Little Platte Lake  

Little Platte Lake is 363 ha (147 ac) and empties into the Platte River via a relatively short (1640 m) low gradient channel locally known as the Deadstream of the Platte River.  It is shallow throughout the basin with a maximum of depth of 2.4 m (8 ft).  Most of the aquatic vegetation observed at the time of an MDNR survey in 1981described below was submerged and situated along the eastern shoreline.  Only a small portion of its northern shoreline borders the National Park (Figure 21).  We did not survey Little Platte Lake in 2003 or 2004 nor did Kelly and Price in 1979. 

The only fishery information available was from an MDNR survey performed in June of 1981 where a total of 25 net nights (1 gill net and 24 fyke net) yielded twelve (12) species of fish: bluegill, pumpkinseed, brown bullhead, rock bass, white sucker, northern pike, largemouth bass, longnose gar, yellow perch, tiger musky, bowfin, and black crappie in order of numerical abundance.  Carp were observed at the time of the survey, but were not collected.  Table 14 summarizes evaluations of fishery indices used to help describe the lake’s fish community.  Growth for most species was near State average, however tiger musky, yellow perch and largemouth bass did not provide large enough sample sizes to calculate growth indices.  The general MDNR analysis indicated that the total number of fish observed in the survey was quite low for a lake its size.  A good number of large bluegill and pumpkinseed were observed which is reflected by the size score index indicating the majority (96%) of the bluegill catch was above acceptable size of 152 mm (6 inches).  Pike abundance was low possibly due to a lack of spawning habitat.  It was also suspected that the lake may be susceptible to winterkill during severe winters.

Table 14.  Summary of Community Indices for Little Platte Lake , Benzie County (1981).

This lake is scheduled for a fishery survey to be conducted by the Grand Traverse Band during the summer of 2007.