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Little Elkhart River +2 more

The rule for this water, with the receipt.

Special regulations for Little Elkhart River from CR 43 downstream to CR 16, except for waters along Riverbend Park from CR 16 upstream to the pedestrian footbridge; Solomon Creek from CR 33 downstream to the Elkhart River; Cobus Creek from Old U.S. 20 downstream to the St. Joseph River, as the state words them

Elkhart County · River · IN

Has its own special rules
How to read this page:Official text quoted regulationParsed fields from the ruleDerived calculated from rulesContext conditions, not a ruleAdvice our suggestion

The rules for this water, verbatimOfficial text

Straight from IN's official regulations. Rules in force today lead; out-of-season rows are dimmed. Nothing is paraphrased. Not legal advice: verify the posted rules at the water.

Whole water
  • troutYear-round
    Gear artificial lures or flies only
    Catch-and-release only.

Statewide base layerParsed

These defaults apply where the rules above do not modify them.

Season
Not captured yet - consult the statewide regulations
Gear
Each line may have no more than three single- or multi-pronged hooks, three artificial lures, or a combination of three hooks and artificial lures.Statewide
Bait
Not captured yet - consult the statewide regulations
Poles
You may not fish with more than three poles or hand lines at a time.Statewide

Where the verbatim rules above name a species, season, or limit, they replace the rows below. Each row is tagged with the layer it comes from.

SpeciesDaily limitSize
Crayfish
cannot transport more than 100 crayfish across the state line in a 24-hour period unless commercially raising crayfish-Statewide
largemouth bass
Varies by water: largemouth bass that are from 12 to 15 inches in length may not be harvested. The daily bag limit applies to bass under 12 inches and over 15 inches. (Buffalo Trace Lake); No minimum size limit (Brownstown Pit)
two fish daily bag limitmin. 18-inch minimum size limitStatewide
Muskellunge 6 and Tiger Muskellunge 6
1 muskellunge or 1 tiger muskellungemin. 36 inches 2Statewide
Northern Pike
3 3min. 24 inches; no more than one 30 inches or longer 4Statewide
Yellow Perch
Unlimited (15 only on Lake Michigan)min. NoneStatewide
Bullhead
Unlimitedmin. NoneStatewide
Shovelnose Sturgeon
Unlimitedmin. 25 inches (fork length)Statewide
Sauger
included in the aggregate bag limit for walleye and saugeye-Statewide
Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout
5, any combination of brook, rainbow, or brown trout; no more than one may be brown troutmin. 7 inches*Statewide
Eastern Snapping Turtle
4, 12-inch minimum carapace length, any combination of game turtlemin. 12-inch minimum carapace lengthStatewide
Bull Frog, Green Frog
25, any combination of bull or green frog-Statewide

How this answer was assembled

  1. StatewideStatewide river rules are the base layer: default season, gear, bait, and limits.
  2. This waterSpecial rules written for this exact water replace the statewide defaults where they speak.
  3. Emergency orderEmergency orders in effect today override everything else. They sync quietly when the phone has coverage and never lock you out of the app.

Where this stretch begins and ends

Loading map…

The drawn shape is the named water, matched from the official list against OpenStreetMap and accepted only because the name resolved to a single feature in this water's county.

Different sections of this water can have different rules. The exact section boundaries are not marked on the map yet; each rule above describes in plain words where it starts and ends, and that written description is the authoritative boundary. Map boundaries come water by water, never as a guess.

Season at a glanceDerived

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
opensome stretchesclosedunknown

Sampled mid-month from the dated rows; short windows can slip between samples. The rows above are authoritative.

At the water nowContext

Today
80°F
Sunny
Wind 5 mph · 0% precip
Tonight
58°F
Mostly Clear
Wind 0 to 10 mph · 0% precip
Thursday
83°F
Sunny
Wind 0 to 5 mph · 0% precip

Forecast: National Weather Service. Flow: nearest active USGS gauge in this water's area, which may sit on a different reach. Conditions are context, not rules.

What are you fishing for here?Advice

Pick from the species named in Little Elkhart River +2 more's rules. Setups are checked against the gear rules in force today, and your picks are remembered on this device only. These are rule-aware suggestions, not a claim about what is biting; advice, not law, and the rules above govern.

Receipts

Statewide rules
Statewide
Checked against this official source on July 12, 2026.
Special rules - Little Elkhart River +2 more
This water
Checked against this official source on July 12, 2026.

Local services near Little Elkhart River +2 more

Tackle shops, guides, and boat launches that serve this water will appear here - a separate lane below the rules, so a local business can reach you without ever getting between you and the regulation.

Run a shop or guide service on Little Elkhart River +2 more? Get listed.