Tuesday June 16th

Hello Sportsfans…  And welcome to the most recent here in the region with 14,000 island and a fish around each corner!  (Lake of the Woods)

What’s new at Ballard’s Black Island?  It’s June and we’re crankin!  As in multi-species with lots of sun and fun…

Walleyes have been good up in Miles and over west by Boomer.  Even hearing of a few sneaking down by Dawson for a peek.  Water clarity remains decent, which is a bonus, for ol’ marble eyes.  Most action coming off the points and shorelines.

Undoubtable, this has been the best “big fish” start to our spring season.  Lots of “overs” make for some fantastic catch and release action.  And the overall action has been quite good.  Plenty of year-classes present in the fishery.  A good sign for now and the future!

The Pikers have been more random.  Some shallow, but many coming off a jig and minnow, random catch while fishing walleye.  Go figure?!

One group in camp, the Fleming boys, did manage to sneak up to O.L., and the three of them boated sixty plus on a less than spectacular weather day.  Wind and cold, but they managed to boat 100-plus greens.  Imagine what the count would have been if it were a nice day!!

Bass bass bass…  Bass on the crunch.  When will our lake be named:  “Smallmouth Capital of the World”?  Wow!  What a resource.  And right now the bass are certainly living up to their reputation.

The Webb gang was in camp last week.  Tremendous guys…  Great fishermen…  And, well, let’s just say, “THEY CRUSHED ‘EM”!  Leave the island (BBI) in pretty much any direction and find a shoreline to cast.  You will catch huge smallmouth bass.  Good times!

The musky gig?  We drop the official green flag this coming Saturday.  Big toothy critters.  Get your bucktails ready.

June is jam packed with action.  So many fish to chase and so many shorelines to fish.  Sure is fun trying!!

Set the hook,

The Gang At BBI

www.BlackIsland.com

Ontario’s Lake of the Woods

 

Saturday May 30th

Hello Sportsfans – welcome to the (Just a Swingin’ / John Anderson) latest and greatest here at Ballard’s Black Island. Swingin’, as in rare-back, and let fly with your fishin’ rod! It’s spring and it’s go time on Lake of the Woods.

What’s new and exciting for week one here at BBI? Grand-Slams… Grand-Slams… Grand-Slams… Grand-Slams… Get the pic?!

Yep, we are up on the shorelines, casting until we just can’t cast one more time, and we’re catching multiple species in doing so. The Poepl’s, the Sanders’, and the Kleinke’s all joined us during our opening week (thanks much gang!) and we pretty much gave the fish a run for their money. Good times!

What’s hot? Shallow shorelines. A mix of rubble rock, sand beaches, and huge boulders. Check ’em out.

As you cast-cast-cast your way down a shoreline, you just never know what might lashout at your lure. As mentioned it’s been a Grand-Slam mixer. Bass, walleye, pike, and the accidental / it’s not open season yet / musky. We’re seeing a mix of everything…

Preferred baits? The jig and minnow combo bodes well forwalleye anytime and all the time on L-O-Dub. But right now you can also catch ’em on a spinner bait, crank bait, plastic tube, inline spinner, or grub. The same goes for your bass and pikers. And occasionally you bump into the misplaced (out of season) musky.

As the spring continues to get sprung… Shoreline action will only continue to HEAT UP!

Can anyone say: “Boomstick”

See you on the big pond. Check out our Ballard’s Black Island / Facebook Page / More new photos and comments.

Set the hook!!11053485_735587189884131_7839829399864522209_n

Season Wrap Up

Hello Sportsfans… And welcome to the latest and greatest here on Ontario’s Lake of the Woods!

We’ve wrapped up the 2014 summer season at BBI (Ballard’s Black Island). Now let’s have a fall recap for September and October.

Have you ever wondered about our fall fishing and hunting opportunities? Well… Here are some first-hand accounts of what we experienced.

Gosh… Let’s see… Where to start… The first couple weeks of September brought about some big weather changes. Unseasonably cool, wet, and windy probably sums it up best. But, resoundingly, the fishing held on with the ups and downs of the barometer. Specifically the musky fishing.

It seemed as though the “casting presentation” went later than normal into this fall. Steve C’s group… Mike M’s group… Nik F’s group… Most chased musky by casting big baits well into mid month and the results were positive. Quite a few sightings and some decent fish boated. We didn’t have anyone crack a 50+ this fall, but there were some good mid-40’s held in front of the camera’s.

Are you wondering about the fall walleye run? Sure. Let’s talk. On a scale of one to ten (ten being the best) we could honestly rate the action somewhere around an average of A- to A to A+. It was pretty darn impressive. Just tremendous numbers of fish providing moments of non-stop action.

We’ve probably beat the drum on Boomstick and the west end of the Sunset enough this summer season, but boy was it good this fall. Anytime you can boat 150-200 walleyes in a single day we would rate that as A+ angling on LOW (Lake of the Woods). Wally’s group was in on that action… Along with Mike C and Dwight L who also had groups enjoying the show.

And how about that run we had in the Comegan?! Whoa! We camped in that channel with Karl K’s group… Kurt G’s group… Lonny’s group… It was a spectacle. Talk about wind and walleyes hey guys!

Beyond the walleye and the musky, which held the majority of our fall focus, there was also some minimal time spent chasing smallmouth bass and northern pike.

When Fletch’s group rolled in on their late Sept trek we were more than ready to try those bass on the reefs. Right out in front of camp… And boy did we pound em. Big ‘ol brute bronzebacks. We were jiggin tubes and twisters on the tops and it was a free-for-all. Good times. And there was a 19-incher ( about 4 ½ pounds) that highlighted the day.

Autumn is such a great time to jig those smallies…

As the season rolled to October it really became a “multi-jigging season” for all species including those monster pike. More times than not when you’re fishing the points and deep channels that’s where you’ll find those toothy critters also chasing prey. You can be innocently jigging away for walleye, and then all of a sudden BOOM!! A twenty pound pike crushes your jig.

That’s part of the excitement with the fall fishing… You never know what’s going to bite next!!

What else might you expect in the fall? Well, so much to do and so little time as it seems. We jigged, as mentioned above, about every specie swimming including some dandy crappie and perch. There was bear hunting, duck hunting, cool night bonfires on the beach, and just about everything in between.

It’s hard to do it all in September / October, but we certainly tried! And as we left the island for the year, you can be assured that there will be many more great adventures in the seasons ahead.

Set the hook!

WALLEYES

Walleyes are going literally gangbusters on the rubble points and shorelines. Crazy crazy crazy!! It’s been just a total numbers game. And with fall coming why wouldn’t it just keep getting better!! Gosh, let’ see, so many groups having 100+ fish days. Where can we pinpoint? Well, Miles has been pretty decent. But Boomstick is still quite good. And then there’s always the Peninsula to cruise along points. Here’s a sleeper! Late afternoon yesterday Wally and I snuck out at about 430p and fished the NW side of Ballard’s Black Island. Jigged a shiner minnow in 14-21 feet of water on a rubble shelf. Caught over 25 walleyes (largest was 25 inches), caught about 12 dandy perch (largest was 13 inches), and then boated one very angry pike (was probably a fifteen pounder). And we did ALL OF THAT in about an hour and a half. How’s that for catching fish within eyesight of the island!!

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd

Sportsfans hello from your friends at Ballard’s Black Island.  It’s been a couple of weeks so let’s get everyone up to speed.

 

The last two weeks in August proved to be very much “Lake of the Woods-ish”.  Meaning?  Yep, we got em.  And we’re talking walleyes by the boat loads, monster muskies ripping at rods, and bass and pike to go with.  We can quote Bernie (recent guest) when he said: “it’s seems like every island you go around, you catch fish!”

 

There are 14,000 islands on LOW.  And oh so many places to catch fish.

 

What’s the latest and greatest?  Well, yes, September is upon us.  Transition time if you will.  But there really haven’t been many changes lately.