Trailer ramp · Lake Michigan · Michigan

West Arm Boat Launch

Name: West Arm
Address: MI, US
Telephone: 231-922-5270

A public trailer ramp on Lake Michigan in Leelanau County, Michigan, with 2 lanes and 33 trailer spaces. Managed by Traverse City State Park.

Directions Call 231-922-5270 All Michigan launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp — 2-lane ramp
Water: Lake Michigan
Lanes: 2
Piers / docks: 1
Trailer parking: 33 spaces
Toilets: 1
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: Traverse City State Park
Owner: DNR-PRD
Location: Leelanau County, Michigan
Coordinates: 44.9064° N, 85.6301° 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 a spot at or near West Arm:

Lake Whitefish · December through March through the ice; October through April from a boat in Grand Traverse Bay

Lake Whitefish Fishing on Lake Michigan

Grand Traverse Bay — East and West Arms: Deep, protected and holding whitefish nearly year-round. The West Arm exceeds 600 feet, but the fish use the 60 to 120 foot flats and the drop-offs off Elk Rapids and the Old Mission Peninsula.

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 · Late March through May in the southern basin, then north to Ludington and Manistee by July

Coho Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan

The April and May coho run in southern Lake Michigan is the most beginner-friendly big-water salmon fishing in America — the fish school tight in the top 25 feet within a few miles of Chicago and the Indiana ports. A 4- to 6-pound coho on light tackle in 45-degree water is a better introduction to Great Lakes trolling than any king trip.

Lake Trout · May and June on shallow rock, July through September deep, plus a fall reef concentration

Lake Trout Fishing on Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan lake trout are the most dependable fish in the lake — they are there in numbers when the kings are not, and they will bite in flat, hot, bright conditions that shut a salmon program down. Fish the reefs and the deep basin edges, and expect to work 100 to 180 feet down from July on.

Muskellunge · September through November, with late October and November the heavy-fish window

Green Bay Muskie Fishing: The Lower Fox, Sturgeon Bay & Fall Trolling

Lake Michigan's main basin is not muskie water, but Green Bay holds a genuine trophy fishery for Great Lakes spotted muskellunge, rebuilt by stocking since 1989. Fish the lower Fox River, the southern bay and the Door County bays in fall, and understand that this is a big-fish, low-numbers fishery that stocking still holds up.

Northern Pike Smallmouth Bass Steelhead Walleye Yellow Perch

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

Suttons Bay Marina4.9 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Bowers Harbor5.2 mi · trailer ramp · 2 lanes · MI
East Arm7.5 mi · trailer ramp · 2 lanes · MI
Elmwood Township Marina8.1 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Clinch Memorial9.7 mi · trailer ramp · MI
Boardman River9.8 mi · trailer ramp · 1 lane · MI

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Mission Point Light9.4 mi · deactivated

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore21 mi · dunes

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 Traverse City State Park 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.

Lake Michigan launches Michigan launches Lake Michigan field guide Michigan shoreline