Annual Trip to Big Balsam Camp

[dfv87]

Anybody got a water level, temp, weed report for Balsam? We head up June 13 for the best week of my year... Got the wheelers ready and getting the boat revved up also. We always have a great time in the area but would like to know what to expect in terms of fishing conditions... Any input appreciated.

[JigNPlastic]

dfv87,

 

As of last week the lakes off of old Scenic were in the low 60's with weed growth just starting to establish true weed lines.  The bull rush points weren't fully established yet but the pan fish were up shallow doing their thing.  I could definitely tell the difference between the days after warm nights and the days after colder nights.  The warmer nights produced a good shallow bite, while the cold nights produced days of tougher and deeper fishing.  Pretty basic patterns this time of year.

 

I will be up starting June 15th, so if you you get time to shoot off a report from the 13th or 14th I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Have fun,

 

Tim

 

[dfv87]

I will try but we "unplug" when up there and I do the bare minimum of email/web/cell phone stuff. That is the beauty of it IMO. Thanks for the info. I will report for sure when we get back on the 20th.

[JigNPlastic]

Totally understand where you are coming from.  I don't quite get that luxury but for the most part the phone is just used for weather and trolling speeds.  Good luck and maybe we will bump into getting ice cream at the local gas station.

 

 

[dfv87]

Oh yeah we go get the ice cream... I have 4 kids so yeah we go for mega cones at the gas station! Too bad the one stopped selling them... hope they start again.

[dfv87]

2 days from now I will be reclining in a lawn chair with a beer at the cabin... CANNOT WAIT!

[dfv87]

Leaving work early to go home and repack everything again to make sure we have it all... This time tomorrow I will be in full relax mode hopefully. See you all in a week or so...

Later

Dale 

[dfv87]

Well we are back from another stellar week at Big Balsam Camp... Gordy and Jackie are great hosts and the weather was fabulous!

Pike were the hit of the week with plenty of Eaters and more slot fish than ever before (24"-36" must go back) Big fish was just over 36" with 2-34" and 1 33"... SO much fun to catch nice pike for the kids. However, pike were also a pain for panfish fishing as I tied on 20+ jigs this week from bite offs (and kids in the lily pads)... Crappies were smaller this year but plentiful sunnies were tough. (we chose not to work beds... although I think they were up there).

Great week overall and the countdown to 2016 has already started.

PS, Went with the standard Chocolate Ice cream cone this year... kids went with Black Cherry and cookie dough. All very solid choices.     

[JigNPlastic]

Great to hear you guys had a blast, we too had a great Pike fishing week on all the lakes we tried off of the old scenic.  This was an amazing bass fishing week and that took away a lot of my attention from the crappies that I normally like to target.  Bass were a bit deeper and responded much better to a 'do nothing' approach versus an aggressive approach of course very opposite for the pike.  Big gills were quite plentiful as well, we also stayed away from the beds but saw a lot of them guarding while I kayaked in the shallows.  Snicker swirl was the top Petrich's ice cream choice of the week followed by bubble gum for the kids.

Have a good one,

 

Tim

 

[dfv87]

Snickerswirl looked good but I have great memories of chocolate ice cream cones as a kid and it still resonates for me... We did not target bass at all this year as the pike fishing kept my twin boys (10 yrs old) and my daughters (13 & 17) interested due to the fast action. We caught a handful crappie fishing and some casting for pike but we did not target them... so little time to do it all in a week... With the advent of the 4 wheelers becoming a bigger part of our trip, I spend less time on the water. Still the best week of the year.  

[dfv87]

Anybody confirm Balsam was Lake of the week in Outdoor news in early july??? I would love to get a copy of the story and photos if possible I looked on line but alas I am not really good at finding anything on line... any help would be appreciated.

[JigNPlastic]

I am heading up tomorrow and my uncle usually keeps those issues for me to read so I will check and let you know.  I would be very interested in it as well seeing that Balsam is so close to our cabin.

 

[daydreamer]

I had the issue and can confirm that it was the lake of the week.  I already gave it to my dad however.  The one thing I took from it was that they stopped stocking the lake.  Good sized norther population with the slot in place.  Very close to our cabin as well and winter fish it from time to time.