Balsam Lake Pike Ice Tournament?

No doubt, crappie are great fun and tasty too.

Good idea but may do more harm than good ? I think at this point there is no stopping the pike in the kawarthas , they will just be considered naturalized in the future. The problem I see is the amount of incidental musky that would be caught especially with guys using tip ups and likely deep hooking them. Not sure how I feel about a pike tournament.

I would be shocked if anyone actually caught a pike on Sturgeon. Seems like they haven’t made their way down yet. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Agreed. Been fishing Sturgeon a long long time and have never caught a pike. Neither have my family or friends.

Especially in the winter!

Any reason for pike not being in Sturgeon (and Chemong and I think Buckhorn doesn't have pike either...not sure about Stoney or Pigeon)? Are there physical barrier to pike moving to these lakes or it's just a matter of time for them to spread. It has been many years now since Balsam, Canal, Mitchell and Cameron has pike and Rice too on the other side.

We will never know for sure, maybe a few small ones came in from Cameron and got eaten. Maybe it has just been lucky so far. I met someone 2 years ago that said that he caught a pike on Sturgeon. I just find that so hard to believe because I know at least three dozen people that fish Sturgeon year round and none of us has caught one yet. So we keep our fingers crossed until when ever I guess.

Great discussion here.

I am member of Muskies Canada, and in the attachment you can see graph from the analytics page of the web site displaying hours/fish rate for Balsam Lake (how many hours members needed to catch a musky each year).
Those stats are based on data members have entered over the years.

Little problem with stats like this is limited number of log entries (you can see number of entries in bracket in the bottom for each year), but I believe that we can definitely see hours/fish going up in last decade or so, which means there is less muskies than before.

On the other side, that doesn't mean muskies and pike didn't learn how to coexist, maybe it is just how pike is affecting the lake and natural process of adjusting the number of fish.

I love Balsam lake and I enjoy fishing both pike and musky there. In last couple of years, I was seeing some smaller muskies which for me is a sign that muskies are doing just fine.

Peja

This post has been edited by pjfishing on Jan 29, 2022 - 10:02 pm

Yes there's a lock, actually 2 locks, since sturgeon is 2 lakes away from Balsam (Cameron is in-between them).

Ive fished Sturgeon for years and never caught a pike nor ever heard of one being caught. Maybe a tall tale of someone catching a small musky and being confused.

The ice fishing idea is not bad, there are certainly some dangerous areas on Balsam in the winter, some parts don't ever freeze.

Yes there's a lock, actually 2 locks, since sturgeon is 2 lakes away from Balsam (Cameron is in-between them).

Ive fished Sturgeon for years and never caught a pike nor ever heard of one being caught. Maybe a tall tale of someone catching a small musky and being confused.

The ice fishing idea is not bad, there are certainly some dangerous areas on Balsam in the winter, some parts don't ever freeze.

I can't remember now (it's been a while since I paid enough attention) so does that mean Sturgeon, Chemong and Buckhorn are "upstream" of those locks (and lakes) and that is why they are a bit more successful at keeping them out of these lakes for this long (but one would think it is still just a matter of time with locks being quite "leaky" for fish movement.
Also, pjfishing: thanks for that CPUE info (though interviewed kind of info, it's interesting) on musky catches. Always nice to see small ones being caught but if over the last couple of years, it could just mean there was a (or a couple of) bumper year(s) that happened to produce more (and so more got away from the young pike fry feeding on the later spawning/hatching smaller musky fry)....only time will tell and hope there is some balance to allow the musky to continue existing. One would think that some human help (in the form of removing more pike) can only help the musky (at least not hurt it....unless there is a larger incidental take of muskies). I don't fish both enough to know if there is a time/place/method of fishing that would primarily take pike and rarely musky - if so, that maybe a way to get people to help target primarily pike (in say a tournament that is set up to do so). So, the folks who know better can help out such a tournament by their experiences and guiding something like this to increase the success of the event.
Always great discussions on this board and to learn from others.

Tons of hammer handle pike in sturgeon

Please post pics of pike on sturgeon. I have never seen anyone post one from Sturgeon on this website.

I don't take pics of hammer handles but in the spring when the boat is out I will. Last 2 years we've been boating anywhere from 2 to 5 dinks an outing

I have had small pike chasing my topwater baits on upper Sturgeon for quite a while. They've chased them right up to the trolling motor!!

I have a few buddies that have caught numbers of pike by the causeway in dunsford. the biggest pike ive heard of being caught on sturgeon was a buddy of mine getting a 27"... ive heard a person or two say theyve seen pike at the north end of pigeon as well. Never seen a pic of a pigeon pike yet but seen pics of the sturgeon pike.

Great ideas and points to consider on the tournament topic. I am going to discuss the ideas with my brother-in-law who works for the MNRF to see his thoughts as well. I will be heading out on either Balsam or Mitchell this coming Saturday to hopefully hammer out another good limit of pike. my previous report's pike were all freezer packed and given away to work colleagues, family and neighbours. My neighbour who i gave a few fillets to had never eaten pike before (like me) said it was phenomenal and is begging me to take him out so he can limit out too. he loves fishing and has never targeted pike before. Here is hoping we can hammer a few more out.

If anyone is interested in joining me bright and early saturday, PM me.