Potagannissing Bay is a shallow, island-strewn bay that lies northwest of Drummond Island

Drummond Township, Michigan

Drummond Township is a civil township of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 992 at the 2000 census.The township consists of Drummond Island, one of the largest islands in Lake Huron. M-134 runs through the western portion of the island...

 and northeast of De Tour Village

De Tour Village, Michigan

De Tour Village is a village in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 325 at the 2010 census.The village is at the extreme eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in Detour Township, at the turning point for the shipping channel connecting the St. Mary's River...

 in Chippewa County

Chippewa County, Michigan

-National protected areas:* Harbor Island National Wildlife Refuge* Hiawatha National Forest * Whitefish Point Unit of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...

. It is part of the territorial waters of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, with the adjacent waters of Canada forming the westernmost end of the North Channel

North Channel (Ontario)

The North Channel is the body of water along the north shore of Lake Huron, in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is bordered on the east by Georgian Bay, on the west by the St. Marys River, to the north by the eastern Algoma District and to the south by the islands of Manitoulin, Cockburn,...

. The bay's waters are rich in freshwater fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

.

Description

Potagannissing Bay occupies the site of the rapid melting of a glacier at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation

Wisconsin glaciation

The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....

 approximately 10,000 years before the present. The melting ice dumped random piles of rock and gravel onto a section of land surface so low-lying that most of it wound up under the surface of the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

. The bay is currently studded with 53 named island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s and innumerable unnamed ones. Few of the islands are permanently inhabited, but many are privately owned with summer cottage

Cottage

__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...

s built upon them for the use of their owners.

The bay's largest island is Harbor Island

Harbor Island National Wildlife Refuge

The Harbor Island National Wildlife Refuge is a horseshoe-shaped island and National Wildlife Refuge in Potagannissing Bay north of Drummond Island in the U.S. state of Michigan...

, a National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants...

 since 1983.

The bay's largest industries are sport and charter fishing for trophy fish such as bass

Bass (fish)

Bass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch."-Types of basses:*The temperate...

, northern pike

Northern Pike

The northern pike , is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox...

, and salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

; commercial fishing for fish such as lake trout

Lake trout

Lake trout is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, lake char , touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, they can also be variously known as siscowet, paperbellies and leans...

 and walleye

Walleye

Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...

; and pleasure boating. The innumerable islands of the bay create opportunities for amateur exploring and sightseeing, and a sheltered coastline is rarely far away.

The piscatorial opportunities of the bay have drawn a significant population of fish-eating birdlife, including the great blue heron

Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...

, osprey

Osprey

The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...

, and bald eagle

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...

.

Potagannissing Bay is not part of Lake Huron

Lake Huron

Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...

, but shares a common water level with the nearby lake and with the adjacent North Channel.