Plum Lake Trip (Day 4): New locations explored

Paul and I were up for Day 4 of the Plum Lake fishing trip.  We wanted to hit up some newly found weedbeds for pike and muskie.  We also wanted to check out Plum Creek, to see if we could find some panfish and/or trout.

We headed to the far eastern end for a few drifts over the weed beds. Paul started by throwing a sucker colored swim bait.  He had a second rod armed with a spinner.  I also had a large perch swimbait on my muskie rod and a red and black buzz bait on my pike rod.  The early morning drifts were very successful.  We started over a shallow point that dropped into about 8 feet of water.  With the wind blowing right, we were able to cover about 100 yards of water before we drifted across back into the shallows again.

Paul got the first fish around 6:30 on his swimbait.

Paul with his first fish on a large sucker imitating swimbait.

Shortly after, I followed him up with another northern, and he upped me with a decent sized walleye, that fell into the slot.

An always fun topwater hit from a northern pike.

Another CPR walleye that was in the slot.

As the sun rose further and the wind picked up really strong, we decided to call it a morning.

We both went home, ate breakfast, then took a long nap.  Neither of us woke up until later that afternoon.  With the winds being tough, we decided it would be a great day to do some exploring.  So, we got out our waders, hopped in Paul’s car, and headed to Plum Creek.

Paul puts on his waders as he prepares to enter Plum Creek.

We worked all areas of the creek right to where it emptied into Plum Lake.  There were not many deep pools or places for fish to hide.  We did see a few larger minnows, but were unable to identify them.  We worked it all the way back to the lake and with tired legs walked back to the car.

A narrow creek known for trout, we were unable to find any.

Standing at the mouth of Plum Creek.

Once back at the cabin, Paul and I both agreed that the fishing at Plum Lake had peaked earlier in the week.  We decided with all the immediate lakes in the area, it was time for a change of venue.  The lake we picked for the night cap was Ballard.  Paul knew that I had an itch to catch my first ever muskie, and we had heard the Ballard was a good catch lake.  We pulled the boat out of the water and made the drive over.

At arrival at Balllard, we noticed that most of the boats were coming off the lake, and that the lake would be ours.  We put in the boat, carefully drove it through the channel, and quickly headed to places where the map indicated deep weeds.  It was easy to see why ballard could be considered a good catch lake.  There was deep cabbage weed galore.  In fact, there was so much prime structure for muskies, we did not even know where to begin.  I threw a variety of muskie baits, as did Paul, but it was not going to happen for either of us tonight.  We both wanted to ensure that we did not get skunked on the trip, so we each picked up a few bass on the way back to the launch.

Paul rids the skunk of Ballard Lake by getting this largemouth bass.

The sun falls down on another day of successful fishing in the Northwoods.

While we were out on our adventure at Ballard, Grandpa nailed a good sized smallmouth with Uncle Dave back on Plum Lake.

My grandpa keeps the streak alive with 20 inch plus smallies.