Balsam Lake fishing

Looking to fish Balsam Lake this weekend but have never been on it during the winter. Just wondering if anyone has any fishing reports thus far or any advice as to where to head out on the lake. Bringing some friends that aren’t huge fishermen so a spot with walking distance to a bar I think they would appreciate. Thanks

I know they have been fishing walleyes with tip-up by the beach (about 500yds from the beach) which is within walking distance to the bar, I haven’t seen people driving on the lake yet other than with wheelers, but all I can tell you is the “narrows” that run between the main lake and east balsam is the one place you never want to drive a vehicle, every year there is at least one person that thinks it’s a great idea to drive through there and put their vehicle in..

To get to the beach: If you take hwy 8 to 46N into balsam lake, then take a right onto Cty Rd I go one block, take a left onto Mill street and it goes down a decent sized hill right down to the beach.. if you continue on that road it brings you right back up to 46 and the bars are right there (back to the south, one is Top Spot and the other is Angler’s), I also suggest Thirsty Otter it’s on the south side of cty rd I, just to the east of the beach, great bloody mary’s and I don’t remember what it’s called but they have a burger with wild rice and cheese in it that is “AMAZING!!”

If you need bait, continue on hwy 46N, it comes to a four-way but you will want to be in the right turn lane and continue on hwy 46 to the north… Go about 1 mile and you will see the lake on the right hand side, after the lake is the 46 Store, they have bait and tackle there…

If you are gonna be picking up waxies though I would suggest stopping by the wal-mart in St Croix Falls (on hwy 8), They sell 36 for $1.96, the stations around here have been pretty spendy on waxies and for only 24.. Hope that helps a little…

Just talked to a buddy who fished there Fri. & Sat. The were right off the beach/no wake area. They got a few keeper gills and pumpkinseeds and several small bass keeping one each day. There was about 8 inches of ice, one guy was driving on it. Fri. was better than Sat. Didn’t fish Sunday. Also they got 5 inches of snow on Sat. night. Not sure what that may do to the bite.

any word on how the ice is on the west side of balsam?

Could have been the weather or the fact that I didn’t go out as far as I’d like to, but was about 300yds from the beach today, had a good 10″ of ice, was out four hours, jigged with both crappie minnows and waxies, had four tip-up outs, caught a bass on one of the tip ups and the northern on my jig pole with the minnow.. No gills or crappies though.. Tip ups were a lot of work today with all the blowing snow.. I’ll check out the west side tomorrow and let ya know…

east balsam was a dead zone today, in 5 hours only saw one fish caught, a 13″ largemouth.

Well hit up the west side of Balsam (off the 46 landing) went out about 500yds, drilled holes from basically 20yds from shore out to the middle, had a good solid 8-10″ of ice out in the middle, nobody driving out there yet other than on wheelers.. Had four tip ups out set at varrying depths and caught a whole lot of nothing.. Not even one flag had two jig poles out and not a thing.. Don’t know what the Barometric pressure was today or the fact that it’s almost full moon stage.. (Looking for something to blame the shutout on) Did take a drive around the lake (minus E Balsam) lots of people driving out north of paradise and saw one person drove out from the beach with a full size SUV.. Quite a few permanent shacks out north of Paradise.. Gonna check that are out tomorrow and let ya know what I find… Hopefully something, was quite disappointed today but glad the weather was at least nice to sit out there and not catch anything..

Thanks to everyone for the updates on Balsam. I have talked to other people fishing lakes around Balsam and it sounds like everywhere is pretty slow. This weather is crazy! We will probably be fishing out there this Saturday hopefully we have some luck.

Well maybe I’ll see ya out there… I’ll probably be the only girl out there in red ice armour… and the only one that’s too scared to drive my durango out there

I hit up BL today north-east of paradise.. Only caught a 13″ bass and two 18″ pike.. No pan fish whatsoever.. I did see a lot of people going around the corner towards east balsam and to the west of sunny-side.. Took a ride on the wheeler around the point and it was perm shack city.. They are driving out on it.. only a good solid 10″ of ice, but lots of water on it late this afternoon… Gonna try out west of sunny side tomorrow..

Sounds like your workin for your fish that you do get, i’m hoping to get up that way towards the end of the week, tks for the reports and good luck!

Anyone one been fishing up by webb lake area????

Fishing out here hasnt been fantastic for me this year. Have tried all of my usual spots without anything really producing…anyone else having the same problem?

the days I was out in east balsam were incredibly slow, that was a week or two ago.