Skip to content

Michigan lake depth maps

Lime Lake depth map

Lime Lake in Leelanau County, Michigan reaches a depth of 67 feet. Lime Lake is charted here across 8 closed depth contours, from the 5 ft line down to 60 ft, enclosing about 641 acres of water. Half of that water lies inside the 15 ft line, and only 8 acres lie inside the deepest one. Every contour is on the interactive map below, free and without an account.

Data: Michigan DNR Inland Lake Contours (public record). Contours closed, checked and area-computed by Jordan Carter, founder of GilledIt · page updated

Lime Lake depth chart: 8 depth contours from 5 to 60 ft

Data: Michigan DNR Inland Lake Contours (public record), retrieved August 2026 · depths change over time · not for navigation

Lime Lake depth chart data: water enclosed by each contour
Depth contourWater inside itShare of mapped water
5 ft641 acres100%
10 ft382 acres60%
15 ft309 acres48%
25 ft254 acres40%
35 ft162 acres25%
45 ft120 acres19%
55 ft84 acres13%
60 ft8 acres1.2%

Acreages are computed from the closed Michigan DNR Inland Lake Contours contour rings, with islands subtracted. Shares are of the 641 acres inside the outermost charted contour (the 5 ft line), which is the outer edge of the mapped water, several state files carry no 0 ft shoreline line, so this is not the same as a share of the lake's published surface area. The survey also records a 67 ft sounding, marked as a point rather than a closed contour, so it is not charted as a band.

Fishing Lime Lake: a wide shallow flat over a deep hole

About 641 acres of Lime Lake sit inside the survey's 5 ft contour, and half of that water is already gone by the 15 ft line: most of this Leelanau County water is shallow and the depth is concentrated in one part of the basin. The steepest break on the chart runs from 5 down to 10 ft: 259 acres of bottom fall away across 5 ft there, which makes that band the first contour to work. 8 acres, 1.2% of the mapped water, lie inside the deepest 60 ft contour, toward the western side of the lake. At 67 ft this is two-story water: the basin can stay cold below the summer thermocline while warm-water fish stay up on the 5-to-15 ft ground, and the fish that move between the two do it along the 5–10 ft break at first and last light.

Ice fishing on Lime Lake

Deep water like Lime Lake freezes later and less evenly than the shallow lakes around it, and the winter bite sets up on the first real break, not out over the 60 ft hole. That edge is the 5–10 ft band on the chart above, where 259 acres of bottom tilt away, and panfish and walleye work up and down it through the day. By late ice the fish push back onto the 5-to-15 ft flat. Check ice thickness locally before you walk out.

Lime Lake depth map FAQs

How deep is Lime Lake?
Lime Lake reaches a maximum depth of 67 feet in the Michigan DNR Inland Lake Contours survey. Most of it is far shallower: the survey charts 8 closed depth contours over about 641 acres, and half of that water sits inside the 15 ft line. The 67 ft figure is a single recorded sounding rather than a closed contour, so the deepest line you can actually trace on the map is 60 ft.
Where is the deepest part of Lime Lake?
The deepest charted water on Lime Lake lies inside the 60 ft contour, toward the western side of the lake. That contour encloses 8 acres, 1.2% of the mapped water, so it is a small target on a big lake, the depth chart above gives the contour to line up on.
How much of Lime Lake is shallower than 15 feet?
About half. The 15 ft contour encloses 309 acres of the roughly 641 acres inside the outer 5 ft line, so the other half of the water is shallower than 15 feet. The sharpest drop is between 5 and 10 feet, where the mapped water sheds 259 acres.
How accurate is this Lime Lake depth map?
The contours come from the Michigan DNR Inland Lake Contours survey, retrieved August 2026 and last rebuilt on August 19, 2026. Depths change over time with water levels and sediment, so treat this map as a planning guide for fishing, and never use it for navigation. Acreages are computed from the published contour geometry, not from a separate area survey, so read them as close approximations.

Depth maps for lakes near Lime Lake

Mapped fishing venues near Lime Lake

Lime Lake in the venue directory covers access and fishing details for this water.

Fishing in Michigan needs a state license: Michigan fishing license guide · all Michigan venues