# Johnson Creek



## Ranger67

Has anybody fish that Johnson Creek in Wayne County for trout? I heard it was good, just wondering if there is any good parking apots by it so I can fish it?


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## supermetallogic

Very marginal trout stream with alot of habitat loss for trout.Alot of suckers/chubs with a very rare small occasionaly caught brown trout.You will have to scout the stream for good spots,if you expect to park 20ft from where you fish this stream isnt for you.


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## bborow2501

look up northville parks and rec...
and contact them about this


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## Metallicat

I live in Northville but do not enjoy fishing Johnson Creek at all. Last time I tried was about 4 yrs ago. Waded the section by the cemetery up and down stream with my 4 wt. After that I said never again. It is pretty in some spots like by the trails that run in back of fish hatchery park. The water looks nice there. Very tight though, and not much fun. At least not my idea of fun! I did see a mature brown in the river once about 10 yrs ago. First and only sighting for me.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Metallicat

If you want to give it a shot, you can park @ the fish hatchery park or the cemetery. You can PM me and I can give you more information. I stopped by the cemetery access point this evening after work to check it out just for the heck of it. The DNR stocks the area down by the defunct DEHOCO prison. I fished there one year just after the opener when there were still stocked rainbows in the section. I caught a couple. But that area isn't trout habitat. It is a cut ditch through a field. I wouldn't expect fish to hang out there for too long.


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## supermetallogic

The problem with Johnson drain/creek is theres been alot of developement along the stream degrading water quality.The stream gets alot warmer and carries alot more setiment than what it used to causing the habbitat loss.Too bad 25 years ago it was beautiful water.Blame the land develpers for screwing everything up.They are the only ones I know that can look at wooded land with a stream and then decide hey this area would look alot better if we built a subdivision all around it.We`ll cut down all the trees and clear the ditch out and then build houses.People will love it :rant:


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## Toga

supermetallogic said:


> The problem with Johnson drain/creek is theres been alot of developement along the stream degrading water quality.The stream gets alot warmer and carries alot more setiment than what it used to causing the habbitat loss.Too bad 25 years ago it was beautiful water.Blame the land develpers for screwing everything up.They are the only ones I know that can look at wooded land with a stream and then decide hey this area would look alot better if we built a subdivision all around it.We`ll cut down all the trees and clear the ditch out and then build houses.People will love it :rant:


25 years ago there were NO trout in the stream. The DNR did not start to stock it experimentally until the late 80's once they found it to be the coldest and cleanest stream in south eastern Michigan capable of housing trout. At that time only a select few knew about the experimental plant and it was off limits to fishing unless it was sanctioned research for the DNR. The creek was eventually added to the list of trout streams around 1994 or so. It is still stocked though not heavily and can be very tough to fish unless you know where to fish. Even once you have found some decent holes getting past the chubs can be brutal :lol: It is also a gear restricted body of water. You can use artificials only thanks to the bozo from that horrible fly shop that is no longer in Northville lobbying to make it flies only..........we can save that story for another time however. One of the main problems with fishing the creek is almost all of the good places to fish are on private property and due to the size of the creek most of your fishing is done via the bank fishing under brush piles, around shrubs, and what not thus requiring you to get permission from land owners to fish the best areas. Put in your time and you can tangle with a few trout here in there without driving north to fish our states blue ribbon streams. You will have to put in more time than most are willing to do to regularly catch fish. If you do fish it please practice catch and release as it is a very fragile fishery with a limited population.


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## Steve

Personally I wouldn't even want to think about fishing bait in that creek with all the chubs. And please do consider catch and release there. There aren't too many nice fish to tangle with.


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## Toga

+ side with the chubs Steve is they are easy to find for the pike fisherman in the area. We used to catch most all of our chubs for pike fishing there when I was a kid..........still do on occasion  Get some of the smallest twister tails you can find..... the little 1/2 inch ones with a #14 hook and you can load up a bucket in no time.


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## Fishndude

#10 hook and a small piece of red licorice was my go-to Chub bait, growing up. Held up way longer than a piece of worm. The #10 hook kept the little Chubbies from getting all hooked up, and we usually wanted the 4-7 in fish for Bass and Pike bait. Bass will _*race*_ for a 6" Chub floated under a bobber.


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## 1siena

Just asking...not starting an argument or a debate.....whats the official rule about catching bait? I thought I read that it was illegal to catch fish and use them as bait.


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## Metallicat

No trout 25 years ago? Could be. I was told by Beuter when he had his fly shop in Northville that Johnson Creek / Drain had browns it in from waaay back due to the old fish hatchery on its banks. I have a 75+ yr old uncle who also swears that he used to catch trout in Randolf drain in Northville which flows through my back yard, not sure about that either, but could be true. At any rate, he used to catch trout somewhere in Northville, back in the 1950's. Now Randolph is a flood zone with the occasional carp to be seen. Randolph Drain and Johnsons Creek merge to help form the headwaters of the Middle Rouge.


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## Toga

metallicat From personal experience I would not take any info from Beuter to heart. But Many many years back when the hatchery was there there were browns to be had. This is going back to the 50's and 60's. Heck there were browns to be had in sections of the rouge river back then. Needless to say over harvest and pollution took its toll and the population was wiped out.

1siena You can capture Minnows as defined in the Michigan fishing guide for personal use. I took this from the 2010 Michigan fishing guide. Minnows are chubs, shiners, dace, stonerollers, sculpins (muddlers), mudminnows and suckers of a size used for bait in &#8220;hook and line&#8221; fishing. See page 6 and pages 14-15. Minnows for personal use only may be taken with hook and line, seines, dip nets, and traps with a valid fishing license. In trout streams minnows may only be taken during the open season for trout by hook and line or minnow traps. Minnows may not be taken from Hatlem Cr. (Leelanau Co.). Gear restrictions are as follows: Seines must not be over 12 feet by 4 feet; hand nets not over 8 feet square and without sides or walls; and minnow traps not over 24 inches long. Minnow traps must bear user&#8217;s name and address. Cast nets (not exceeding 8 feet in diameter without walls or sides) may be used to take minnows, alewife, smelt, and shad in the Great Lakes, L. St. Clair, and the Detroit R., St. Clair R., and St. Marys R.


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## supermetallogic

> metallicat From personal experience I would not take any info from Beuter to heart. But Many many years back when the hatchery was there there were browns to be had. This is going back to the 50's and 60's. Heck there were browns to be had in sections of the rouge river back then. Needless to say over harvest and pollution took its toll and the population was wiped out.


 I didnt want to get in an arguement about it but how dare someone tell me what I know to be different.I fished the dam place when I was a teen and caught trout out of it.It was much better quality stream back then.Its waters ran colder and clearer.Thanks metallicat for backing up what I knew.


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## Toga

supermetallogic don't take offence as my post was not meant to offend rather than to educate. I did not say there were no trout ever in those streams which is what I take it you are implying and if you were offended I apologize. You stated 25 years ago there were browns there. Well 25 years ago it was 1985. In 1985 there were no browns to speak of found in any of those streams. 1985 perhaps 1986 was around the time the DNR started testing those streams for food source, temperature, and water quality to see if it would be even be possible to introduce trout to the waters once again. There were browns present in the 50's and 60's back when the hatchery was in working order. Heck back then there were trout in the rouge river. But by the early 70's The trout population in horrible shape and was all but wiped out in those bodies of water due to pollution and over harvest. Pollution was the major culprit. Sure there may have been hold overs even possibly through the late 70's but there was no population to speak of by then. By the early 80's there were no trout to be found. In the early 80's clean up efforts were started to clean up the creeks in the area and due to these clean up efforts the water quality started to come around................then by the end of the decade we had the first plantings. The first plantings were put in off of 5 mile near the prison, on Napier rd at the bridge by Western Wayne County Conservation Club, and of course off of 7 mile rd at fish hatchery park. 

I fished in those bodies of water through the 80s religiously before the experimental plants started and never caught even the odd trout. I did catch plenty of chubs, catfish, carp, and the occasional shiner. These days fishing the same holes I catch some trout along with the other species. Some pretty nice trout at that I may add


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## Chinookhead

The first fish hatchery in the midwest was the one located at fish hatchery park (1880) in Northville. There are arguments over whether Johnson creek or the Baldwin River was the first river in North America that was stocked with brown trout. However, in 1884, the Baldwin River (in Baldwin Michigan) was the first place where brown trout were purposefully and "officially" stocked. There are those who claim that Johnson was the first stream to have brown trout b/c of the flood that happened earlier that year in 1884 that resulted in the "planting" of trout from the hatchery into Johnson Creek. There are not really good records that far back, but apparently there is a good amount of evidence that there was a breeding population there by the turn of the century which may have come from the flood in 1884 or maybe other later floods of the hatchery and Jonhnson Creek.

Obviously, its trout populations and habitat has been reduced by pollution and general habitat degradation to the stream........and maybe there were even times when it did not have any trout.


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## supermetallogic

I was 16 lived wayne county and fished the creek religiously back in the late 70`s up to 1981 and caught my share of browns out of it back then.I didnt notice any fluctuations of populations back then if I dint catch as many trout I just attributed to a bad day of catching.I moved from the area and didnt return till 2001 things were much different alot of developement and low low water dues to extended and unusualy hot summer that year.Small tiny rouge river tribs were dry as a bone and yes they once contained small native brook trout back in the 70`s.Gone now Im sure due to mans encrochment and developement along with changes in weather patterns that have altered the habbitat in most se michigans small streams.


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## Metallicat

There are still trout in the Middle Rouge River, rainbows, and they thrive below an underpass somewhere in a developed community. I met a fellow a couple of years ago who was printing / publishing / writing his own magazine, well really more of a paper publication. He gave me a few copies which I no longer have. There was an article about catching trout on the Rouge somewhere in Westland I believe. The location was not offered but I guess they're in there, somewhere....

Also I swear I saw a mature BROWN in Johnson like 10 yrs ago while the stream was on the rise, just downstream of the cemetery in Northville. My bud who was with me also said "brown". It was a solid 16" fish.

Not sure what someone meant about not trusting Beuter, I loved his shop and his passion for the sport and I don't think he ever steered me wrong. But that's just my experience.


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## supermetallogic

*Johnson Creek*








Well I have to admit I was skeptical... a brown trout fishery in Wayne county, come on! I had heard the reports and decided to check it out. Thanks to the long hours of work put in by the Johnson Creek Protection Group, and others it's true! The creek's headwaters start out in Washtenaw County near Salem, and it picks up speed as it moves into Wayne County. It picks up spring fed water along the way cooling it enough to support trout. The MDNR has been planting trout there for the last several years. There are hold-overs from year to year as I have seen some monsters in some of the holes first hand.








This is the same section of creek after big rain. This is why the Johnson Creek Protection Group needs your help. Over-development of the area without proper flood control and silt barriers leads to a floodwaters that looks like light coffee. I am surprised any trout could live through such a disaster.








Recent heavy development along the creek threatens to was the water and fill it with silt. Hopefully this can be controlled. Please join the Johnson Creek Protection Group if you care about the future of this potentially great fishery. Hopefully a Trout Unlimited Chapter can be set up to help care for and fund stream improvements as well.








Below is a more serene night on the creek with a nice mist in the air.








There has been a lot written about this creek and efforts to protect it in local newspapers. The map below came from a Detroit News article about the creek. Pulte Homes did a nice stream improvement project in the upper portion of the creek last year. I walked this section of creek 5/18/07 and while it looks promising, I'm not certain there is enough cool water up in this section of the creek to support a local trout population. There is a whole lot of silt and sand up in this area as well.​


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## Toga

Supermetallogic That pic you posted with the really muddy water looks like a very familiar section of water  When it rains really hard most of the stream looks like that  In recent years I have noticed a few of my favorite spots that used to be mostly gravel are filled in with sand.


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