Trailering is most of the game on this water. Torch Lake covers 20,979 acres, Houghton Lake 17,495, Burt Lake 17,297, Lake Charlevoix 17,223 and Mullett Lake 16,605, so the five biggest lakes in the pack all fall between sixteen and twenty one thousand acres. A lake that size has enough open water that the wind at four in the afternoon decides what the ride back to the ramp feels like. Launch on one of them in June and another in August and you are reading a different shoreline, and the ramp you used last time tells you nothing about the shoal off the next point.
The pack carries 10,264 charted water bodies. Of those, 6,655 carry a name, and 512 of the named lakes are larger than a square kilometer, which is about 247 acres. Measured against the 48 state lake packs, this one ranks seventh for total water bodies and second for both of the other two counts. The outlines come from the National Hydrography Dataset and the depth under them is built from state elevation surveys, which is what puts contours on a lake instead of a flat blue shape.
The count that matters at the ramp is not the famous lake. It is how many of the ordinary ones made it in, and whether they came in with a name and a measured shape. This pack carries 10,264 charted water bodies, seventh of the 48 state lake packs by count. Two other numbers sit higher than that. 6,655 of the water bodies carry a name, second of the 48, and 512 named lakes are larger than a square kilometer, second as well.
A name is not decoration on a chart. It is how you find the lake in a search box on a Thursday night when you are planning a Saturday morning, and it is how you tell apart two lakes that answer to the same name. 512 named lakes above roughly 247 acres means that most of the water people actually hitch a trailer for arrives with both a name and a measured outline.
| Lake | Charted surface area |
|---|---|
| Torch Lake | 85 km² (20,979 acres) |
| Houghton Lake | 71 km² (17,495 acres) |
| Burt Lake | 70 km² (17,297 acres) |
| Lake Charlevoix | 70 km² (17,223 acres) |
| Mullett Lake | 67 km² (16,605 acres) |
| Lake Gogebic | 52 km² (12,973 acres) |
| Turtle-Flambeau Flowage | 52 km² (12,874 acres) |
| Crystal Lake | 43 km² (10,527 acres) |
| Manistique Lake | 42 km² (10,280 acres) |
| Higgins Lake | 41 km² (10,131 acres) |
| Black Lake | 41 km² (10,057 acres) |
| Long Lake | 38 km² (9,291 acres) |
The twelve largest named lakes the Michigan pack carries, by charted surface area, measured from the chart polygon itself. The pack carries 10,264 charted water bodies in all, 6,655 of them named, and 512 named lakes larger than one square kilometer.
There is no NOAA chart for an inland lake. Federal survey work follows the coast, the intracoastal and the navigable rivers, and a lake sitting in the middle of a county is nobody's shipping lane. Inland depth in Helm is built from state elevation surveys instead, and the water bodies themselves come from the National Hydrography Dataset.
That pairing is the whole reason a lake in Helm is charted water rather than a blue shape with a name floating in the middle of it. You get contours, shading and a depth number on the water itself. Knowing a lake covers 8,000 acres is one thing. Knowing which part of those acres your boat can cross, with your own draft entered, is the thing you need while you still have room to turn.
One more thing belongs on any page about inland water. A flowage or a reservoir sits at whatever level it is being held at that week. The bottom is where it always was, but the water on top of it is not, and a shoulder you ran over in June can be the one you find in September. Check what the level is doing before you trust the last foot of a contour, the same way you check it before backing a trailer down a ramp that is suddenly a long way from the water.
Torch Lake is the largest named lake in the pack, 84.9 square kilometers, or 20,979 acres. Houghton Lake comes next at 70.8 square kilometers, 17,495 acres, then Burt Lake at 17,297 and Lake Charlevoix at 17,223. Those two are 74 acres apart, which is a rounding error on water that size. Mullett Lake closes the top five at 16,605 acres.
The list stays big well past the top five. Lake Gogebic covers 12,973 acres and Turtle-Flambeau Flowage 12,874. Then four lakes land inside 500 acres of one another: Crystal Lake at 10,527, Manistique Lake at 10,280, Higgins Lake at 10,131 and Black Lake at 10,057. Below those come Long Lake at 9,291, Indian Lake at 9,093, Hubbard Lake at 8,723, Lake Leelanau at 8,550 and Elk Lake at 8,006.
Fletcher Pond covers 6,771 acres, Portage Lake 6,375, Glen Lake 6,252 and Grand Lake 5,782. Glen Lake is under a third the size of Torch Lake, which is worth holding in your head if you have only ever run one of them and are planning a day on the other. Distance across open water reads very differently from the helm than it does on a map at the kitchen table.
Those twenty are the top of a list 6,655 names long, inside a pack of 10,264 water bodies. The value of the larger number is not the big water. It is the small lake two townships over with one gravel ramp and a parking area for six trucks, charted with depth the same way Houghton Lake is charted with depth. A lake nobody writes about is exactly the lake you arrive at without knowing where the bar runs.
The packs are cut to a box rather than to a state line, so water near a border can sit in more than one pack. Turtle-Flambeau Flowage, at 12,874 acres, comes down with this one. If you launch near the Wisconsin, Indiana or Ohio side, the pack for where you put the boat in is the one to download and the line on the map stops mattering.
Once the pack is on the device, the chart, the depth shading, routing, the measure tool and the anchor alarm keep working with no signal. A good number of these ramps sit at the end of a road where the phone gives up a mile before the water, so the download is something you do at home on wifi the night before, along with the rest of the packing.
Inland lake depth comes from state elevation surveys rather than from nautical charts, and a reservoir sits at whatever level it is being held at that week. Treat the shape and the depth as a guide, keep a lookout, and verify locally.
Yes. Torch Lake is the largest named lake the Michigan pack carries, 84.9 square kilometers or 20,979 acres, and it is charted with depth rather than drawn as an outline. The lake shape comes from the National Hydrography Dataset and the depth under it is built from state elevation surveys. Enter your draft once and the water your boat cannot cross shades on the chart.
The pack carries 10,264 charted water bodies, which is seventh of the 48 state lake packs. 6,655 of them are named, second of the 48, and 512 named lakes are larger than a square kilometer, about 247 acres, which is second as well. Houghton Lake, Burt Lake, Lake Charlevoix and Mullett Lake are all in there, each between 16,605 and 17,495 acres.
Yes. Hubbard Lake is 8,723 acres and Fletcher Pond is 6,771, so both sit well inside the 512 named lakes in the pack that clear a square kilometer. Depth on water that size comes from state elevation surveys, the same source as the big lakes, and it reads against your draft the same way. On an impoundment like Fletcher Pond, keep the level it is being held at in mind when you read the last foot of a contour.
Helm Boating