I know many of you down state might be on the road looking for good hard water to fish farther north. I just wanted to let you know that most of the lakes in Manistee Co. are fishable and have plenty of good ice.
Manistee Lake is wide open, so bring a boat.
Portage and Bear Lakes have lots of good ice. I spent the day on portage today and ended up with 29 nice perch. "Nice", not huge. Most were from 7 to 10 inches, with 8 being about the average keeper for the day. Most of the action seems to be in the deeper water (50 fow or so), but I stayed along the 24 fow drop off to get mine. I talked to several coming off the water that were in the deeper water, and they caught just as many as I did, with their average being slightly larger, but not much. Bottom line, you have to work a little to get a nice mess of them, for they are not slamming them by any means.
Last week fished Bear Lake and caught a number of pike, but smaller perch. A friend of mine has been getting walleye out there as well along the north shore (mostly on tip-ups).
Arcadia Lake has decent ice as well, and the perch bite seems to be about the same as on Portage...not huge fish, but good numbers.
Hope this info. is helpfull to anyone coming north to fish.
