BirdTrout
Little Wolf Creek, Michigan
17.1 mapped river miles, draining 55 square miles, in the Thunder Bay subbasin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 11.9 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 11.9 miles away, at Au Sable 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: 04136900.
The character of the water
One of the better-typed streams in the Thunder Bay subbasin: MDNR has classed 14.1 of its 17.1 mapped miles, 82 percent coverage, and the sequence is a clean downstream progression. Cold stream at high gradient runs 5.6 typed miles from river mile 17.1 to 11.3, cold transitional at medium gradient takes over for 3.4 miles to river mile 7.5, and the lowest 5.1 typed miles from 6.8 to the mouth are cool water typed as warm transitional stream at low gradient. Those classes describe the valley segment rather than the water, and no measured temperature exists here; the nearest gauge, on the Au Sable River, is 11.9 miles away. The stream itself is medium-sized, 13.8 feet wide at the median, draining 55.2 square miles at Strahler order 4. Type 1 regulations cover 16.3 miles, open from the last Saturday in April through September 30th, artificial lures and all types of natural bait. The single public unit is 9,758 acres of Huron National Forest.
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 17.1–11.3 | 5.6 | cold | Cold stream · high gradient |
| RM 11.3–7.5 | 3.4 | cold-transitional | Cold transitional stream · medium gradient |
| RM 6.8–0.0 | 5.1 | cool | Warm transitional stream · low gradient |
MDNR has classified 14.1 of the 17.1 miles NHD carries for this stream — 82% of it. The typed water splits 5.6 mi cold, 5.1 mi cool, 3.4 mi 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 Wolf Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Little Wolf Creek — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Little Wolf Creek — access, parking and public land
- Little Wolf Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
Regulations
MDNR trout stream types, as designated. Types on file cover 16.3 of the 17.1 mapped miles; 0.8 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 16.3 mi |
RM 17.1–0.0 | 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 types of natural bait may be used.
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 9,758 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Huron National Forest | United States Forest Service | 9,758 |
Species
Trout water by MDNR's classification, which types it cold — a statement about the water's temperature, not a fish record. No MDNR survey or stocking record for this river is in the files this site reads.
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
7 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Wolf Creek 17.3 mi · RM 0.0
- McGinn Creek 14.2 mi · RM 0.0
- Silver Creek 8.6 mi · RM 6.9
- Wildcat Creek 4.3 mi · RM 9.4
- Yoder Creek 3.5 mi · RM 13.3
- Mohr Creek 2.4 mi · RM 11.3
- Bear Creek 1.8 mi · RM 9.5
Little Wolf Creek sits in HUC 8 04070006, the Thunder Bay subbasin, and drains 55 square miles, Strahler order 4 at the mouth. 29 NHD reaches carry the name for 17.1 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.