Ice fishing on Balsam Lake, Anyone ice fish...

Hi guy's I'm new to the area...

But not the board...

Does anyone head out on Balsam Lake in the hard water season?

We are on the west side...

Kinda wondering if We would be better to just head to Simcoe...

Hmmm... Any suggestions would be great...

Thanks...

i haven't ice fished balsam but i know theirs a lot of pike in the lake so i would assume that if you know where there's some good weed beds, that could produce some pike and possibly some pan fish. if you are successful in getting any pike keep them, kawartha strain muskies don't coexist with pike very well and soon enough we are gonna lose our kawartha muskie fishery if the pike keep up.

Loads of big crappie in Balsam but I have only fished them in the spring when they are easy to find.

I might spend a day there soon and try a couple humps we fish in the summer.

I am also new to Balsam Lake west side as well and I am trying to figure out where I should try to start fishing. I have ventured out about 50 yards but I am leery to go out much farther until we get another couple of inches of ice not knowing where there could be bad ice makes me nervous.

Hi guy's just wondering if anyone has been out on the West Bay of Balsam Lake yet...???

I have seen snow mobile tracks on north bay last week but I haven't seen anyone out fishing. I haven't walked on the lake since before the rain so I am going to guess it will be quite slushy.

I fished it for pike once a couple years ago with a buddy. We set up along a weedline and caught a pike and lots of perch. He got the pike on a Rapala Rippin Rap, we'd figured it would call them in and it worked.

I recommend setting up on a weedline or weedbed (when ice is totally safe) and staying mobile. Usually, depending on the weedbeds size, there may only be 1 or 2 pike around that area.

Good luck this season!

I just came back from walking on the lake I sent the grand kids out to test the ice ha ha very little slush and surprisingly only about 2 inches of snow I may get out tomorrow and dig a couple of holes to check ice depth

I was thinking about heading there tomorrow afternoon for a few hours. Will be targeting crappie but wouldn't say no to a pike. This will be my first time and was planning on trying to park at the provincial park but not sure how that will go. If anyone has any advice on parking I'd appreciate the lead. Cheers!

Hey guy's thanks for the reply's... I think we are heading out Monday morning and see how it goes... We will be on a 96 Red Formula Stx with a gear sled behind Us... Good luck every one... Will post about it when we return...

Made it out on The West Bay of Balsam today...
The guy's with quads had fun...Lol
Us sled guy's need to hug the shore to find snow...

There is 1ft of good ice everywhere...
She was creaking and cracking a lot...
It was kinda funny with the rookies we took out but even a couple of the pops made me jump...

But... The weather was absolutely perfect...
we hit an area where we all had good luck catching Pike and some pan fish during the soft water season... We punched 20+ holes today and got skunked...

But as they say... A bad days fishing is better than a good day at work...

So on too the next adventure...

I went out today as well only in north bay about 12 inches of ice. Balsam must be a strange lake I spoke to some locals and no one seems to know where to fish and very few people it seems fish it in the winter. I guess it will require lots of exploring

Indeed. The lake has limited public access spots and most of those spots have heavy current running thru them and are very unsafe in winter.