Balsam Walleye help

Looking for some help please! Going walleye fishing this week at balsam with a group of friends. Any friendly advice would be greatly appreciated. Will troll and cast. Thanks in advance

I like to troll along the outside edges of weed beds as well as tossing swim baits there too.

Look at a chart like this. We fish all the humps and the new weed beds like Woodfarmer said. Now I only fish the east side of the lake, north to south. But there is walleye every where. My best times are early morning and after dinner into the night. Hopefully you will get a nice west breeze if you are out there during the day. The walleye will be at the bottom of the humps during the day. After dinner they will rise and be right on the top of the hump by dark. Trolling shallow from 7pm into the night is an option as well. Watch out for the rocks in the shallow water, especially from the north tip of grand island over to the other islands. Crankbaits and jerkbaits going down 6 to 8 feet during the day. After dinner 4 feet down, and sunset and into the night I only fish 3 feet under the surface, casting or trolling. Just think of how you fish for bass around shorelines and weeds. Then force yourself to slow down with your presentation. As well as trolling, there is no such thing as too slow for trolling walleye. As long as you can feel your lure moving, that's fast enough. Night time is tricky out there so again, watch out for the rocks.

I only use these two Cotton Cordell Ripplin Reds when trolling "SHALLOW" on Balsam lake after dinner or early morning. And I only use the gold and black one if the green and white one is not working.....it works 95% of the time. That is why I took off center treble hook...don't need it.

Wind and weather looks good Friday Saturday and Sunday so far. These are what I use from shore or in a boat casting into the shoreline an hour before dark and into the night. The gold one just happens to be the lure that caught the muskie last night. Maybe I can save the leader. LOL. Good Luck. Stay safe.

Excellent points by WF and CM.

Just want to add that also do not overlook the weeds.
Snap jigging and pitching into the weeds can be very effective as well .

Good luck !

All good info here. I have found hair jigs to be working and most of my fish have been weed/rock transition 8 to 10ft. The fish have not always been in the same locations so i have found using something like a spinner or crank to find the fish or schools then i switch over to hair jig. Also a slip bobber with a worm or leech works well once you find them or get a hit on a search bait. Stop and work the area and find similar areas and keep moving. The water is still cool so they are coming shallow (18.9) 66f

holy smokes crappee! (and others). thanks so much for this - really owe you one - Ill come back with a report next week - cheers boys

Are there legal size walleye in Balsam? Caught a few dropshotting for bass but they were all in the restricted slot for Balsam/Mitchell and one too big even for zone 17 slot size.

Tons of walleye in Balsam lake. You just have to get lucky, and catch the right size. Limit is 3 for sportsman and 1 for conservation fishing license. To keep a big walleye, it must be longer than 55cm. To keep a smaller walleye, it must be shorter than 37cm. So as the regulation reads, None between 37cm-55cm. My target size for walleye on Balsam is 55cm to 70cm. I never keep the small ones, they have not even had their first spawn yet. And they are too skinny, no meat on a baby walleye anyway. By the time a walleye gets to 55cm in Balsam lake it would have spawned a few times. I follow the regulations as stated and keep around 8 or 9 walleye out of Balsam lake per season that are over 55cm. I release dozens and dozens more than I keep. This way they will grow bigger and spawn and make more baby walleye. Those baby walleye will grow to the target size preferred. And the cycle has repeated and will repeat itself again and again.

I know the regs, just haven't caught any keepers. Was targeting smallies and kept catching walleyes.

Good luck next time you are out, maybe you will get one or two you can keep.

What do you mean, too big for zone 17?

Hi Ragefrog,

You post is confusing that's why you are getting the responses you are getting.

Obviously they are walleyes of various sizes in Balsam and yes, there are big ones over the restricted slot of 55 cm in there.

I've caught walleyes on Balsam under the slot of 37 cm and over the slot of 55 cm in there, but many are indeed in the restricted slot of 37-55 cm

What do you mean, too big for zone 17?

Was just talking about the 53.5cm walleye that I caught. Too small to keep for Balsam and too large to keep had I caught it in any other Zone 17 lakes.