Fishing at Dutchman Lakes, Montcalm County, Michigan

• Overview

  Dutchman Lakes lies in Montcalm County, in Michigan. The surface lies 873 feet up. This is a pocket water of some 9 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. It is a small entry by Montcalm County standards. Start from Lakeview, 8.3 miles down the road. Stanton is 10 miles and Greenville 10 miles. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Dutchman Lakes

  No figure exists for depth, so let the water show you. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Survey and observation records for Montcalm County include bluegill, largemouth bass and white sucker. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Take Dutchman Lakes a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 70°F, while January sits near 21°F. Winter shuts the surface down for months. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early April. Going by climate averages, expect open water from about early April until roughly mid December. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. Plan any trip to Dutchman Lakes around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Ownership and access are not documented in what we hold. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Check whether bait restrictions apply before you buy any. Sawdust Lake, 0.7 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Where Dutchman Lakes is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.