See every public fishing venue in Michigan on the map, with boat ramps, camping, parking and full rules for each one.
South Branch White River is a public river in Newaygo County and Oceana County, Michigan, managed by State of Michigan (public / navigable water). You can fish it on a Michigan all-species licence, trout and salmon included. Bank access is at MI DNR boating access sites, state parks, the national and state forests, and road crossings; wading a navigable stream is generally allowed but the bank is usually private. Designated trout streams carry their own seasons. Public access confirmed via public-trust river.
A Lake Michigan or Lake Huron tributary that runs salmon and steelhead (the Grand, Muskegon, Manistee, Pere Marquette, St. Joseph, Betsie, Platte, Little Manistee, White, Boardman) — a fall Chinook and coho run, spring and fall steelhead ('chromers'), a winter brown-trout fishery, and resident smallmouth and pike in the warmer reaches. Drift-boat and wade water.
It runs roughly 50 miles through the Southwest Michigan region. Anglers here mostly fish for chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, brown trout; lake trout, smallmouth bass, walleye, northern pike are also on record. The nearest other mapped waters on PiscaMaps are Blackberry Lake and Peterson Lake.
Species from PiscaMaps water-type profiles, MI DNR trout designations and hand research.
Night fishing: No statewide night-fishing closure in Michigan. Some designated trout streams are closed outside the regular trout season, and a number of rivers close to fishing seasonally in spawning reaches (marked). Ice-fishing shanties must be removed by set dates that vary by zone. Spearing, dip-netting for smelt and suckers, and bowfishing for carp and gar have their own seasons and waters.
Boats: Most Michigan rivers are drift-boat, canoe and jet-boat water; the lower Grand, Muskegon, Manistee, St. Joseph and Saginaw take bigger boats, and the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair are full big-water fisheries. The Au Sable, Pere Marquette and the northern trout rivers are wade and drift-boat fishing.
Bank & bivvy camping: Bank access is at MI DNR boating access sites, state parks and recreation areas, the Huron-Manistee, Hiawatha and Ottawa National Forests, state game and forest land, and road/bridge crossings. Michigan's public-trust doctrine covers the Great Lakes bottomlands to the ordinary high-water mark; on inland rivers, wading a navigable stream is generally allowed but the bank is usually private.
Boat ramps: 10 mapped — Put-in, Broken-out Bridge access, Vida Weaver Park Boat Launch, Sischo Bayou Boat Launch, Podunk Boat Launch, Pines Point Boat Launch and others nearby.
Camping: 7 sites mapped nearby — Campsite, Pines Point Campground (MI), 1994 OSR Trail Site, 1994 OSR Trail Site, 1994 OSR Trail Site - Camp Splinter, 1994 OSR Trail Site - Deserters Cave and others.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Anyone 17+ needs a Michigan DNR fishing licence — the resident annual all-species licence is about $26, the non-resident annual about $76, and 1-day and 3-day all-species licences are sold. Michigan folded the old separate trout/salmon stamp into the base all-species licence in 2014, so one licence covers everything including trout, salmon and the Great Lakes; there is no separate stamp. Michigan residents 65 and older buy a reduced-price senior licence, and anglers under 17 fish free. Buy from the DNR at Michigan.gov/DNRLicenses. A Michigan all-species fishing licence covers navigable rivers and the Great Lakes. Lake Erie's western basin is fished on a Michigan or Ohio licence in the reciprocal zone; the Menominee and other border waters on a Michigan or Wisconsin licence. Designated trout streams carry their own seasons.
Every water carries species, bank & boat access, current regulations and live water conditions — and members get Swim Mapper, Catch Logger and Trip Planner. It's the only US map with a dedicated carp-water layer.
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