In NEED of Michigan lake recommendations!
 

Ok we have finally completed the transfer from Cali to Michigan. Boats ready to be put back together from the winter, etc. So far I've only heard about Lake St. Clair but I am looking for input about that lake and others that are close to where we now are, Shelby Township. Thank you in advance and also pics would be awesome!

I would tend to stay away from Lake St. Clair because there are so many smaller nicer lakes in the area. You have lakes everywhere that you look in Michigan. I ride up north but I work in the West Bloomfield area and pass by a ton of lakes everyday. I would look out west towards Cass lake and the surrounding area. pine lake is another one to look at. I know action water sports has a shop on that lake. I have ridden on Lakeville lake to which is north of Rochester.

Tons of good lakes in the waterford area. Maceday, union, lake oakland, lower and middle straights, deer lake in clarkston is perfect. A little farther north in fenton and silver lake and lake fenton are pretty good. Love silver lake and usually has some goood riders.

Reez nailed it. All of those are good options, i lived on Lake Oakland for a while and it was fun. The Straits are great as well. Oakland County has a lot of good options...

cass is a good look before june. never put your boat in on pine. further north you go the better your chances of beating the crowds (except on the weekends).

Took a trip to St. Clair just to drive by and I can see that it does blow out easy and often. Some guys there said it was good to just use it to cruise to downtown Detroit for a casual day on the boat. What about Pontiac Lake?

Do any of those lakes out west of me have Hazards like sandbars etc.? are there Private lakes also that I need to be aware of to avoid launching at? What are the normal launching fees etc. Do any of these lakes get crazy crowed or full of Wally's? Thanks guys for the input.

They are all crazy.
It Oakland County which means a lot of boats every weekend.
Oakland county is one of the most populated counties in the midwest.

Boating here is almost a summer right! boaters safety is taught in school here in "the lakes area" AKA. white lake, Waterford, union lake, commerce ETC

It's best is to find a lake you can hit after work.

We Ride almost everyday during the week, but come the weekend, the Wake boat is on on the lift and the pontoon is being utilized.

agreed. most lakes in Oakland County are going to be crowded. Large population, but also one of the largest collections of inland lakes in the country. Def stay away from Cass if you want to ride.... White Lake isnt horrible, Lake Oakland is ok but small, if you can get on to Elizabeth somehow it would be awesome.

minor thread jack, but does anyone from MI have an Axis? I need to check one out, Skiers Pier doesnt have an A22....

annnnnnnd thread jack over. thanks!

Cass is a $h1t show anyday it is nice, so definitely stay away, unless you want to party. If you want to party, let me know and pick me up!
I ride sylvan/otter lake and on the weekend it is a loss cause
as with most lakes as Burbo and I have said.

If you want to ride weekends, you are going to need head north or only ride early mornings.
If you ride early, make sure you ride with no tower speakers as well. you have too many houses.

yep, we used to hit Oakland at 6am Sat and Sunday, be off the lake before the tubers finished breakfast. Thats the case on pretty much every public lake in Oakland County. I rode with a great group of guys on Elizabeth, its private-ish but we had to share the early mornings with the slalom boys.

I had my boat on Cass for 5 years and rode nearly every day. Being the biggest lake in Oakland County makes it easier to find decent water. For the last 2 years I went out almost every day in the evenings. Weekends are definitely busy, but ride early and late in the day, enjoy the scenery when you can't ride.

We do the same, the one nice thing about where we ride is as long as the wind is low, we can ride one of the other two sections of our lake keeping the slalom guys from wanting to kill us.
Plus I like to idle buy them, and watc. we have a few killer skiers out here.

That's good to hear. I drive by it everyday and there is always so much traffic, especially this year because there haven't been very many nice days.
Where do you ride now?

Let me know if you want to go ride Placid Wake Park sometime. I need a camera operator.

I've got a '12 A20, I love it! I got mine from Coldwater Lake Marina; it's almost to the Indiana boarder, I know Gull lake carries them too ( I think they picked Axis up after The Edge stopped dealing them). I looked at a few other places out of state as well before I finally went with Coldwater, the salesmen Dave was awesome and gave me a smoke'n deal at the end of last year. The A20 & A22 are basically the same boat with the obvious 2' length difference.

Last I knew Gull Lake Marine only carried Malibu since Malibu was deopped by The Edge. When I was looking for boats last summer, they did such a terrible job at selling the boat and running the demo, I will never go back.

Yeah Im not a fan of Gull either, I know they had a few Axises ( or Axisi? or whatever the plural for it would be) last year because I was looking at a white and orange they had posted online. But when I called, the salesman started trash talking Axis and tried to get me to buy at a used Malibu Ride, he didn't even really want to talk about the Axis. Then last season when It was time to get it winterized I took it to them because they are only 40 mins away compaired to Coldwater Marina being 2 hours, I dropped it off spotless and picked it up with dirty shoe prints all over the seats. Now I have all my maintenance done at Action in Hudsonvill ( which is a mastercraft dealer) and when I have warranty issues I just call up Dave @ Coldwater and they take care of everything. I just blew my sub 2 weeks ago they shipped me a brand new one no questions asked.

I went to them to demo a Malibu and the guy couldn't sell me a Malibu, he could only talk down MB Sports (I love MB by the way). Then for the demo, he didn't have a wake line, just ski. Not to mention being a ****ty boat driver. Nothing like getting ready to make a hit and all the sudden your strait line pull is gone and you're being drug across someone elses wake. I have video. I should post it....

Still haven't been able to buy. :(

We moved to Traverse City and keep our boat on Torch. My dad still keeps his boat on Cass though.

Torch is awesome, it reminds me of the crazy blue lake from Defy. Love that sand bar!

I'm in west michigan.

I'm not a big torch fan. The sand bar grosses me out. I'd prefer walloon anyday.

I have also had a great experience with Gull Lake. Ryan is my man.

Never heard of torch grossing anybody out. It has the clearest water in Michigan.

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Summer weekends are usually pretty much garbage water(due to so many other people) on most lakes in Oakland. I found right around July 4th, its a nightmare even during the week. I've been riding on cass lake, union lake, long lake, pontiac lake, wolverine lake, but most of all i love maceday/lotus lake but that's probably biased since I live on Lotus, so naturally waiting for good clean water is easy for me. When i used to trailer my boat, it was always a crap shoot on what lake is better to ride, always depends on traffic and wind direction etc.