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Any spots around Farmington to set up nice crayfish spots? Or any spots around here? 

Sounds great Squirt.  Good to hear you have plugs that will hit those depths, but more than likely you'll only need something in the 10-20' range...maybe even higher in the water column.  Hope you get to find out!     We also eat a few pike.  My personal slot ends at about 25-26" - everything bigger goes back - but the new NE MN limits allow harvest up to 30".  Northern nuggets are tasty, and I've never had anyone who could tell me the difference when presented side by side with walleye.  

RoseyPike 19 and all, Thank you for the tips. Very good instructions and specifics that I can see on the map. I will give these a try. For big pike I am looking for 40 inch plus.... I also like fishing the shallows as you say for the 20 - 30 as I like to eat pike. I think the fillets are the best minnesota offers. For the deep fish I have the tackle and divers to get down 30 - 40 so I will try that. You also gave me specifics around where I am staying, so I will report back on how I do.   Thanks all!

Launched out of Copas today. Got beat up by the wind pretty good. Caught an 18.5 inch largemouth, and a 17 inch walleye. Then it was a looooooong time in between fish. My son found a brief bit of success when he started jigging a small paddle tail and caught his very first sheephead. Then I had him jig one of those gulp minnow things, and he caught a 15 inch smallie. But that’s where it all ended. After we loaded everything up I threw him in the river 😂  

I'm in a group of 5 that heads to Vermilion once a year.  We'll be on the West end starting 6/13.  We're open to traveling but will be looking for walleye primarily.  I'll keep an eye on the message board, but any input for success would be appreciated.  In the past, we've had luck with crawlers and leeches, but not much with minnows.  We've had the most luck with lindy rigs and slip bobbers.  We'd like to get ahold of some crappies too if anyone has any pointers.  We're used to Mississippi River fishing so we're kind of at a disadvantage when it comes to Vermilion.  Thank you in advance!

well...........i'll be up for round #2 wed morning!!!!!!!! look out fish. last time was mainly work. did get a bit of fishing in but i was limited.

Hi Squirt,    The previous tips are all good regarding pike on Vermilion.  Find some shallow reeds/weeds and you will find some nice sized pike (Average = 20-30" with a bigger fish at times).    What is your definition of a "big" pike? The shallow program is fun and that's how I do most of my pike fishing, but overall that is not how you will find the biggest pike on Vermilion.  I'm talking East Vermilion as that's the basin I fish.  By now many of the biggest pike are suspended and feeding on ciscoes in deep water.  They will make occasional forays into the shallows to follow food (think windy days), but they spend much of their time suspended over the depths.     Several really good areas very near you have this potential: 1. The narrows between Moccasin Point and Pine Island.  You can't miss this area on a map.  There is BIG pike potential here.  2. The deep water break on the east side of Isle of Pines.  I have literally seen giant pike chasing ciscoes out of the water here (also a fantastic muskie spot).     Those two areas are a literal stones throw from your place.     How do you fish the deep water?  IDK!  Like I said, I'm a shallow pike program guy.  The few times I've done the deep suspended thing we found the bait and big hooks on sonar and then jigged 1 oz hair jigs and/or 1 oz lead heads with a white fluke.  It worked, but it was technical and tough.  If I ever do it again (maybe later this summer), I'll troll big plugs at the depth just above the fish.     Last week we had a lot of fun catching many nice pike in the shallow weeds, but our two biggest fish (including a 40"er), came on a very windy, cloudy day while fishing shallow rocky points adjacent to deep water.   Coincidence?  I think not.  So definitely take advantage of those windy, cloudy days if you expect to find a giant.  In my experience, those conditions provide your best shot a true trophy pike from shallow water.  (Of course there are some exceptions and any cast on Vermilion could land a big pike!)   Otherwise, ply the suspended depths and report back what you find.    Good luck.    

Hope I'm not too late on this report.  We were up last week (23rd-30th), and overall we had fantastic smallie fishing.  We had to adjust a bit as they were definitely more in spawn mode than most Memorial day weeks, but that just meant moving from points and secondary points towards the spawning bays and banks.  I really enjoy pre-spawn smallie fishing because they are often schooled up on the points leading into spawning areas, they are fat as heck, and they are very active - and while we had some action in this regard - we had more overall action on the banks and in the bays and saw a lot of spawned out females compared to previous years.  So I'd say about a 1/3 of our fish were pre-spawn, a 1/3 were spawn (males on beds), and a 1/3 were post spawn.  T'was all fun.     The whole month of June = awesome shallow smallie fishing, so whoever is up, good luck!  

I have one that I would sell you.  I'm on Richie Bay.

This is how my boat is.  The bow eye fits snuck right up the roller with the latch below.