Trailer ramp · Lake Michigan · Michigan

Gladstone Marina

Name: Gladstone Marina
Address: MI, US
Telephone: 906-428-2916

A public trailer ramp on Lake Michigan in Delta County, Michigan. Managed by City of Gladstone.

Directions Call 906-428-2916 All Michigan launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp
Water: Lake Michigan
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: City of Gladstone
Owner: Municipal
Location: Delta County, Michigan
Coordinates: 45.8390° N, 87.0197° W

Before you launch

Lake Michigan is big water

The pier-head channel is the dangerous part of the trip. An onshore wind stacks waves where the channel meets the lake, and the run home can be far worse than the run out. Check the wind direction against the harbor mouth before you leave the ramp.

Longshore currents and structural rip currents at the piers. Lake Michigan produces more drowning fatalities than any other Great Lake, and most of them happen to swimmers near breakwalls and piers, not to anglers offshore.
Sudden north-to-northwest wind shifts. The lake runs 300 miles north to south, so a northerly builds enormous fetch and turns a flat morning into a five-foot afternoon on the south end.
Seiche events. Wind and pressure can push water to one end of the basin and let it slosh back, producing fast, unexpected water-level swings — one on the Chicago shoreline in 1954 killed several people on a pier.

Read how to read a Great Lakes marine forecast and trailering and launching on big water. Pack the big-water safety kit.

From this launch

What to fish on Lake Michigan

Our Michigan fishing guides name spots at or near Gladstone:

Northern Pike · May and June, September through November, and January through February on Green Bay ice

Northern Pike Fishing on Lake Michigan

Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc: The top of Green Bay out of Escanaba and Gladstone. Shallow protected weed flats, a huge pike population, and one of Michigan's better tip-up fisheries when the ice sets up.

Smallmouth Bass · Mid-June through early October, with September the peak for size

Smallmouth Bass Fishing on Lake Michigan

Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc: The top of Green Bay out of Escanaba and Gladstone. Big Bay is the rockier of the two and holds the better smallmouth water in 10–25 ft.

Walleye · Late March through May in the bays, then late June through August on the reef and open-bay pattern

Walleye Fishing on Lake Michigan

Little Bay de Noc: Escanaba to Gladstone. The best trophy walleye water on the lake, with a mix of shallow spring gravel, mid-bay reefs and a deep hole that holds fish through summer.

Yellow Perch · July through October in the southern basin; December through March on Green Bay ice

Yellow Perch Fishing on Lake Michigan

Little Bay de Noc: Escanaba and Gladstone. Shallow protected water with heavy perch numbers and a long ice season.

Brown Trout · March through May, with a second window from October into December near harbors and river mouths

Brown Trout Fishing on Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan brown trout are a shallow-water, cold-weather fishery and the Wisconsin shore from Racine to Algoma is the heart of it. From ice-out through May, browns hold inside 20 feet along the harbors and river mouths, catchable from a small boat or a pier.

Chinook Salmon · Late June through Labor Day, with the staging run building through the last two weeks of August

Chinook Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is still the most reliable king salmon water in the United States, and the stretch from St. Joseph to Frankfort will put a 15-pound fish in the box on an ordinary July morning. You will work deeper and farther offshore than your father did, but the fish are there.

Coho Salmon Lake Trout Lake Whitefish Muskellunge Steelhead

Michigan by season

SpringCoho in close, browns on the beach SummerKings go deep and the fleet goes with them FallStaging kings and the river run WinterHarbor ice, tributary steelhead, and open water for the brave

Next ramp over

Nearest Michigan launches

Kipling1.7 mi · trailer ramp · 2 lanes · MI
North Shore4.7 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Rapid River Mouth5.8 mi · trailer ramp · 2 lanes · MI
Sand Point6.7 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Aronson Island6.9 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Stonington8.2 mi · trailer ramp · 2 lanes · MI

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Sand Point Light6.6 mi · deactivated

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Source

Launch facts are from the Michigan DNR, State Sponsored Developed Boating Access Sites, retrieved 2026-10-05. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with City of Gladstone before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theMichigan DNR.

Chart shoreline generalized from Natural Earth (public domain). Not for navigation. Something wrong or missing? Write to contact@greatamericanlakes.com.

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