Hess Lake: 755 acres, mostly knee-deep, full of fish

Hess Lake covers 755 acres and you can stand up in most of it. That’s not an insult — it’s the whole charm. It bottoms out around 29 feet at its deepest hole, but across most of its surface it runs only a few feet deep, and shallow warm water like that is a fish factory. It grows weeds, the weeds grow bugs, and the bugs grow bass.

The lake sits in the southern end of Newaygo County, mostly in Brooks Township with a corner reaching into Grant Township, and it’s one of the county’s larger all-sports lakes — busy with boats and swimmers all summer. Anglers come for largemouth bass, bluegill and other panfish, yellow perch, and channel catfish. You don’t need lakefront property to get at any of it: the Michigan DNR keeps a public boat launch here, so a trailer and a permit are the whole price of admission.

It’s about as easy as fishing gets in this part of the county — a short drive from both Newaygo and Grant, a launch you can back a boat down, and water generous enough that even a slow day usually hands you something. Local lake associations stay on top of the weeds and the water quality, which is a fair share of why a lake this shallow stays good for swimming and fishing instead of choking itself out.

Shallow lakes do swing, though. Weed growth, water clarity, and the occasional algae bloom all shift with the season, so the lake you saw in May won’t be the lake you find in August. A depth map and a glance at the current rules go a long way before you launch.