Lake St. Clair and the Nautical Mile

Macomb County’s whole eastern edge is Lake St. Clair — a big, shallow freshwater lake between Michigan and Canada. It links two of the Great Lakes, Huron and Erie. It isn’t one of the five official Great Lakes. Even so, people call it “the Heart of the Great Lakes,” and it’s one of the busiest boating waters in the Midwest. The lake is a fishing legend. It’s been ranked one of the best smallmouth bass lakes in the world. It’s also been ranked the top muskie lake in North America. Muskies are the big, toothy fish that anglers travel from all over to chase. By the state’s own estimate, nearly a third of all the sport fish caught across the entire Great Lakes come out of this one lake. The heart of the boating scene is the Nautical Mile, a stretch of Jefferson Avenue in St. Clair Shores. It’s packed with marinas and waterfront restaurants. By its own count, it has the biggest concentration of boats in the Midwest. St. Clair Shores leaned into it so hard that “Boating Capital of Michigan” is now what the city calls itself. Up and down the shore, towns like Harrison Township and New Baltimore have their own marinas, parks, and lakefront downtowns.