AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Upper Long Lake is a roughly 130-acre all-sports lake set among the leafy northwest suburbs of Metro Detroit, in Oakland County, Michigan. Framed by manicured shorelines and lakeside neighborhoods, it has a reputation far beyond its size: a regional survey rated it home to the best fish community of the lakes in its area. Today it reads less as a public park than as a quietly cared-for, largely private residential water that locals prize for its clean, calm surface.↗
Visiting is mainly about appreciating the water's character and the well-kept shoreline around it—fishing, paddling on guest- or resident-accessible stretches, and soaking in a rare patch of genuine lakeside calm inside a busy metro area.↗
A clean lake with a standout fishing reputation
The lake's quiet appeal runs deep—its water quality is actively defended and celebrated. A Friends of the Rouge fish survey conducted between 2017 and 2018 found that Upper Long Lake "has the best quality fish community of the lakes we have surveyed in the area," a striking endorsement for a small suburban lake. Anglers who fish here (under Michigan DNR licensing and catch-and-release guidelines) are working a body of water that the surrounding community consciously maintains as a healthy ecosystem.
