Craft & Seasonality
✓
Motorboat ✓
Kayak / Canoe ✓
Jet Ski / PWC ✗
Large Boat ✗
Winter Access Site Details
Conditions change rapidly due to water levels, prop wash, and weather. Always visually inspect before backing down.
RampUnimproved, 2 lanes
Dock1 boating pier · ADA
Trailer Parking19 spots · gravel
FeeNo fee
Hours
RestroomsVault toilet (1)
PierYes
AccessibilityAccessible pier
Not Available Fish cleaning · Fishing pier
Scout's Notes
Ramp Quirks & Etiquette
The Setup
The DNR access at 4599 Long Lake Drive on the lake's southwest corner — two ramp lanes, a seasonal courtesy dock, a vault toilet, and roughly 19 trailer spaces serving Portage's biggest lake. It's the only trailer door onto 512 all-sports acres, and it acts like it: the lot fills early on summer weekends and there's no legal road parking when it does. Regulars flag the gravel drive's ruts — take the entrance slow with a trailer.
Why You're Here
Long Lake's trophy northern pike program (24–36 inch protected slot) makes this one of southwest Michigan's more serious pike launches, with largemouth, bluegill, and crappie for everyone else and 57 feet of water keeping the fishery honest through summer. In winter the same access serves the ice crowd.
Local Knowledge
Heading up-lake, know the mid-lake sandbar — it thins to about a foot and a half and reaches nearly across; it's the raft-up spot, not a channel. Shore anglers work the launch area itself, and Ramona Park up the west shore is the swimming beach (the launch is for boats, though plenty wade near the inlet).
About This Lake
Long Lake →