Cedar Lake Fishing near Ortonville, Michigan

• Overview

  Cedar Lake sits within Oakland County in Michigan. The country round it is mixed forest from end to end. Surface area runs to about 2 acres — small enough to read in one session. It is one of the smaller waters we list in Oakland County. Ortonville is the closest place, 0.3 miles off. It is 29 miles to Sterling Heights, the nearest city. This one sits near enough to a boundary to be worth checking.

• Where to Fish on Cedar Lake

  Open data we checked carries no depth for this water. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Reported across Oakland County: bluegill, black crappie, largemouth bass and yellow perch. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. Fish Cedar Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 21°F in January to roughly 70°F in July. Winter shuts the surface down for months. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around early April. Climate averages put the opening at about early April and the closing near mid December. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. That shapes the year on Cedar Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public sources are silent on who controls the bank. Parking is mapped about half a mile from the bank. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Ekelund Lake sits 1.2 miles off and takes the overflow. None of that is settled for Cedar Lake in what we hold.