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Home › Waters › Michigan › Lake St Helen
Lake · Roscommon County, Michigan, the northern Lower Peninsula lake country near Houghton and Higgins lakes · Michigan

Lake St Helen Fishing Guides

A shallow, weedy northern Michigan lake of about twenty four hundred acres that fishes hard for walleye, pike and panfish and stays busy straight through the ice season.

Conifers crowding a rocky point on a clear northern lake
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Lake St Helen

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About the Lake St Helen

Lake St. Helen sits in the lake country of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, a short drive from the much deeper and better known Houghton and Higgins lakes. It covers roughly twenty four hundred acres and is shallow throughout, with a maximum depth of only a little over ten feet and a large share of the basin shallower than that. That shape determines everything about how it fishes.

Shallow and fertile means weed. The lake grows heavy submerged vegetation through the summer, with broad cabbage and coontail beds, and those beds hold the entire food chain. Panfish live in and around them, pike hunt the edges, and walleye use the deeper holes and the weed lines at low light. There is very little offshore structure to fish, so weed edges, the drop into the few deeper basins and the shoreline wood are the features that matter.

Walleye are the headline species and the lake is managed for them, but the panfish population is what keeps most boats on the water. Bluegill and black crappie are abundant and reach respectable size in good years, and yellow perch fill in around them. Northern pike are the wild card, growing well on that forage base and taking spinnerbaits and large soft plastics worked over the tops of the weeds.

Ice fishing is a serious part of the year here rather than an afterthought. The lake freezes hard and early because it is shallow, shanty towns go up, and the winter panfish and walleye fishery draws people from downstate. The same shallowness that makes for early safe ice also means the lake can experience oxygen stress in a long hard winter, and conditions vary year to year.

Access is easy. There are public launches, the village of St. Helen sits on the shore with bait shops and services, and the interstate runs nearby. Summer brings recreational boat traffic, so serious fishing happens early and late. Spring after ice-out and the first weeks of solid ice are the two strongest windows of the year.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Pool right now

1,154.90ft NAVD88
  • 24 hours+0.01 ft → steady

Reading taken 60 min ago at USGS 442409084274001, LAKE ST HELEN AT ST HELEN, MI. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Lake St Helen.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

St. Helen - the village on the lake shore, with bait shops, launches and services.
Public boat launches on the lake - the main warm-weather access points.
Roscommon - the county seat and larger service town to the west.
Higgins Lake - the large deep lake nearby, a common companion destination.
Houghton Lake - Michigan's largest inland lake, a short drive southwest.
Interstate 75 - the main highway corridor reaching the area.
Au Sable River - the well known trout river in the surrounding country.

Seasons

Spring: the strongest open water fishing of the year, right after ice-out as fish move shallow.
Summer: heavy weed growth, panfish on the beds and best fishing early and late around boat traffic.
Fall: cooling water pulls pike and walleye back to the weed edges as vegetation dies back.
Winter: a major ice fishery, with early safe ice and heavy pressure for panfish and walleye.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Lake St Helen?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Lake St Helen in Michigan.

Where can you access the Lake St Helen?

St. Helen - the village on the lake shore, with bait shops, launches and services. Public boat launches on the lake - the main warm-weather access points. Roscommon - the county seat and larger service town to the west. Higgins Lake - the large deep lake nearby, a common companion destination. Houghton Lake - Michigan's largest inland lake, a short drive southwest. Interstate 75 - the main highway corridor reaching the area. Au Sable River - the well known trout river in the surrounding country.

When is the best time to fish the Lake St Helen?

Spring: the strongest open water fishing of the year, right after ice-out as fish move shallow. Summer: heavy weed growth, panfish on the beds and best fishing early and late around boat traffic. Fall: cooling water pulls pike and walleye back to the weed edges as vegetation dies back. Winter: a major ice fishery, with early safe ice and heavy pressure for panfish and walleye.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lake St Helen?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Michigan agency site: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/fishing/fishing-regulations