BirdTrout
Little South Branch Pere Marquette River, Michigan
29 mapped river miles, draining 101 square miles across Lake, Newaygo counties, in the Pere Marquette-White subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 16.5 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 16.5 miles away, at Muskegon River At Big Rapids — 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: 04121650.
The character of the water
A fifth-order stream of 28.8 mapped miles across Lake and Newaygo counties, 13.5 feet wide at the median, draining 101.07 square miles into the Pere Marquette River. A 2022 survey at the Pere Marquette River site, mean width 54.31 feet and gear restricted, counted 2875 trout per acre and 189 pounds per acre, with brown trout, rainbow trout, chinook and coho all recorded. Type 1 regulation covers 26.7 miles, open from the last Saturday in April through September 30th, with terminal gear restricted from August 1 to November 15 to single-pointed hooks and jigs no more than half an inch point to shank, or treble hooks no more than three-eighths of an inch on artificial lures. A blue ribbon reach runs 10.5 miles from Curtis Bridge to the Pere Marquette. MDNR types 13.6 miles, 47 percent: 3.6 miles Cool up top, 10.0 miles Cold below river mile 10.0. Two access sites, both launches.
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 28.1–18.8 | 3.6 | cool | Warm transitional stream · very low gradient |
| RM 10.0–0.0 | 10.0 | cold | Cold small river · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 13.6 of the 29 miles NHD carries for this stream — 47% of it. The typed water splits 10.0 mi cold, 3.6 mi cool. 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 South Branch Pere Marquette River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Little South Branch Pere Marquette River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Little South Branch Pere Marquette River — access, parking and public land
- Little South Branch Pere Marquette River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Little South Branch Pere Marquette River good for brown trout?
- Is the Little South Branch Pere Marquette River good for rainbow trout?
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 26.7 of the 28.8 mapped miles; 2.1 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 26.7 mi |
RM 28.8–0.0 | 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. Little South Branch Pere Marquette River (BR 42), 10.5 mapped miles. MDNR's limits, verbatim — upstream: Curtis Bridge; downstream: Pere Marquette River.
Access
2 mapped MDNR access sites within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Weavers (RM 2.3), The Forks (RM 0.4). 0 walk-in, 2 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
8 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 118,151 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Manistee National Forest - Baldwin Ranger District | United States Forest Service | 66,846 |
| Manistee National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 50,224 |
| Pere Marquette River | Michigan DNR | 624 |
| Mcduffee Creek Nature Preserve | Land Conservancy of West Michigan | 295 |
| Upriver Nature Preserve | Land Conservancy of West Michigan | 153 |
| The Forks 43-33 (Little S.branch Pere Marquette) | Michigan DNR | 4 |
| The Forks Boating Access Site | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 3 |
| Weavers Landing River Access Site | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | 3 |
Species
MDNR's most recent survey on this river ran in 2022 at Pere Marquette River, Lake County, in a channel averaging 54.31 feet: brown trout, chinook salmon, coho salmon, rainbow trout, at 2,875 trout per acre and 189 pounds per acre. MDNR strata: medium, great lakes accessible, wild trout; regulation at the station, gear restricted.The station has been surveyed in 30 years since 1973.
- Brown trout surveyed
- Chinook salmon surveyed
- Coho salmon surveyed
- Rainbow trout surveyed
Stocked, per the MDNR record: Brown trout. The most recent plants are Brown trout at Taylor Bridge (Lake Co., through 1999); Brown trout at Curtis (Newaygo Co., through 1992); Brown trout at Brn Br (Newaygo Co., through 1991).
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
4 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Pere Marquette River 63.9 mi · RM 0.0
- Middle Branch Pere Marquette River 25.3 mi · RM 0.0
- McDuffee Creek 13.6 mi · RM 16.6
- Pease Creek 6.6 mi · RM 14.3
Little South Branch Pere Marquette River sits in HUC 8 04060101, the Pere Marquette-White subbasin, and drains 101 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 36 NHD reaches carry the name for 28.7 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.