Any reports on Ball Club?

[crappieDean]

I'm looking for any reports on Ball Club, hoping to find some nice fishing there between June 6 - 9. Any tips and advice would be great. Pannies, Eyes, and Gators in that order please.

[DougMN]

Fished Ball Club last year- You can catch hammer handles all day long. Walleyes are at a bonus and panfish are not too hard to find. I do not have the patience to fish Walleye's all day long and catch 1-2 fish while I could catch a Northern on almost every cast. Most of the walleye's are also in the 12-15 inch range. I think they had a strong year class about 3-4 years ago.

Kind of a hard lake to fish- you can be sitting at 8 feet and move over 20 yards and be at 60 feet- and its like that in a good portion of the lake. Bring lots of spoons and you will have a good time in the flats near the south side of the lake.

[MuskyMark]

DougMN... ever catch (or see) any larger pike in B. Club? Been driving by the lake for years. Might want to fish it someday. If it's got some good structure and deeper water, I figured maybe some bigger pike might be lurking. Thanks.

Mark

[DougMN]

The biggest was around 4 pounds. I only fished late summer- most of the larger ones were probably quite a bit deeper than where I was at.

[nuts]

crappieDean -

I've fished that lake for better than 20 years and I'll tell you a little of what I know about that lake.

Panfish:

I've never specifically targeted them as I'm strictly after walleye and northerns there, but I know North West of the point that leads to the sunken island there is a hole in that little bay and a tremendous drop-off there. Some really nice crappies have come out of that spot.

Walleye:

The sunken island on the north end or the three rocky points on the south end have produced for me. Nothing huge (3 lbs or less), but they are there. Also, the sandbar that separates the north end from the south end is a good place to troll or drift if the wind is right. Bright orange has always been the color when it's cloudy on either a spinner or floater rig.

Northern:

This lake is absolutely FULL of hammer handles (a fish upwards of 6 pounds is a big one) but bigger ones are in there. On the NE shoreline troll a spot that they call 'The Umbrella Tree' (both of the resorts will be able to show you exactly where I'm talking about). The spot used to be marked by a big elm tree on shore that has since died, but that is a good spot for notherns. Also, troll the whole SW shoreline (on the north end) and you should have lots of luck on a bright sunny day using ANYTHING gold. Dr. Spoons, Red Eye's, and Little Joe's with a gold spinner and sucker minnow are the old stand-by. Ball Club has a good population of whitefish in it, so you could assume there are some big pike in the lake, but they're tough to find.

Perch:

You can catch perch by the hundreds here, but they usually come out wormy (little white worms in the meat). If you don't mind soaking the fillets in salt water and then skimming the worms from the top of the water, you can catch all kinds of perch.

I hope this is enough to get you started.

Good Luck!

[nuts]

crappieDean - How'd you do?

[crappieDean]

The retreat to Ball Club with the family went great. We limited out on some real nice sized crappies (10-13 inches) and the kids just had a blast. My 6 year old son and I got a bunch of northerns trolling and I was able to find a few walleyes out on the bars and sunken island. It has been a couple of weeks since we returned, but the lake produced real well for us. I would fish it again.