

Guided float trip

Usually supplied by the guide; a 9′ 5–6 weight if you bring your own · Trout on most western float rivers

Open the checklist
Videos for this water (5)

Watch: reading a trout stream

About this

Seams, shelves and soft water, shown on real rivers.

Public YouTube videos from established channels, chosen by us to support this page. Not sponsored; the creators are not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear.

  • How I Learned to Read Water (Fly Fishing)Embedded from YouTube · Mad River Outfitters · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube
  • How To Read The Water with Tom RosenbauerEmbedded from YouTube · The New Fly Fisher · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube
  • Reading the Water to Successfully Locate TroutEmbedded from YouTube · Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube

Not sponsored All videos on reading water

Watch: nymphing basics

About this

Indicator rigs, depth and detecting the take.

Public YouTube videos from established channels, chosen by us to support this page. Not sponsored; the creators are not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear.

  • 90° Nymph RigEmbedded from YouTube · Huge Fly Fisherman · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube
  • Casting with an Indicator & Better Nymphing TechniquesEmbedded from YouTube · The New Fly Fisher · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube

Not sponsored All videos on nymphing

Fish Tales

About this

Trip stories anglers chose to share publicly and tagged with West Branch Sturgeon River.

No stories from here yet.

Write the first story Share your day

Sources for this page

Not a statement of access, fish presence or conditions.

Something wrong?

All 12 sources and dates

A water page organises discovery. It does not assert public access, legal access, current fish presence, guide availability or fishing conditions.

Flows, gauge statistics and flood stages come from USGS and the National Weather Service when the page is shown. Regulations, stocking, species and season statements link to the agency that publishes them; this page copies only the species names and the quoted sentences. Guide and shop listings come from the Legendary directories. Position: a point on the mapped channel of “West Branch Sturgeon River”, halfway along its length in Michigan, from the USGS high-resolution hydrography (NHDPlus HR), read 4 Nov 2026. It marks the water, not a particular access or reach. Water type is our own classification.