Turnbull Lake Fishing near Newberry, Michigan

• Overview

  The Luce County end of Michigan holds Turnbull Lake. Elevation runs to 837 feet. With some 26 acres of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The closest town, Newberry, is 13 miles away. Manistique is 40 miles away, with Munising at 42 miles. Also within reach: Quinlan Lake (0.5 miles), Smith Lake the better part of 1.6 miles, Becks Lake (1.7 miles), Benny Lake the better part of 1.7 miles and Peter Lake (1.7 miles). Rules here are straightforward: one county, one set of rules.

• Where to Fish on Turnbull Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Species logged across Luce County include yellow perch, white sucker, walleye and pink salmon. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. At Turnbull Lake light and wind decide more than tackle does.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages move between 16°F in January and 64°F in July. The middle months are generous; the ends are demanding. Firm cover through the cold months, then open water from late April. Climate figures give an open season running late April to early December. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Turnbull Lake fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. For a change of water, Quinlan Lake is 0.5 miles distant. Ask locally about Turnbull Lake if anything is unclear.