Fisherpete

Incredible report! Pete

You can take it right there - and they do good work. I have all my musky reels serviced there - they have the parts if any are needed... Pete

As long as I have a paper map I can do without. However I do like seeing the bottom structure in various depths. Pete

Posting GPS waypoints or a pic where somebody recognizes the background Pickereye Tiller vs console (There really is no debate, tiller rules, but for some reason it still causes heated discussion. But ask me again in December when the boat spray has frozen to my forehead again) The boat launch antics have to be my biggest pet peeve too... it's one thing if they are new at it and have some difficulties but it's another when the experienced guys take their sweet time doing stuff that should be done away from the launch! You can tie on lures LATER!!!!!

Beauty!

Ummmm is there any fish that you can't catch? Wow. Amazing photography, story telling and fish!

First decent ski for me this year @ 41 inches A couple of bonus incidental catches including a 25 inch walleye

Great start to the season!

Great report and even better pics! Did you get the muskie on one of your new lures?

Beauties!

Nice thick fish!

swamp donkey, shaker and doozer have been added to my fishvocab in recent years lol

Nice fish. Can't wait - getting out sometime next week to chase some silver.

Beauty!

He`s like 2 of me lol 6`4`` 235lbs!

Beauty of a pike!

Two outings so far - 3 skis each time but all small so far. One tiger in the mix, some decent pike and walleye. Fished more with my bro in the past month then in the past few years - good times!

I have the W45 and it works pretty well for me on my 16' Legend - but my Legend is pretty light. I get 2.5mph on full speed when it is calm out. But as others have mentioned, in wind and big chop you will probably want more juice. I have had zero issues with the wireless foot pedal - batteries in it last forever - and love the fact that I can use it anywhere in the boat. My legend has a pretty small casting deck on the front, and the fact that there is no cables to eat up that space is a bonus too. I want to buy the handheld remote for it but it is pretty pricey - $70 I think. I got a great deal on the unit - think I paid $350 on sale at LeBaron a few years ago - can't complain for that price! Pete

If I am not mistaken, different strains of muskies spawn in different areas - some in deep water, some in the shallows like pike - I would imagine the Kawartha strain spawns shallow - and the tigers coming out of Balsam probably prove this. As mentioned, maybe in the Kawartha lakes with deeper waters the muskies will adapt and spawn deeper and the two species can co-exist like they do in Gbay and certain other bodies of water. Maybe stocking of that strain in the future? I think the Darryl Choronzey comment was to suggest a solution - if he had a few pike fishing episodes filmed in the Kawarthas with his famous shore lunches the pike population would be greatly reduced lol! Pete

I wear Merrell hikers with goretex - awesome and around $150. I bought a pair of the waterproof but not goretex Merrells the year before - HORRIBLE - and almost as expensive! Waterproof is useless if it is not breathable!!! You get wet from the inside!!! Pete

I do agree that I don't think pike getting into Balsam is a good thing - but with the numbers that are in there now, I seriously doubt that anglers can fix the problem - that`s all I was saying. After reading this post yesterday, I decided to take a run up there yesterday - and in 5 rainy hours caught ten pike, nine of them in about an hour and a half window. The smallest was 25 inches, the biggest two were a 33 and a 34. Gotta tell ya, it was a blast catching them! I`m a musky diehard, and hope that they can co-exist, but only time will tell. I also caught a 20 inch walleye (slot) and a LMB. Didn`t see any skis in my travels, but then I was fishing my fave pike spots with small lures, not my ski areas. Water temps (60-61F) and weed growth are still behind - hopefully the hot weather in the next few days gets things going for opener! (I won`t be out though - stuck working ) I don`t keep a lot of fish in general, but Balsam pike do often come home with me - I eat a few, and have family and friends who love them. But I would never kill one just for the sake of killing one. I have seen locals on Dalrymple catch a pike, slit it`s throat and throw it back - and when I asked them why, they said it was to protect the walleye that they had paid for to be stocked in there. Not the way to do things in my opinion. Did someone from the MNR really say to keep or kill any pike that come out of Balsam? Maybe years ago when they were just getting reports of pike in there? I wonder if they would still say this today - can anyone find out?

As others have mentioned,pike have been in Balsam for a long time already. I have been catching them there for almost 10 years, and heard about them in there before that. It is way beyond the stage where keeping and or killing any pike catches will impact the population in the lake. I have caught pike there in numbers, and of good size out of Balsam (up to 39"), as well as many tigers (biggest 41") which are truly a beautiful fish. Tigers up to 51" have been caught in Balsam already, so again that is a testament to just how long pike have been in there. If the muskies are slow on any given day, I have several go-to pike spots that always give up a few - which keeps things interesting. In the past few years, my fishing partners and I have also continued to catch good numbers of muskies, including many smaller ones - so muskies are still successfully reproducing in Balsam. Will Balsam end up like some of the other lakes that have been overrun by pike? Maybe, but I don't think that is anywhere in the near future, or anything that anglers can really control. I say just enjoy the fishery for what it is today and leave the species control processes to experts like the MNR and MCI. One more note... big muskies like hammer handle snacks Pete

WOW!!!! That one is a Supertanker!!!

Beauties Steve! I am going to get out for pike this week... hoping to get into a few like those!

LOL Bunk!!! I can see it now... 13" Grandma with a corn on the cob hanging off each treble...