| Official Name: | Fish Lake, Indiana |
| Settlement Type: | Census-designated place |
| Pushpin Map: | Indiana#USA |
| Pushpin Label: | Fish Lake |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Indiana |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | LaPorte |
| Subdivision Type3: | Township |
| Subdivision Name3: | Lincoln |
| Area Total Km2: | 4.88 |
| Area Land Km2: | 3.99 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.89 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Note: | 1016 |
| Population Total: | 1052 |
| Population Density Km2: | 263.60 |
| Coordinates: | 41.5617°N -86.5514°W |
| Elevation Ft: | 689 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 46574 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 18-23386[1] |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 2629780 |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1.88 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 1.54 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.34 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 682.67 |
Fish Lake is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lincoln Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It is located where Indiana State Road 4 passes between Upper Fish Lake and Lower Fish Lake. These lakes feed the Kankakee River. As of the 2010 census, the population of the community was 1,016.[3]
Fish Lake is located in eastern LaPorte County in the center of Lincoln Township. The community surrounds Lower Fish Lake and covers the north, west, and south sides of Upper Fish Lake. Mill Creek, the lakes' outlet, flows south to the Little Kankakee River and then shortly to the Kankakee River, a west-flowing waterway that is a primary tributary of the Illinois River.
Indiana State Road 4 passes through the community, between the two lakes, and leads northwest 10miles to La Porte, the county seat, and southeast 7miles to North Liberty. Fish Lake is southwest of South Bend.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Fish Lake CDP has a total area of 4.9sqkm, of which 4sqkm are land and 0.9sqkm, or 18.24%, are water.[4]
Before the draining of the Grand Kankakee Marsh, the body of water at Fish Lake was known in French as Lac Tipiconeau. It was then located on the main stream of the Kankakee, just upstream of its confluence with Potato Creek.[5] The lake took its name from the French term for buffalo fish, and this name in turn likely led to the modern English name "Fish Lake".[5]
In 1702, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville noted that following the end of the Beaver Wars a group of Miami people had settled at "Atihipi-Catouy".[6] According to linguist Michael McCafferty this name "appears to be a gnarled form of Miami-Illinois kiteepihkwanonki, 'at the buffalo fish'", referring to Lac Tipiconeau.[5]
In the 1880s, the Swift & Co. ice company of Chicago purchased land around Upper and Lower Fish Lake and carried out ice harvesting in the winter months.[7] By 1899 Swift & Co. was shipping 18 railroad cars full of ice from Fish Lake to Chicago each day.[7] Ice harvesting ceased here in 1930.