Hansel lake near Dalton

[gooseroller]

Anyone know what the deal is with this lake? It comes up real close to the road but no access. Can you legally access from the road right of way?

[Gissert]

Back in the late 80's I fished it from the right of way. Caught a lot of small walleyes and have not been back since.

I cant vouch for the legality of launching a boat nowadays.

[Elkaholic80]

They were accessing the lake last year from the road right away, but I heard the lake winter killed last year.

[gooseroller]

It is a pretty deep lake, and I believe that there is a creek that flows through it

[Kellc1]

Howdy - I live just south of there about 15 miles. Fished it from a boat back in the 80's - private access, no longer available. Not sure if you can access it from a road or not. The small creek that flows through it is actually the Pomme De Terre river. From there it makes its way over to Rose Lake which also does not have access. Doubt that it would have froze out last year (or any other year) being a river lake, and fairly deep. I want to say it has over 30 ft. I know I would like to see the largest sunny and crappie in it.

KC

[Gissert]

I think you guys are speaking of Hanson, not Hansel. Hanson is just east of CR #39 and has the Pomme de Terre running thru it. I have fished and hunted it a lot over the years, but not much in the last five. You are correct that there is no public access. It is 30-35 feet deep and has never frozen out to my knowledge. There is good steady water flow through that probably supplies enough oxygen.

Hansel is south of 94, northeast of Ten Mile Lake. A county road runs along it. I dont know if it has any creeks going in or out. In the mid 80's we used to get a lot of smallish walleyes there. No public access here that I am aware of, but the lake does butt up against a county road.

[Elkaholic80]

I'm not sure where Hanson Lake is but I was refering to Hansel. Last year there were guys driving off the county road onto the ice. Last report I got last year there were dead sunfish floating up the holes. There still might be fish in there but I've never went to check for myself.

[Gissert]

I bet Hansel would be a frequent candidate for winterkill. I've always wondered if those walleyes we caught years ago were left overs from a brood pond.

Elkaholic - are you a RMEF member?

[Elkaholic80]

Gissert

I'm not sure how the walleyes got in the lake a brood pond would be my guess.

Yes I am a RMEF member.

[Gissert]

Are you a committee member? I am on the Battle Lake Committee.

[Elkaholic80]

I am not a RMEF committee member, I know a couple of guys who are committee members in Battle Lake.

[Kellc1]

OK - my bad. I was thinking of a small lake just north of Dalton. Hansel is in fact south of I-94, and does not have the Pomme De Terre running through it. It is east of south 10 Mile lake. I know this young man and his best friend, who would go to 10 Mile in the spring and catch their limit of crappies, but never brought them home. One winter, I was driving past Hansel (I do not normally drive that way) and was surprised at the number of vehicles parked on the road. I stopped and talked with an old timer, who showed me his bucket of very nice crappies. He said everyone was hammering them. So the young man that I mentioned had moved away, and I called him and asked him "Just how many crappies did you and Jay put into Hansel Lake over the years anyway? To which he replied, "maybe 400-500"!!! Oh boy. This would have been over a 3-4 year period, and a few years had passed. Needless to say, over the next few weeks there were 30-40 vehicles parked on the road. They cleaned the lake out of crappies that winter. It was sad. Some of the locals were taking buckets full, and making 2-3 trips a day. I think people thought "They aren't supposed to be in there anyway, so lets catch all we can."

Anyway, last year was a sunfish bite, and it was pretty similar, only there wasn't any snow, so people were driving out there. No one is fishing it this year.

[tacklebox7FF]

hansel it is....west of ten mile, right off the interstate..about 6 years ago it got fished pretty hard for two years and very few people had very good luck out there after that...since then. I've rairly seen very many people fish that lake anymore.. it's deep enough where it won't winterkill.. well at least for the years I've drivin by or heard it hasn't..some people claim or start rumors about that so no one will go out there.. you know that kinda thing.. I don't know how that lake would be now..I haven't heard of anyone being out there.