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Orchard ice/fish reports?


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Anything I should watch out for on this lake??? Springs or aeration? I have been researching some lakes around my house and this looks like it would be a great spot to fish with very little travel. Any ice info would be appreciated.

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Haven't been out there myself yet but a friend has. Ice is good, should be fine all over. get a map on your way to the lake, GM is right by there, look for the "reed island" there is some good structure in that area. Mostly what you'll catch is smallish pannies. however, the dnr has been stocking it with walleyes and you can catch pike and tigers. see you out there maybe

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Thanks for the info, I will most likely be heading out there today. It would be nice to have a close lake produce.

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I was out on Orchard today and boy was it slow. The ice out there is in good shape, just a little tough to drag a portable through that snow. Caught a small crappie and also a small northern. Nice relaxing day, didnt even have to change my bait too often. There were a few perms out there with about a dozen portables. Beautiful lake, will definitely be heading back in the future, hopefully with some success.

7+ inches of clear ice in all areas drilled.

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i got out on Saturday as well. was there from 11am to 5pm. from 11-4 it was real slow, marked fish all along the bottom but no takers. Bunch of perms and ports out. Around 430 ish it started to pick up and i must of released around 20 small crappies. hot bit for about 30 minutes...that small window of opportunity is the key. My buddy lost a nice crappie that made it up to the hole. If i had to guess...a solid 10". They seem to prefer plastics over crap minnows. No takers on tip up. Talked to a few of the folks out and they werent catching much either...just some small pannies....i was in about 22 fow.

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I figured this would be as good a thread as any for my first post to this site. First of all, thanks for all the great information. I've learned a lot already and I'm sure I'll continue to learn from all those who take the time to post.

Specific to this thread, my son and I spent most of yesterday on this lake. Since there were perm houses out there and I've seen other cars and trucks drive out, I figured I'd be OK to drive as well. About 30 yards from shore we heard a ice crack loud enough to be heard over the rumble of the diesel on my Dodge 2500. Being that I'm not that comfortable with the idea of driving on ice, I opted to back up, park and we pulled our gear out on foot.

Since I don't have a flasher to check depth or mark fish, I had to just take a guess. We ended up in about 16 fow (based on amount of line to reach bottom) and were on about 16" of ice (12 clear & 4 white). Unfortunately, all we were able to get for fish were small gills on wax worms with the smallest jigs we had. Anything else we tried was worthless.

So, how does a person learn how much ice is enough for a fairly heavy pickup? I realize hearing the cracking is normal but this one was just too spooky.

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Just takes some getting use to. I sank my truck in 05 and still am very uncomfortable with driving on the ice. Best thing to do is to not even think about it pretend your just driving down a normal road.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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