Strawberry Lake is a small private lake just northwest of Evart, Michigan. It is about 25 acres in size and surrounded by miles of forest. It is spring fed and flows into Whitmore Pond to the east. The water is cool and clear which makes visibility nearly 25 feet down on a clear day.

There are several species of fish on Strawberry Lake. The remoteness and lack of fishing pressure makes for an abundance of fish. The clarity of the water makes the fish brightly colored, well developed and delicious.

The lake has a pretty interesting history. Doc used to have a DVD that was made by the family that once owned the Christmas tree farm. It shared some old family movies as it told some of the story. The rest of the blansk have been filled in by Capt. Ron. He knows all!

I've been told that back in the days, Strawberry Lake was used to float logs from the various points around the lake to an extraction point or mill. You can still see numerous logs scattered on the bottom of the lake. The old timers say that there were some many logs floating on the surface that you could walk across the lake and not get wet.

We've witnessed a giant old log that rose from the depths in the middle of the lake once. It was large, mysterious and covered in all manner of lake bottom detritus. We surmised that methane or some other gas had finally given it buoyancy enough to make to the surface. We circled it in Capt. Ron's pontoon a few times. We were in awe. It must has sunk back down to the bottom. We never saw it again.

A family owned the entire lake and surrounding acreage. They ran a Christmas tree farm on much of the land. There are still numerous rows of pines scattered around the various parcels. Here is an old aerial view of the lake. This has to be pretty old as the landscape has changed so much. The road around the lake has been relocated. The large expanse of open field along adjacent to the western shore has become a forest again. Compare and contrast to the recent satellite image above.

There is evidence all over the place that suggest Strawberry Lake was a campground for a while. Not to mention a large collection of eyewitness testimony. I'll fill in the dates as I find them. The campground closed after the accidental drowning of Jason Voorhees. It was tragic really. I don't blame the young and seductive counsellors.

Many of the buildings that served specific functions for the campground have been converted into homes.

Follow this link for Strawberry Lake Apparel

The property was eventually divided up into 10-acre parcels and sold off as private residences. Which eventually made it possible for me to enjoy the splendor that is Strawberry Lake.

I’m fortunate to be able to fish on Strawberry Lake. It is a private lake and ending up there is a serendipitous chain of events. The story of how we got to Strawberry starts with three guys in the early mid 1980’s and hinges on the acquaintance of two guys in the 1990’s.

When Aric moved to North Carolina, I thought we'd be saying farewell to Strawberry Lake. Fortunately, I was wrong.