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Perch fishing on
Crystal Lake was good, with pockets of days mixed in with some nice
sized ones being taken. Like most years, you have to put your time in
but sooner or later you will find the "biggins". I have not heard much
about the Lake Trout fishing but it had to be better than the winter
bite.
From all reports I and others have heard, Platte Lake gave us one of the
best Small Mouth Bass bites in years. Lots of smallies were taken with
some big ol' lunkers to put the icing on the cake! Platte Lake also
delivered some nice Walleye this year. The last picture I saw was that
of a six pounder, with that being the fourth of the season of that size,
taken by that particular angler. As Walleye fishing continues to improve
on Platte Lake, I can only imagine what next year will bring us.
The big lake fishing this year was good by all accounts again this year.
Sizes are still down a bit but people are still catching nice
quantities. The Coho run up the Platte River was one of the poorest in
years. Fortunately, there were plenty of Chinooks around to keep people
interested. As of October 1st., there had only been about 12000 fish
passed from the lower weir, with 7000 of those being Coho jacks. The DNR
is unsure why there was such a high jack run, and even more puzzled why
such a small adult return. Hopefully, we will know about this in the
spring. An old rule of thumb that I have been told, was that when you
have a large jack run, than the following year usually means a strong
adult run. We shall see. In 2007 there was a jack return of around 3000,
which should have indicated a strong run this year. We may have to call
"Myth Busters" to sort this one out. In any event, we will hope for some
big hogs and lots of them in 2009. I was told in the spring of 2008 the
DNR released 800,000 in the Platte River and 130,000 in the St. Joe
River. Those were the only two rivers where the Coho Salmon were
released in '08. The DNR typically plants 1.5 million Coho, into a
number of rivers, but due to budget problems they had to reduce the
plant size. The bright side is that the fish were larger in size at the
time of release, which should suggest a higher rate of survival. The DNR
is also hypothesizing that the bigger fish at the time of release may
have something to do with the high jack run. Once again, they are only
speculating right now, so do not hold me to any of this. More should be
known in the spring, but once again we are dealing with fish. We may
never know. Next years plant in the Platte will be 640,000 but the DNR
hopes to be back up to 1.5 million for the 2010 plant. It appears in
these tough economic times, everyone is going to have to sacrifice.
There still should be plenty of fish to catch, so let's not panic. We
just have to sharpen our hooks and our skills to keep catching our
little fishy friends.
Lastly, the Chinook fishing in the Betsie was excellent once again this
year. Where the Coho fishing has fallen off, the Chinook fishing has
picked up. The natural reproduction of the Chinook has really taken over
and should indicate many years of strong fishing to come.
In a brief conclusion, I would like to say once again, that although
fishing may have not been the best it has ever been, it sure did have
its bright spots. Any time you have the inclination to go cast a line,
or drag a bait, by all means do it! I can't think of a better place than
Benzie County to get out and take a kid fishing!
Now go out there and get after those Steelhead!
HAPPY FISHING |
Benzie
Fishery Coalition
