BirdTrout
Little Bear Creek, Michigan
6.3 mapped river miles, draining 35 square miles across Manistee county, in the Manistee River watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 14.2 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is MDNR's classification of the water itself.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 14.2 miles away, at Manistee River — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
The pills above go to USGS. These are this site's pages for the same gauges — a thirty-day chart, the monthly means, the record, and today's reading against the five-year normal for today: 04125550.
The character of the water
Six and three tenths of mapped miles of medium stream in Manistee County, part of the Manistee River watershed, a median 17.1 feet wide and draining 35.16 square miles at Strahler order 3. MDNR types 3.3 miles, 53 percent of it, from river mile 6.3 down to 0.2, as Cold-transitional, a cold transitional stream on low gradient. The class describes the valley segment rather than the water, so no measured temperature exists here; the nearest gauge, on the Manistee River, is 14.2 miles off. Regulation covers 6.0 miles as Type 1, last Saturday in April through September 30th, with terminal gear restricted to small single-pointed hooks and jigs, or trebles on artificial lures, from August 1 through November 15. It joins Bear Creek at the mouth, and 4.6 Blue Ribbon miles of Bear Creek lie nearby. A 2019 survey on Bear Creek in Manistee County recorded 2,226 trout per acre at 62 pounds per acre across five species.
Thermal classification
MDNR types this water from its valley, not from a thermometer in it. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.
| Reach | Typed miles | Band | MDNR type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 6.3–0.2 | 3.3 | cold-transitional | Cold transitional stream · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 3.3 of the 6.2 miles NHD carries for this stream — 53% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cold-transitional. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water MDNR's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
Questions about this river
- Little Bear Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Little Bear Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Little Bear Creek — access, parking and public land
- Little Bear Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is Little Bear Creek good for brook trout?
- Is Little Bear Creek good for brown trout?
- Is Little Bear Creek good for rainbow trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 6.0 of the 6.3 mapped miles; 0.3 miles carry no type in this dataset. Always check the current Michigan Fishing Guide before you fish — this is a copy, and the Guide is the rule.
| Type | Where | Season | Minimum sizes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Type 1 6.0 mi |
RM 6.3–0.0 | Last Saturday in April–September 30th | Brook trout 7", Brown trout 8", Rainbow trout / steelhead 10", Lake trout 10", Chinook salmon 10", Coho salmon 10", Pink salmon 10", Atlantic salmon 10" |
Creel across all types: 5 fish, with no more than 3 trout 15“ or greater. Zero (0) Arctic Grayling. Tackle: Artificial lures and all natural bait types allowed. Aug 1–Nov 15: terminal fishing gear restricted to single-pointed hooks & jigs ≤½" from point to shank or treble hooks ≤⅜" from point to shank only when attached to artificial lures.
Blue Ribbon. Bear Creek (BR 20), 4.6 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Junction with 3rd Creek; downstream: Nine Mile Road.
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 1,011 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Public Water Access Site | Michigan DNR | 1,011 |
Species
MDNR's most recent survey on this river ran in 2019 at Bear Creek - Manistee, Manistee County, in a channel averaging 36.77 feet: brook trout, brown trout, chinook salmon, coho salmon, rainbow trout, at 2,226 trout per acre and 62 pounds per acre. MDNR strata: small, great lakes accessible, wild trout; regulation at the station, type 1.The station has been surveyed in 10 years since 1997.
- Brook trout surveyed
- Brown trout surveyed
- Chinook salmon surveyed
- Coho salmon surveyed
- Rainbow trout surveyed
Hatches on this water
53 insects are recorded from northern lower Michigan, which is the region this river sits in. That is a claim about the region and not a survey of this stream: nobody has recorded which of them has been caught here. Open the river in the app and the hatch panel will narrow it to the ones whose temperature window today's reading is inside.
| Insect | Peak | Water | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish Eggs Other |
October–January and April | 33–60°F | #10–16 |
| Little Black Stonefly Allocapnia / Capnia spp. |
January–April | 34–46°F | #16–18 |
| Little Brown Stonefly Taeniopteryx / Strophopteryx spp. |
February–April | 38–50°F | #12–16 |
| Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. |
March–May and September–November | 38–58°F | #16–22 |
| Blackfly Simulium spp. |
April–June | 40–65°F | #18–22 |
| Blue Quill Paraleptophlebia adoptiva |
April–May | 44–56°F | #16–18 |
| Cranefly Tipula spp. |
April–June and September–October | 40–65°F | #6–10 |
| Grannom Brachycentrus spp. |
April–May | 48–58°F | #14–16 |
| Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie Rhyacophila spp. |
April–June and September–October | 45–68°F | #10–14 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Alderfly Sialis spp. |
May–June | 52–66°F | #10–14 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
And 39 more — the year-round records, mostly: midges, scuds and sculpins, which are in the water every day and are therefore never the news.
Tributaries and watershed
2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Little Bear Creek sits in HUC 8 04060103, the Manistee River watershed, and drains 35 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 9 NHD reaches carry the name for 6.2 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.