Anyone been here lately?

Thinking about trying to sneak away for a day this weekend. Anyone been here recently? Fished is a couple of times last year, and have a tourney in August. Just wondering!

Steve,

I wasn’t at Balsam, but, last Saturday, 6/19, my brother, son and I went to Deer Lake, just a few miles to the west, right on Rt 8, and knocked the fish dead!

Initially, my brother and I were thinking pike and musky, having heard that Deer is a superb muskellunge body. We cast some gigantic sticks and spinners, to no avail.

My son, 7, just learned how to cast a rod two months ago, is still pretty green and was having problems getting his big jointed Rapala to go more than 15 feet from the boat without creating a huge bird’s nest. We switched strategies and started targeting bass and smaller.

Dropping pieces of nightcrawler and whole walleye minnows beneath bobbers, we must have caught 80 fish! Tons of small-to-decent-sized bass, a truckload of rock bass, pumpkinseeds; bluegills galore and a few fat perch. We had a blast! We were in the many bays on the north side of the north side of the lake in anywhere from 4.5 to 12 feet of water. My son was just reeling ’em in like Daddy did the chicks when he was in college!

My brother, recently moved back from ten years in Alaska, even busted out the fly rod and caught several bluegills and one nice bass on a bumblebee popper.

The public boat ramp is on the northwest side of the lake and I’m sorry I don’t remember road names. My brother was driving! The lake is completely surrounded with private home and cabins.

One other thing about Deer Lake: virtually no recreational traffic. There was one boat pulling a skier and we saw one PWC. A couple of pontoons, but this lake was very quiet for a late June Saturday. Temps were in the low 70’s, so maybe it was not an indicator of how truly busy it can be, but, that day, there were only a handful of boats fishing it.

One thing I gotta warn you about, though, and I hate to do it, but, we bought minnows, leeches and nightcrawlers from a bait shop right on Rt 8, near the west end of the lake. Don’t remember the name of the place, but I do remember that the nightcrawlers were skinny, sickly and near death. Also, the minnows were very slim, on the small side and not very active. Same with the leeches. Yeah, we could have checked the crawlers before we left, but I think we all get into the habit of trusting our bait vendors. It’s definitely “buyer beware” there. I believe there is a much better bait shop a mile or two down the road toward St. Croix Falls.

Regardless, we had a terrific day on Deer Lake and will be back! Look for us in the red Lund, 25 hp Evinrude, with University of Northern Iowa stickers on it! Toss us a beer, or we’ll do the same for you.

All the best! Safe fishing to all!

Cap’n Cat

I haven’t been to Balsam since the hard-water season, where we did very well on pike. I did go to Long lake last weekend, just a few miles from Balsam – near Loveless. There’s a new public launch that was very nice, and other than the kids fishing from the pier, we had almost no competition.
We fished around docks for bass and crappies and did very well. Small rapalas and spinners brought in the bass – I caught 7 that were pushing 2 pounds or heavier and we ended up keeping 15 crappies, which fell to jigs & crappie minnows.
I echo the thoughts on the bait shop though – I’m assuming we’re talking about the same place, right off of 8 – the leaches/minnows we bought were pathetic…it was pretty frustrating, but at least it didn’t ruin the day!

Good luck if you go, let us know how you do!