Smaller lakes in Grand Rapids, Bovey, Balsam, and Marcell area!

[Mr. 5 pounder]

I've been going up to the areas mentioned for 20 plus years now and ended up buying a cabin in the Bovey area. Looking to hear and share some fishing reports about the surrounding lakes. Never keep much besides some pesty northerns and panfish (which are plentiful) for the occasional lunch. So, I highly respect the area, but if you know the area at all, you will never be able to fish all its lakes in a lifetime... so some well informed fishing reports is always welcome. Again, I emphasize "smaller lakes," because the bigger ones (Jessie, Round, Wabana, etc) all have fishing reports available. Post if you're interested and lets get a good conversation going. 

[Patchesohuly]

Just was up at Johnson lake for the last week located right off hwy 38 in Bigfork. Had some slow days but caught a decent amount of Northern and a Walleye. At most, there was only one boat out on the lake at the same time as I was so it’s a nice quiet place. 

[gunner55]

Welcome Patches!

[Mr. 5 pounder]

Thanks for the input, Patches and good to hear you did well in the area.

 

Johnson lake is a memorable one for me. I fished there for the first time about two years ago around the last week of June and as soon as we drove past Frontier my pin clip for the boat trailer fell off. Never found out why and never happened again, but I noticed it gone at the launch. I was with a buddy of mine and my father, and I told them to just troll near the launch while I went back to look for the clip. After about 15 more minutes I found it in the middle of road, right outside Pine Cone Cafe.

 

By the way, it was overcast with the occasional sprinkle, but the sun would spill out as well. When i got back to the launch I noticed my two fisherman pals where not eager to come pick me up. In about 20 minutes they caught 3 walleye trolling spinners in about the 10-12 foot weed line outside of the launch.  We kept one feeling we were deserving giving the circumstance, but as soon as I got in the boat luck failed us again. We trolled the whole lake and only caught one more on the east side. The weather kept getting better which was probably the reason, but it seems like Johnson is like most likes in the area... where if there is a hot walleye bite its not going to last too long. 

 

My Dad went out on Burrows the other day and got nothing too exciting besides northern while fishing the same tactic.  Thats one of our "go tos," but Im currenty not in the area, but getting there soon. Hopefully i bring better reports come as well.

 

Good Luck

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Mr. 5 pounder

[Mr. 5 pounder]

Going to try Lil Bowstring and potentially North Star for some bigger size fish this week. History has showed me numbers at lil bowstring for what I target (walleyes) and what I dont target (Rock Bass), but never catch anything too big. So, hopefully after a morning  to gain some confidence I was going to head to North Star for the evening bite and try my luck for bigger size fish. Only fished that a couple of times and had a Muskie chase my spinners in a couple of times, as well as some break off with bigger northern, but havent had too much luck with Walleye. Any spots to recommend or tactics would be appreciated. Thanks

Edited June 9, 2020 by Mr. 5 pounder

[CraigcTN]

Where can I find the wabana fishing reports mentioned in the first comment? Thank you.