Fishing Bentley Ponds in Marquette County, Michigan

• Overview

  Marquette County, Michigan, is where Bentley Ponds sits. The water sits 1,470 feet up. It is pond-in-a-field scale, with the far bank a short lob away. On size it sits at the modest end of our Marquette County list. West Ishpeming lies 22 miles from the water. Beyond it, Ishpeming at 22 miles and Negaunee at 23 miles. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Bentley Ponds

  No published figure covers depth, so learn it as you fish. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Records held for Marquette County cover white sucker, yellow perch, rainbow smelt and smallmouth bass. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Bentley Ponds gives up its fish to patience rather than distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate normals give 64°F for July and 14°F for January. The year runs cold to warm and back, with clear transitions. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around late April. The season between ice runs from about late April to late November. Just after the ice goes and just before it returns, the fishing lifts. Bentley Ponds runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Should this one be busy, Bentley Lake is 1.1 miles off. For Bentley Ponds in particular, ask before you travel.