Overview
Burt Lake is a roughly 17,440-acre natural inland lake in Cheboygan County in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. It sits at the heart of the Inland Waterway, a navigable chain linking inland lakes and rivers to Lake Huron, with levels influenced downstream by the Cheboygan Dam. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources provides waterway and fishery information for the system, and Burt remains one of the state's largest and most scenic inland lakes.
About 9.5 miles long with roughly 35 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth near 73 feet, Burt combines broad open water with wetland-fringed bays and sandy shallows. Primary inflows include the Sturgeon, Maple, and Crooked rivers; the Indian River carries outflow to Mullett Lake, continuing the Inland Waterway toward Cheboygan and Lake Huron.
The lake is a major northern Michigan destination for boating, paddling, swimming, and fishing for walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass, and panfish. Public access sites, resorts, and the surrounding Inland Waterway communities support heavy seasonal recreation use, and the chain's navigable links let boaters travel between Burt, Mullett, and connected waters without trailering.
Burt Lake does not operate on a Corps-style full, winter, or flood pool schedule. Surface elevation responds to watershed inflows and regulation at the Cheboygan Dam on the lower waterway rather than an independent rule curve, so monitoring current levels and local conditions is helpful for boating, fishing, dock use, and shoreline access throughout the year.
Current Conditions
- Drought conditionsNo Drought
About This Lake
Learn how this lake is managed, what affects its water level, and where Lake Insights gets its data.
Burt Lake is a 17,436-acre natural lake with management context from Michigan DNR (Inland Waterway; levels regulated downstream via the Cheboygan Dam). Levels respond to rainfall, runoff, and natural inflows and outflows.