Fishing in the Lansing Area

[Iceisnice]

Is there any good place in the Lansing area to fish either on land or by boat? And what kind of fish do you catch?

[DaveW731]

If by Lansing area you mean within twenty minutes from downtown, I can suggest the following
River by boat: The Grand River has a boat ramp, off of Lansing road about one mile east of Waverly road on the north bank. If you know what to look for, you can find virtually any warm water species imaginable. Head downstream and fish the bridge area, or upstream and look for the usual type of structure. Requires boat w/reasonable motor, because you will cover a few miles of river.
River by wading: Grand River west of Lansing, specifically Delta Mills Park area. Do some scouting around for access points downstream of the park. Lots of smallmouth, occasional walleye. Grand River south of Lansing: take M-99 south till it crosses the river (couple miles past I-96) same fish. Park south of the river on the northbound side of the road.
River by shore or wading: Island Park and Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. Island Park is right in town, Fitzgerald Park is west of town. Fitzgerald is below the dam and has trails along the bank, if you don't want to wade. Smallies and walleyes. Moores Park on the Grand River right in Lansing: just east of Martin Luther King Blvd, on south side of river. fish below the dam for smallies, 'eyes and panfish. Moores River drive, about 3/4 of the way to Waverly road from MLK, also on south side. Shore fishing only. Caught some serious carp out of there over the years.
Lakes by boat: Lake Lansing (Haslett area) has a boat launch at the North Park. Good bass/pike lake.
Muskrat Lake, north of DeWitt. Boat launch on the north shore. Typical warm-water population.
Lake Ovid/Sleepy Hollow State Park. North on 127 to Price Road exit, East 8 miles on Price Road. Requires park sticker. Has boat rentals. Caught 15# Muskie out of there 2 years ago while bass fishing. Can also fish from a couple of fishing piers...kind of. Tons of weeds by shore.
Park Lake. Take Park Lake Road north out of East Lansing, or go east on I-69 to the Bath(?) exit and make two left turns. Good lake if you have a canoe or rowboat, due to amount of weeds and marshy nature of lake. Good largemouth and pike fishing, if you have weedless equipment. Boat launch on east shore, work your way along the north shore to the west end, for starters.
Lakes from Shore Lake Interstate, off of Lansing Road, just past I-69 on the SW side of Lansing. Weedy, tons of miniature bluegills, some decent bass. Board of Water & Light cooling ponds on Canal Rd, between Lansing Rd and Mt. Hope Hwy, also on SW side of Lansing. Bass and pike. Also tons of weeds.
These are my usual haunts around Lansing. Hope this helps,
Dave W

[devo024]

One other spot I found in Lansing is "The Point", where the Grand and Red Cedar meet. There is a little deck that you can fish off of, but it gets pretty crowded on nice days. You go west on Elm St. off of Cedar, then when you go over the little bridge you turn right (north) on a little dirt road, allmost looks like an alley running behind some houses. There is a little parking area, just walk up the paved trail. I got a nice 3# smally out of there a couple weeks ago.
You can fish from a boat off of Tecumsah (sp) River Dr. off of Grand River, by the airport, but I dont think you can legally launch a boat there anymore. We used to catch alot of bass doing a float from there.
I have used some of the wading areas DaveW suggested, make sure you bring your DEET with you, those skeeters will chase you out of there :SHOCKED: , other than that you wont find anyone else fishing those wading area's, at least I have never seen anyone else out there.


And a big thanks to DaveW for helping me out with those spots

[Lwapo]

How close to Lansing are you looking to stay? With a short drive, you can be to many different lakes. Let me know how close you'd like to stay and I'll throw in my $0.02~!

[SgtSabre]

I don't have boat and I live near Lansing, so I fish exclusively from shore (or wade) and fish around Lansing, so let me add a few cents to this discussion:

Lake Interstate: Lots of tiny bluegill and many small bass. There are some good bass there, though. My roomate has caught two catfish approx 18-20" and I have heard of much larger ones there. If you fish there, get away from the places most people fish. If you go in the entrance and head left down the path through all the heavy vegetation and get to the southwest and northwest sides, the fishing is best there. Waders are helpful, but the bottom is soft.

Lake Delta: No boats allowed here, no wading, either. My first time there the guy next to me hooked (and lost) a pike that looked between 25 and 30 inches. My second time there I caught a 25.5" pike. I've heard many different people tell me that some huge pike come out of there. The DNR has also planted quite a few walleye there, but I don't think they are caught much. The bass and bluegill are about like Interstate. If you fish here, go around the back side of the lake from the entrance to the far fishing dock there. That's the best fishing.

Davis Pond: This is a little pot-hole on Davis highway just off Canal road, very near to delta. I put a waxworm on a hook and had all of the midget-sided bluegill I could stand. I've seen some big bass, and caught a few small ones, and one that was nearly keeper-size.

Dimondale Dam: (Grand River) The dam in Dimondale offers some fair river fishing. This place is packed with smallmouth bass, but they are all small. Say, 10" or so. I also caught a 16" largemouth there. For the smallmouth, use a weedless-rigged tube and try to make it look like a crayfish. It seems that most of the smallmouth hang out just outside of the heaviest current area going through the dam (if you go there you'll see what I mean)

Grand River: I havn't fished it much, so I can't tell you where any sweet spots are. What I do know is that if you check the DNR fish stocking database you will see that they have released thousands and thousands of every kind of sport-fish into the Grand River over the years since 1979. They are in there, ya just have to find them.