Ballston Lake -- Advise?

[BillyChuck]

I have received permission to access the southern end of the lake via a buddy who lives on it. I have never fished it, in fact, never even been on it.
Looking for any friendly info... looking to catch/release some big northerns.

Thanks in advance.

[RaCKaHoLIC518]

Try the narrows over weed beds, good luck!!

[SSmokinn SS]

pretty much the whole lake is a narrow until you get to the north end.

The lake is a Meromictic lake. One of 17 in North America, so it fished different. It has hundreds of under water caves and miles of shale cliff's. Find the ledges, and fish the edges. If you are in the north end, where its shallower, find the weedbeds. The fish mostly live deep in that lake.

I do not ice fish it, but I am a local and spend countless hours during open water season on my skeeter there.

[lakerman]

hows the pike fishing there

[BillyChuck]

Interesting fact about the "Meromictic" lake. I did some quick searching and my take is that that the lake never mixes, and there is very little oxygen at the deeper holes in that lake. So, if that is true, then I guess I would not expect fish down deep toward the bottom. So does anyone know at what depth the fish stop at? There are parts of that lake that are 90+ feet deep. I guess it will be obvious with electronics.

[combsey]

It's one of those lakes you have to go by time and trial and error.  I've had good luck shallow at the southern end 10 feetish.  Decent panfish a lot of small to average bass and some pike 20-28 inches.    I fish closer to the canoe excess point

[RaCKaHoLIC518]

Ballston lake is considered a trophy bass lake

[SSmokinn SS]

Interesting fact about the "Meromictic" lake. I did some quick searching and my take is that that the lake never mixes, and there is very little oxygen at the deeper holes in that lake. So, if that is true, then I guess I would not expect fish down deep toward the bottom. So does anyone know at what depth the fish stop at? There are parts of that lake that are 90+ feet deep. I guess it will be obvious with electronics.

At the very end of the lake its 118' deep. The funny thing is, your electronics will lie to you in this lake. Anything deeper then 40', the water is "thick". As described in past reports, its almost gel like. Your sonar will Light up with fish all day at deeper depth's, but its just all the sediment just sitting there suspended in the water column's.

Don't fish anything deeper then 40'. I personally wouldn't go deeper then 30', however if you are going for pan fish, stay to the weeds in the northern shallows, and the big boulders/ shale piles in the main lake before the narrows.

Pike fishing is not good in this lake. I have seen some monsters in the open water season, and have heard stories of northerns being caught that will blow your mind in size, but they really are not a big species in the lake to target, and they are hard to catch as their main forage are Alewifes and big gizzard shad, and fall fish.

The lake is a trophy bass lake. She is a special one.

[BillyChuck]

SSmokinnSS -- Thanks for the info, that's what I was looking for.

[SSmokinn SS]

SSmokinnSS -- Thanks for the info, that's what I was looking for.

No problem.

Pretty much along both sides of the banks in the narrows, about 15' off the banks are the ledges. They will go from 5', down to 35-50' in a 1' span. I only open water fish the lake, but if I were to ice fish I would put some big bait or jig right off the face of those ledges.

[IceNeck9292]

Ill second that it is definitely a trophy bass lake... I have grown up on this lake and is one of my favorites due to the fact that u can't just go and expect its a lake that will challange the best in u but is very rewarding ... caught that jigging the crappies and another reason I love the lake the crappies asre just monsters out of there