Crystal Lake smelt "Benzie Co."

[Tom 26133]

Went smelt fish off crystal lake Lobb rd. access from 6pm to 10pm and pulled in 78 good sized smelt. I diffinatly had a great time chatching them, and the weather and scinery were beautiful. The ice was about 12" there was at least 300-400 fisherman so the walk to the access was long if you were to go i would get there earlier so the walk is short.

[MSUICEMAN]

how far is the walk if you had a good parking spot to the fishign spot? i've never fished crystal, but i go up every year to a friend's cabin in the area and the lake he's on i've had nothing but bad luck on so i'm trying to find somewhere else to wet a line.

[Whit1]

Went smelt fish off crystal lake Lobb rd. access from 6pm to 10pm and pulled in 78 good sized smelt. I diffinatly had a great time chatching them, and the weather and scinery were beautiful. The ice was about 12" there was at least 300-400 fisherman so the walk to the access was long if you were to go i would get there earlier so the walk is short.

If you fished on Saturday evening then you shared the ice with a group of MS members. We had an outing on Crystal all day and well into the night. the group was set up to the east of Lobb Rd. in 30-45 FOW for the smelt bite that night.

This high pressure system really slowed things down, but we did catch smelt.

As for the distance from the Lobb Rd. acess site to the smelt fishing grounds it's not bad at all being about 1/4 mile or a bit more. You can go either east or west along the shore.

[MSUICEMAN]

good deal... i know where i'm heading next year then.... i have nearly no luck on the lake my buddy's place is on. only small gills, perch, and this year I did get a decent sized pike on 2lb test which was better than a kick in the pants, but I need to find somewhere I have more confidence in.

who knows, maybe next year i'll even have a quad or sled to aid in getting out there!

Thanks for the info Whit!