Balsam Lake Report, 10/1: If You Like Pike......

[unicat74]

....you gotta go here!

For those of you who DON'T know, Balsam Lake is a rather large lake with a very fertile fishery just north of Rt 8 on Rt 46, a few miles east and north of St. Croix Falls, WI. Been fishing BL regularly for about 10 years now and it has rarely let me down, including this past Saturday.

Balsam Lake Map

Put in at the launch on the far west side of the lake where Rt 46 crosses it right next to Ward's Resort. Had to get my boat in order, so I motored out to the middle of that west bay in about 28 ft of water, marking hundreds of fish. Absentmindedly threw a crawler on a harness, dropped it to about 20 feet and drifted northward toward the shore. While up in the front of the boat arranging all my dump, I heard a banging the back of the boat - it was my rod ready to get pulled in! I jumped to the back, grabbed it and pulled in a beautiful dark green northern pike going about 3.5 lbs. I abandoned my front-of-the-boat housekeeping and started to pay attention to fishing. I had drifted into about 14 feet of water and threw out another crawler harness and took another nice pike! Drifted back over the same spot two more times and caught one more - all in about 30 minutes.

Wanted to work the docks for bass, as my brother and I have had great success in the past landing scrappy fat bucketmouths all along that north shore, so I drifted into 6-7 feet of water. Put on a smaller Mepps Musky Killer and took two more nice pike in about 6 casts.

It slowed a little, so I put on a big bass spinner and caught a nice largie in some weeded flats just east of the docks where the shoreline takes a northerly jag.

What was remarkable was how pretty the pike were - very dark green with bright white markings. Very agressive, too. Fished the docks a little more and took two more smaller hammer handles.

Left that pike area to do a little exploring, including an area on the north side of the lake filled with stumps. Got skunked there. Worked the islands with a crawler harness while casting my Musky Killer and took two big rock bass on the worms.

Too much fishing excitement for me so I did lunch and Leinenkugel's at the Fox Den Resort and packed her in.

This lake is very highly recommended and it seems like the pike are on the autumn bite!

Hope to see you out there!