Weather Makes Fenton Area Lake a Fun Place for Boating

Grab the family, the cooler and your boat shoes. With Labor Day weekend and more sunny weather ahead, there's still time for boaters to get out onto an area lake and enjoy the water.

With its numerous lakes, many boaters call the Fenton area home. One of them, Joe Griffin, of Fenton, has been enjoying waterskiing for 35 years.

"I'm an old-school slalom waterskiier," Griffin said Sunday, at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources' Lake Fenton Public Access off Grove Park Road.

This boating season has been wonderful and spectacular, he added. Griffin prefers Lake Fenton and Torch Lake, out of the area bodies of water.

Manager Tracy Danner, of also said the boating season is going well. From spring to around mid-June, the weather was very good. Then hot, hot weather arrived, with no rain.

Now it's been cool outdoors, but it hasn't stopped boaters, Danner said.

"I think everybody is taking advantage of it to the fullest," she explained. "People are getting used to it, and they're still boating."

From Skipper Bud's boat sales this year, pontoons are very popular, Danner said. Boaters can use pontoons for leisure boating and tubing.

Skipper Bud's also sells speed boats and ski boats, rents boat slips, provides winter storage, sells gas and performs complete service on boats, from oil changes to complete engine overhauls, she said.

A new model Wake Setter surf boat was on display at the Lake Fenton Public Access on Sunday, with owner Joe Wolf and employee Angie Kettinger, of Skiers Pier in Waterford. They were on the sixth lake of their Surf Tour, taking a 2013 Wake Setter to show it off and let people try it out at some locations, Kettinger said.

In addition to Lake Fenton, Skiers Pier's Surf Tour has included Union Lake, White Lake and Lake Oakland. People have tried the Wake Setter out and really enjoyed the boat, she added.

The weather has been good, with a lot of sun, Kettinger said.

"It's been an awesome summer," Wolf agreed. "Probably one of the best in many moons, 20 years, I'd say."

The 2013 Wake Setter on display, a BCX model, sells for $80,000, he added. It has a ballast system and a wedge on the back that adds 1,200 pounds of weight. A surf gate, with the flip of a switch, adjusts the wake coming off the boat to accommodate a left foot forward or right foot forward waterskier, Wolf said. This feature is unique to the Malibu brand.

It's the closest you can get to surfing in the Midwest, he added.

Dealers have 2013 Malibu boats in stock, including some Wake Setters. However, at this point in the boating season, many people are ordering their watercrafts for next year, Kettinger said.

On Sunday, boaters were heading out onto Lake Fenton from the DNR public access site. Improvements have taken place at the site this year, the DNR website reports. The website said the new design will improve parking and enhance traffic circulation for launching boats, with additional space to maneuver boats and avoid blocking other boaters.

Improvements to storm-water management and lake water quality are included, with a series of bio-swales and porous paving to slow water runoff and capture it before it enters Lake Fenton. The lake's water quality will improve as water travels through soil and native vegetation, reducing erosion and keeping sediments and pollutants from entering Lake Fenton via stormwater, the DNR said.

A $10 Recreation Passport is needed to use the Lake Fenton Public Access site. To get one, Michigan residents can check "YES" on their license plate renewal forms. Funding from the Recreation Passport helps preserve forest campgrounds and trails, historic and cultural sites in state parks, and local parks, the DNR said.

The Lake Fenton Public Access site was built in 1978 and repaved in 1993. Thousands of boaters use it every year, the DNR said.