Lake Bellaire

Near Bellaire and Traverse City

Formerly known as Grass Lake, Lake Bellaire is located on the southwest side of the popular village of Bellaire in Antrim County, about 40 minutes northeast of Traverse City. Lake Bellaire is also next to Shanty Creek/Schuss Mountain Resort, a golf mecca in the summer and winter wonderland featuring downhill skiing and other cold weather activities.

Chain of all-sport Lakes

The all-sport Lake Bellaire is fed by both Grass Creek and the Intermediate River, which drains the upper Chain of Lakes. Water flows out through the Grass River and the Lower Chain of Lakes into Clam Lake, Torch Lake, Lake Skegemog, Elk Lake and eventually into East Grand Traverse Bay. The entire chain is navigable by power boat from Lake Bellaire to the dam at the village of Elk Rapids, which prevents entrance into East Bay.

Beautiful wetlands

Lake Bellaire is a deep Lake surrounded by ecologically important wetlands of conifer or mixed hardwood/conifer swamps on the North end and marsh area on the south end. There are virtually no natural rocky shorelines on Lake Bellaire. Most of the nearshore bottomlands consist of sand or gravelly-sand. Some areas, primarily in the north arm, consists of muck or marl-sand bottom.

Sought after fishing

The deep water of Lake Bellaire remains cold and oxygen-rich during summer months, supporting a healthy cold water fishery. Warm water fish inhabit the abundant shallow shoals of the Lake, making it diverse and popular fishing for trout, perch, smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye, and whitefish. Herring, northern pike, rock bass, bluegill, longnose gar, white sucker, brook silverside, black crappie, splake, pumpkinseed, cisco, smelt, lake, brook, brown and rainbow trout have all been found in the Lake.

The Perfect Place to Experience Lake Life

Experience lake living on this fisherman's paradise with scenic wetland views.