Frankly, Frankfort Rules

Frankfort, Michigan, is a small recreational port town on Lake Michigan that features a lot of transient slips within walking distance of a plethora of restaurants and delis, a supermarket, a hospital, a beautiful beach and lots of shops. What else do you need to know?

The fishing is great here throughout the year, too. It’s hard to believe the 2020 census pegged its population at just 1,252.

About 45 miles west of Traverse City and 35 miles north of Manistee, Frankfort also has motels, Airbnbs and campgrounds, making it a great destination for trailer-boating anglers.

Target lakers

“Frankfort has a world-class lake trout fishery,” says Captain Brian Murphy, who has run Murphy’s Law Charter Service here for 25 years and also is co-proprietor, with his wife, Christine, of the Frankfort Tackle Box (231-352-7673), a shop well-stocked with fishing gear and boating accessories. “I recently had a 25-pound laker mounted to put on the wall, and fish that big aren’t that unusual. If I run a six-person charter, we can have our 12-laker limit in the first 35 minutes and then go target king salmon for the rest of the trip.”

To target lakers, Murphy says to go slow and keep lures such as Spin-N-Glows behind cowbell spinners or metal dodgers behind downrigger balls nearly scraping bottom. He relies on a Fish Hawk Speed and Temperature Probe run at a downrigger ball to keep his Tiara trolling at 1.8 to 2.2 mph, and to find the 42-degree water that lakers favor. His Fish Hawk transmits the temp and speed from down deep to a display in his big Tiara. The “down speed” is often different from the boat’s surface speed because of underwater currents.

Finding king salmon

While lake trout catching can start in early spring, king salmon start showing up right after Mother’s Day, Murphy says. Nobody is sure why a salmon-catching lull occurs in July and usually lasts until August, but salmon catching can become phenomenal when it starts up again in late summer. Mature kings start staging around the Betsie River, preparing to run upstream and spawn. They reproduce successfully in the Betsie, by the way.

Frankfort is just a 10-mile northbound run from Platte Bay, a place of historic significance to the Great Lakes salmon fishery. In the spring of 1966, the Michigan DNR stocked the first coho salmon there. Feeding on over-abundant alewives, the fish grew quickly and returned as 2- to 7-pounders, starting the Great Lakes salmon craze. Platte Bay is simply gorgeous, part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Fishing is good there, too, for both king and coho salmon.

You can also catch northern pike, smallmouth bass and channel catfish right from shore or the back of your boat at your transient slip in Betsie Lake, the 289-acre “drowned river lake” where the Betsie River widens before it flows into Lake Michigan.

Crystal Lake big rock bass

Frankfort’s big secret, says Capt. Murphy, is Crystal Lake, just to the north. At 9,854 acres, Crystal Lake is Michigan’s ninth-largest inland lake. It receives annual stocks of lakers, coho salmon and steelhead, and native species include pike, smallmouth and, notably, big rock bass. Christine Murphy says each summer, several anglers bring rock bass of 11 inches and longer into the Tackle Box — big enough to receive a Michigan Master Angler award. Capt. Murphy says rock bass are almost always ready to bite live bait or frozen cocktail shrimp in Crystal Lake. Although rock bass are a species much maligned as table fare, Crystal Lake’s clear, spring-fed waters breed excellent eaters.

“Brian says they taste like bluegill; I think they taste like perch,” says Christine.

Frankfort also has a town-run fish-cleaning station close to the boat launch that’s top-notch for cleanliness and free for visitors to use.

This summer, put Frankfort, Michigan, on your cruising destination list or trailer your boat. It’s a truly wonderful place to relax and enjoy terrific fishing