balsam lake

I’ve been having trouble catching crappies on Balsam this year. Usually I can find suspended fish over 29 feet of water. They start moving through around sundown. This year is different though. I’ve been to the lake 3 times now and haven’t marked but 4 or 5 suspended fish in those 3 trips. Is anyone else having this problem?

I’ve noticed the same thing on S Center. what I found is that the fish were a lot deeper. It took some time, but once we found ’em we caught ’em.

bkman Has fishing gotten any better there on Balsam,or anywhere else in that area. How thick is the ice there. Do you fish the other area lakes if so how is the ice.I like Round,Bone lake haven’t been to white ash in a long time.I usually get up that way but haven’t yet this year. Steve

I took the day off to fish Balsam last Friday and tried a new spot that I thought might have some evening walleye potential. I must have caught 30 rock bass from about 5 pm to 7:30 pm. Sometimes they would move through and I would catch 2 at a time. No walleyes to be had. I was fishing 30′ of water that was right next to a bar that came up to 7′. I did catch one crappie and one perch earlier. Both real nice fish. But only caught rock bass after that. Even caught one on a tipup with a shiner. There’s about 16 inches of ice on the lake and not a lot of snow. I haven’t fished Bone in a long time (in the winter that is). I don’t fish on Big Round much either all though I’ve heard that the fishing there was real good during early ice. I had such good luck on Balsam that I don’t even think about going anywhere else. White Ash is good for tip up action like usual and once in a while you’ll catch a big pike. The panfish action is pretty steady and you just have to sort through the small fish and wait for the big fish to move in. I caught some nice sunfish and crappies just before dark a couple weeks ago. My mistake was I left to go to Balsam and should have stayed there instead! I might try Wappogasset for some walleyes this Friday.

The fishing seems to have picked up a little bit on Balsam. I was there Saturday late afternoon and caught a few decent perch and 10 crappies that were decent. Lots of shacks moving all over the lake. No one seems to be on fish the way it looks. No walleyes though.