Lakes in Mason County

Took a cruise yesterday and today.  Blue, Thunder, Hackert and Round were frozen over but I did not check the ice; saw several wet slushy areas on all of the lakes.  Ford was finally frozen over.  The ice is about 1.5" and covered by 4" of snow and up to 12" drifts.  Gun is also frozen over and very deceptive conditions: There are drifts up to 18" on top of 2" of crusty crystalized slush below that is 4" of slush sitting on 1.5 to 2" of ice.  Also went to the 9th St. launch on Manistee.  Lake was frozen over with1.5 to 2" of ice, and 2' of very thin ice along the shoreline.  I did not encounter any ice I would have ventured out on over deeper water.  Maybe this weekend?     

Fished portage lake (manistee county) 

Only about 4” of ice where we fished 

Lots of guys out as not many lakes are fishable yet … slow for us and everyone we talked to  caught 3 throw back perch between 2 of us …15’ of water   Fished a bit west of the boat launch in town

Agree with shorebound. Lakes around irons are not yet fishable. Many have open water in spots yet 

Be safe

Took a cruise around Mason, Lake, Manistee and Benzie Counties over the weekend.  With the exception of Round Lake,there weren't any lakes in Mason that have public access with what looked like safe ice; lots of open water areas.  A few of the smaller lakes like Thunder and Blue were frozen over and with white ice.  

In Lake County, Elbow and Harper were frozen over but it looked a little thin along the shoreline, Pine was wide open.

In Manistee County, Manistee was wide open and saw a few boats out.  Chief Lake was about 40% open.  Bear Lake had a few open spots on the west side and there were people out all over the lake.  I went out there on the northwest side, drilled a few hole, marked a lot of fish but no takers.  The ice was 3" to 5".  There were people out on Portage and I talked to a man who had been there on Saturday.  He said the ice on the south side was around 3" to 4" but when he tried to go farther north is got too sketchy.

Drove to North Herring lake.  There was open water on the southeast portion of the lake.  There were a few people out on the northwest side but they laid a board out to cross from the shoreline.  I hope winter gets here soon.    

Took a ride around yesterday to see what the lakes looked like.  Round, Gun, Blue and Thunder lakes were about 75% frozen over with what looked like a combination of very thin ice covered by slush.  Ford Lake 95% wide open.  Hopefully the snow that's coming will be heavy enough to sink what ice is out there and we don't end up with 18" of snow on top of 4" of slush on top of 2" of weak ice.  

With the cooler temperatures the last several days the fish have moved back out to deeper water.  There are a few LM bass on the beds but not what I thought there would be, (no, I'm not fishing for them, just looking.)  The weather is supposed to improve the next few days with some desperately needed rain.  I'll get some water temps later today and try to get them posted.  

The lakes have really warmed up recently and the fish are moving up shallow.  At Pere Marquette there was one boat out.  I fished it for a while, (from pier), and nothing was happening.  Moved inland and did much better.  Every kind of fish in the lakes from dog fish to red ears were in 6' or less and definitely had the pre-spawn feed bag on.  A lot of fun, multiple species.  I used 2" white twister tails on 1/4oz. jigs.  Saw others using spinners and crank baits.