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Author Topic: benzie county.  (Read 11151 times)

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #30 on: Jan 15, 2018, 03:26 PM »
i would call them.
I'd rather be fishing than sleeping

Offline pyro261

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #31 on: Jan 16, 2018, 11:49 AM »
Buddy called someone up there (not sure who) and they told him from Lobb east is ok but Hurdmans was open water last week... Did the rain last week screw things up that bad?

Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #32 on: Jan 16, 2018, 01:41 PM »
In my opinion no, the rain would have taken care of heavy amounts of snow that would have been insulating the thinner west side ice.  Crystal is a mystery sometimes on how she freezes due to the deeper water on the west end and Herdsman bay area, heck might even go as far as Railroad point west some years, and if the winds blow hard that can be a big factor too.  Crystal has not frozen completely in 2 years and has not had great extended ice fishing since '14.  Looking into the way back machine I can remember back in my younger days Crystal freezing before deer season was over, but in the last decade the west end not usually before the end of Jan.

Offline Joe in T.C.

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #33 on: Jan 16, 2018, 02:46 PM »
Fished off Lobb Road this morning, 65 feet of water and about 8 inches of ice.

Marked fish at the bottom and had to down size my jig to find out what kind.

Turned out to be Perch, aggressive and lots of them. They would chase the jig up 20 feet from the bottom.
I also pulled up some nice green weeds from bottom.

looks like the center of the lake froze and then got broke up by the wind. judging by the exposed ice sheets.
the whole lake is locked up now though.

There was a shanty off to the right of me and a couple shanties across the lake in front of Hurdmans bay.

It was not windy at all today which is unusual for Crystal.







Good Luck All  :tipup:


Offline pyro261

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #34 on: Jan 16, 2018, 09:23 PM »
Nice. Thanks for the report. Think I'll make the trip up this weekend

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #35 on: Jan 17, 2018, 08:10 AM »
Joe is that your total haul? one fish sandwich?  ???
 ;D
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Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #36 on: Jan 17, 2018, 08:15 AM »
I'll be up jan 29th- feb 1st
If anybody wants to PM me maybe we could meet up
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Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #37 on: Jan 19, 2018, 09:10 AM »
Has anyone caught anything from crystal ? Or big platte?
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Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #38 on: Jan 19, 2018, 10:20 AM »
Got up in time to try Smelt last night off the boathouse.  Saw a quad next to a couple shanties so figured it was ok to walk out as the sun was going down, had 6-8 inch of ice and she was making ice while we sat.  Fished 43 fow and marked a decent amount of fish through the night but the bite was less than desirable to be nice.  brought home a dozen and a half talked to another guy that had about the same.  Got the repairs on the house done this morning so have the rest of the weekend to do some fishing as long as things hold out.  Going to take a drive around the west end here in a few to check things out and head to Backcast for some bait for tonight.  Heard last night that west end ice was still not good so hopefully info was wrong but not counting on it.  Not a lot of snow on the ice which makes it easier to pull a shanty but not much to hold the shanty either as the wind blows and gusts are forecast to 20+ today.  If anything good happens I will post over the next couple days.

To also add there was a fairly significant pressure ridge about 100yds west of where we fished last night.  Looks like it stretch across the center of the lake.

Offline pyro261

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #39 on: Jan 19, 2018, 10:32 AM »
Thanks for the update. I am planning to come up in the morning to fish. Still curious about Hurdmans if you make it that way while checking the ice, I'd be grateful for a report.  Probably go off Lobb if I can't get a report though

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #40 on: Jan 20, 2018, 07:00 AM »
thanks for the info .did you try using those smelt for bait?
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Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #41 on: Jan 20, 2018, 03:29 PM »
Sorry fished hard last night and didnt get a chance to reply.  Got up this morning and headed out for trout off the North shore.  Fished 100-120fow 2 for 3 on Tip ups and 2 jigging.  Lake was beautiful this morning, set up the shanty and didnt use it once big difference from the 25+ winds last night.  Grabbing a bite to eat clean fish and then head out to see if we can sweet tlk a few more smelt to bite.  Last night was the same as Thursday different location same result.

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #42 on: Jan 21, 2018, 08:28 AM »
I'm heading up in a couple hours ,last minute trip for a couple days. I'll fish big platte tonight. Then crystal tomorrow. how much ice was on crystal
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Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #43 on: Jan 22, 2018, 09:58 AM »
Ice on Crystal was holding when I left yesterday 8 in around Lobb and the Boathouse 6 in of clear ice towards the middle where we were trout fishing off the North shore.  I did see some guys walking out at heardsman when I went by there Saturday morning.  I did not hear of anyone going through but I am not sure how far they made it, I would not have walked out on that ice.  West end was not safe Saturday.

Sorry for the late post but I fished until 1 yesterday afternoon and then was stretching it to get on the road 2 hrs later than I wanted to.  Smelt saturday night was the worst night of the 3 I fished with a grand total of 6, I think we ended up around 40 for the 3 days.  Enough for bait for trout fishing and one meal for the wife and I.  Long days and nights with a very negative bite on the smelt would not recommend it right now.   Trout Sunday was slow also after the wind change ended up 1 for 2 on the tipups and nothing jigging, had a few lookers but would not commit.  Did have one interesting thing happen I had never seen before out there.  Bringing the smelt up after a suspect false trip on a flag, I had a small school of salmon swarming the smelt swipping at it about 15ft under the ice.  Didnt hook one but it was cool to watch through the hole, it was a pretty awesome sight that you just dont see every day.

There is not a lot of snow and probably not any on the ice today as I heard it was raining pretty good today.  I put spikes on my boots for the very first time ever after walking in Friday night in the 25+ mph winds and having the sled and wind pulll me across the ice a couple times.  Ice in the middle of the lake is very clear and smooth and mostly smooth around the other areas so be careful as always but I would recomend some sort of traction aid if you are going to be out walking around.

Offline pyro261

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #44 on: Jan 22, 2018, 10:26 AM »
I tried to get out on Hurdmans Saturday morning but the shore ice was two hits with the spud so I didn't walk out too far.  Went off Lobb instead. Spot I had marked on navionics to try in deep water was covered by a large black area so I spudded it and it was about 2" thick.  Might have been better in other spots but I wasn't going to find out.  Turned around and made my way out to a different spot in 60'. was another spot that was suspect on the way there that I spudded and went through in two hits.  My guess is that the lake had opened up within the last couple weeks and the ice sheet blew under another one?  The spot I made it out to was probably 12" thick.

Is there any good perch to be had out there, or are they all dinks?  I literally couldn't keep them off my hook no matter what I was using so I tried sorting through them for a couple hours with no change in size.  Eventually caught a 30" northern and a burbot before I packed up so not a total waste I guess.  Would like to fish the lake again, but looking at the forecast I'm not so sure this year

Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #45 on: Jan 22, 2018, 11:34 AM »
So that was you pulling a 1 man flip over it looked like, lol, I am glad you played it safe it was open about a week ago from what I had heard with some heavy wind and waves for a couple days.  Sorry, I was pretty beat on Friday and didn't catch in your post you were going to be there Saturday or I would have had you meet up with us and could have answered a few of your questions in person.  There was a group of 3 guys a little farther east of where you were venturing out, they were sitting on some rocks looking at the lake and may have been watching you to see if it was ok.  The perch do get to be nice size but are far outnumbered by the dinks.  If you can find them you can get into some 12-14's but they are hard to locate for even some of the veteran perchers up there.  Heard a lot of complaining this weekend about the perch bite being off also.  There were a lot of guys fishing perch over by the marina but didnt hear what they were catching.  Not as many people out fishing this weekend up there as I thought there would be since there hasn't been much ice the past couple years.  I think the Ice is going to be ok from Lobb east but the west end is going to be in trouble and sketchy at best for another week.  it really is better with a few of these warmup to keep the snow clear and then if we can get a few days and nights of sub zero temps it will make that solid ice we all like.  Did you notice when you were off Lobb the slush under the ice after you punched through?

Offline pyro261

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #46 on: Jan 22, 2018, 12:09 PM »
No worries man. I just like fishing new lakes so I would have enjoyed my time out there regardless of where I made it out on.

The spot I sat on with ~12" had a lot of slush at the bottom, yes.  I drilled more holes to the west to find deeper water and didn't run into the slush. Ice was also half as thick, so that's why I assumed the old ice sheet blew under another one at some point.

Maybe the bigger perch were off but the 5-6" ones would hit literally anything I threw down there including a laker tube jig and a 4" blue off a treble hook lol.

I saw people out in the deeper water but I didn't really feel like walking out that far. I generally look for spots on navionics before even going out... Do people just setup out in the 150' deep flat when fishing trout out there? It looked like people were right in the middle of the lake to me, but maybe they were right off the breaks?  I generally have the best luck off some kind of structure in deep water (points, humps, breaks), but I never expected to catch a northern out in 60' of water either so I guess I should ask someone who fishes out there regularly in case the ice is good enough to make it back up there this winter.

Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #47 on: Jan 22, 2018, 03:26 PM »
When we go after lakers we try to find breaks as well and fish several different depths to see where they are the most active.  We have regular areas we fish and most of the time it probably looks like we throw a bunch of tipups out on the ice and where ever they land we drill a hole but that is the the search and then adjust to a line or break if it is active.  last weekend we fished from 90-130 and most of the fish were taken around a small point where it breaks from 120 to 125 and we fished a 120 flat right before the break.  Fishing was slower Sunday and we moved off the break to find the fish in 130, active just not commiting to an actual bite artificial or live bait.  the breaks off the North shore are a little closer than from the south shore and were not a bad walk with cleats to grip the slick ice and sleds pulled really easy.

There were a couple pressure ridges that were in that vacinity but the biggest was by the boathouse and I didnt see that there but you may be right on the ice sheet.  I have seen it like that before just always figured it was a transition area that had been interupted.

A buddy and his wife fished off Lobb for perch with the same type action sat and sun.  We caught a couple small perch while smelting but no size either.

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #48 on: Jan 26, 2018, 05:35 AM »
I also found a school of dinks .in 28 fow. moved out to 40fow and they must have followed me! I guess I should have went deeper. I've caught a mixed variety at that area of fish in the past but not yesterday! I did get this walleye though. not from crystal.



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Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #49 on: Jan 26, 2018, 10:17 AM »
Nice eye.  Did you make it to Crystal?  Looks like some cold weather coming in again next week, planning a trip in a couple weeks heading back up there.  Here are a couple pics from the last trip.




Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #50 on: Jan 27, 2018, 08:20 AM »
I did make it to crystal. I had the wife with me and didn't get to my favorite spot. too long of walk for her. I wasn't sure if it was safe for a machine so I didn't bring it. There was 9" of ice where I fished. I guess I could have brought  my snowmobile. I'm going back to Benzie Monday. been doing very well on pike perch and walleye on big platte. It's going to be hard to go to crystal with those big eyes calling my name.
I'd rather be fishing than sleeping

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #51 on: Jan 27, 2018, 08:26 AM »
how big is that laker ?
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Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #52 on: Jan 27, 2018, 10:31 AM »
forgot to ask how much ice were you on? and where ?
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Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #53 on: Jan 27, 2018, 12:25 PM »
About 9lbs was the biggest went off north shore east of herdsman.  100-130 fow is were we fished around 6-8" most places we fished good clear ice when we were there, I would use caution if I were going out this week but after a couple cold nights beginning of the week I would think it will be ok with the lack of snow now.

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #54 on: Jan 27, 2018, 01:50 PM »
I'm thinking wed or thursday for me on crystal. doing platte on tuesday
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Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #55 on: Jan 27, 2018, 04:59 PM »
Good luck, I might have a buddy going out on Thursday on Crystal but probably won't get a report until Friday.  If I hear anything I will try to let you know.

Offline jdgambler

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #56 on: Jan 27, 2018, 09:04 PM »
ya same here. I'm going to launch from the new dnr launch and go out NW about a mile. i'm taking my snowmobile this time.
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Offline pyro261

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #57 on: Jan 31, 2018, 10:01 AM »
Going to try and get back out on Crystal Sunday. Any notable changes in the ice in the past couple weeks out here?

Offline netminder34

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #58 on: Feb 01, 2018, 06:44 AM »
Nothing that I have heard as major change.  With the cold front coming in I would think the West end should tighten up and be better than questionable but use caution as always.  My sister fished Tuesday West of the boathouse and didn't say they were on anything sketchy I will see if I can get a better report today.

Offline dfishman

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Re: benzie county.
« Reply #59 on: Feb 01, 2018, 10:10 AM »
I just called the back cast.  The gal who answered the phone said that people were fishing off lobb road, but heard mans bay is open water. 

 



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