CRYSTAL LAKE
"The winter perch fishing on Crystal Lake is always good," stated Dave Niewiadomski of the Backcast Fly Shop in Benzonia. "It's just a question of how much sorting you want to do. There's no shortage of perch in the lake, but you need to do some searching to find the good ones."

"Good ones" in this case are perch routinely measuring in the 12- to 14-inch range.

"I'll tell you one of the secrets to catching big perch in Crystal Lake is to use big minnows," Neiwiadomski claimed. "The bigger walleye-sized minnows seem to catch the bigger perch. You can use wigglers and you'll catch a lot of perch, but you won't catch many big ones."

Benzie County's Crystal Lake is big at 9,711 acres and deep, with spots in excess of 175 feet, so it's slow to freeze. Some of the best winter perch action takes place on the east end off the town of Beulah. This is the first area of the lake to freeze, and anglers do well there in 15 to 25 feet of water on first ice. As ice conditions improve, anglers venture farther out. A midwinter perch hotspot then is off Railroad Point on the lake's south shore. Anglers take some real jumbos there in water as deep as 70 feet. Again, big minnows seem to catch the biggest perch.

For live bait, tackle and lake maps, contact Backcast Fly Shop at (231) 882-5222. For information on lodging and other amenities in the area, contact the Benzie County Visitors Bureau at 1-800-882-5801, or online at www.visitbenzie.com

SKEGEMOG LAKE
Kalkaska County's Skegemog Lake is famous for its big Great Lakes muskies, but it's also home to some outsized perch.

"It's not uncommon to see perch of a pound or more coming out of Skegemog," said Mickeel Sanders of Jack's Sport Shop in Kalkaska.

Sanders said a 13 3/4-inch Skegemog Lake perch was leading their open-water fishing contest as of this writing, but some of the biggest specimens are taken through the ice.

"Perch in the 10- to 11-inch range are fairly common," claimed Sanders, "and perch up to 15 inches aren't unheard of on Skegemog."

Even though 1,460-acre Skegemog Lake is relatively shallow with only one spot approaching 30 feet, the lake is slow to freeze because of currents running in from the Torch River and out to Elk Lake. Most years, it's late January before anglers can venture safely onto the ice.