Balsam lake, any tips?

[Winterfisher]

hey all,

Finally heading out for the first time this year Canada day long weekend. Ill be staying at the provincial park, with the family, so I'll have max 2 hours each morning to squeeze in a fish. With 2 hours looking to make the most of it. Ill try targeting walleye and smallies. I know balsam has a none between 37-55 walleye. I have a tinny with 9.9.

Looking for any tips, never fished balsam before. Only lake I've fished in kawarthas was stony for walleye late season and that was 40 ft plus. But looking at navionics, North end balsam is a different story.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, ill report when I'm back.

[Hank Jr]

I sent you a PM it should help you some . Good Luck

[fishmagnet]

Good luck, look forward to a report..

[Goshawk]

Good luck at Balsam. I'm headed there myself in the middle of next week.

[bsc2000]

Same here, coming July 12. Any tips would also be awesome. Musky and eyes as the focus.

Thanks
Scott

[Fozzy47]

PM sent.

Great Lake...
Good Luck.

Cheers.

[rayray89]

Good luck to all that get out... I know OP mentioned it but just for others

Balsam and Mitchell have a differnt walleye slot size than the rest of the kawarthas

NONE can be kept between 37-55 cm (14.6-21.7 in). And only 3 with the sport lic.

[Fozzy47]

I heard this slot size was negotiated with the local cottage association...not sure why?
Would be nice to have kept the slot size throughout Zone 17.

The fishing regs can get confusing enough.

[Winterfisher]

Hey all,

Just an update so far. Got out super early, a racoon knocked over a pot on the picnic table and woke me up at 430. Figured might as well start fishing. Got a decent smallmouth off the bat with slip bobber and leech. Then had a huge lull, tried everything from classic jig and minnow to aggressively jigging a jigging rap. I really didn't want to resort to trolling because I do enough of it for trout and salmon, but I was getting desperate. Boated 1 more similar size smallie and 2 walleye in the slot shortly after trolling a worm harness.

Not the best start, but heck of a lot better than getting skunked. Talked the other fishermen at the dock at the end. Others have a hard time too. One guy said he's been fishing every day for the past 3 days and has not landed a fish yet, so I can't complain.

The pic is the first smallie, i didnt take a pic of the walleyes. Figured they were out of the water long enough after I measured them.

Probably will only be able to get out once more this trip. Wanted to take the kids out during the day, but its just too hot for them.

[Winterfisher]

Sucked it up this morning and went straight to trolling

3 smallest, 5 walleye, a lost harness to pike and a few misses. All in all a good morning.

These 2 walleye were just under the slot. Dinner

[rayray89]

There ya go !!

[bsc2000]

Nice eyes!

Any idea why the PMs are disabled for me? I know i was sent a few tips for Balsam but cant get them.

Odd

Thanks in advance
Scott

[Winterfisher]

Oh. I think you need to have 25 comments or something. Not too sure.

I actually was able to get out for about 2 hours at sunset. Some of the best walleye fishing I had in a while. Couldn't put the worm harness down fast enough. All were in the slot.

Begged my wife to go out the next day again and she agreed for us all to go out for an hour. Wasn't expecting much in the heat of the day, but caught 2 pike and 2 walleye and lost 2 in under an hour.

The pic is the better of the 2 pikes. Did a number on my finger, had to make a makeshift bandage out of a diaper. Toothy buggers.

[Winterfisher]

Pike

[colanut]

I was at the boat launch right behind you. Glad you got a few fish. Balsam's a finicky lake, sometimes they're on fire, others times not so much. I had a bunch of follows, but no takers. I had bass following me around and swimming all around my boat, and they wouldn't take anything I had. I did get a nice visit from a musky, but he was just window shopping too. Hope your finger's okay, at least you pampered it. LOL.