Portage Lake in Manistee County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Manistee County in Michigan is where Portage Lake sits. Height above sea level is 574 feet. About 3.2 sq miles, so local knowledge or a boat saves a lot of walking. Of the waters listed here in Manistee County, this is the largest. Start from Manistee, 9.4 miles down the road. The big place round here is Green Bay, 89 miles distant. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Portage Lake

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Open biodiversity records for Manistee County list alewife, rainbow smelt, bloater, johnny darter and lake trout. Species recorded across the county may be limited to a few waters. Fish Portage Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July near 68°F and January near 22°F on the long-run figures. Hard water is a season in its own right here. Ice-out usually falls in early April, and the weeks after it fish hardest. Climate averages put the opening at about early April and the closing near mid December. June through September is the settled part of the year, with the shoulders busier for fish. It holds true on Portage Lake more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. Moorings are at Onekama Marine, roughly 0.9 miles off. A pier half a mile from here gives a platform over deeper water. There are toilets half a mile off. For the trout, small spinners and a box of nymphs cover both approaches. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. The nearest alternative is Gordon Lake, 2.5 miles out. What applies at Portage Lake may have changed since it was mapped.