Leaderboard

From your fingertips to God's ears... Finally got some snow! Several inches of new snow fell before and during the weekend. Sunday eve when we left, the high winds had already begun to create some drifting on the lake. It was fun riding for sure. Lots of folks on the lake this past weekend too. We fueled up the sleds at Shamrock and saw as many people fishing in that area as I've ever seen in the Winter on Lake Vermilion. Our weekend results were decent. Jeff and I and a buddy caught probably 50 walleyes between the three of us, mostly fishing a jig/plastics with our three biggest being 24", 25", and 25.5". We also got one large pike of unknown length. During the midday on Sunday, we targeted whitefish and Jeff managed one big one. We released all of our fish, except for three small walleyes that our buddy wanted to bring home for a meal. Definitely a fun weekend on Lake V!

9 days since my last trip to Vermilion (took a side trip into the BWCAW). Had 22 inches of ice so we added 4 more in 9 days. Water came up on the ice about 1½ inches so I had to block the house up. Travel on the lake was very good, even with my front wheel drive car. There are two main roads leaving McKinley Park landing; one on either side of the staked snowmobile trail. Either of those roads would provide good access to fishing spots, but please stay away from the snowmobile trail and pull quite a way off the plowed road to avoid flooding the road. Fishing was decent for mid January. Best bites for me were 9:00-11:20 and 3:45-4:45. All of my walleyes were 11-14 inches. I lost one about 16 inches lifting it out of the hole. Dang. Vermilion Fuel and Food didn't have rainbow chubs so I stuck with lively chubs. Didn't even try a single pike sucker that I had left from lake trout fishing. Maybe next trip up. The bonus today was a beautiful sunset. Good luck fishing and be prepared for the cold weather this weekend.

Finally made it back up to Vermilion after 20 days off. The ice out from McKinley Park was in very good condition. I walked out 5/8 mile with my portable in the morning and I didn't find any water or slush on the ice. I had 14 inches of ice with only the top 1 inch being white. The ice was a little bumpy in spots and smooth and slick in others. Snow cover was less than 50 % as shown in the pictures below, looking back at the landing and out from the bay. Many full size pickups were driving all over and there were a lot of larger wheel houses out. I hauled my small skid house out with my side-by-side in the afternoon and was very happy to be in it after dark when the wind really started to pick up. Felt bad for the portables around me that were picking up in those conditions. When I drove off just before 7pm, the drifts were getting much bigger and there was much more bare ice than earlier in the day. Fishing was quite good in the morning. Best bite was between 915 and 1045. The walleyes preferred the smaller rainbows and chubs and wouldn't touch a very large rainbow and shiner that I tried for a while. The walleyes were quite small with the biggest being only 14 inches. I did manage to catch a 29 inch northern, my biggest pike in many years. Good luck fishing, enjoy the lake, and please pick up your trash.

Used the last two days in the 30's to pull a few in up in the Longville area at a buddies cabin. Biggest was 13" Time to eat crappie chips and stay warm for the next 3 days. -23 below up here Monday night!

The fish are growing faster than expected, taking up more space

We are burdened by what has been done. Let us be unburdened and let there be ice!

It was a struggle to get the fish to bite. From the few people I talked to I did ok, but it was not up to my normal expectations. There about 10 inches in all the holes I cut today.

Spanish speaking ducks. They quack different here

Central America. Focus. We almost went for a local overnight crappie run but the daughter’s septic froze so I got to work the brown trout pond through a 4 inch hole. It was opener today afterall.

Y'all more hearty than me, enroute to central America to drink some cervesa and bag some ducks

Hopefully everyone is doing well. I haven't had a whole lot of free time this winter... Between house projects and work projects I have been plenty busy. Have managed to get out a few times this winter now. Ice conditions are definitely better than last winter. Finding 12-15 on the lakes I have been on around home. Fishing has been very good on some local lakes and pretty quiet on others. The body of water I was on yesterday, we found fish hanging on a deep portion of a back bay.

Lake conditions remain very good. Had 18 inches of ice by my house, so added 4 inches of ice in the 5 days since I was last out. The ice was more than 90% bare. Pickups were driving all over. I even drove my small car out to the house. With the lack of snow cover, I assume that the rest of the lake is in very good travel conditions. Fishing was very good but they were quite small. The biggest I caught was only 16 inches. The rest of the walleyes were 10-13 inches. Best bite was from 830-1000. I finally managed to catch an eye after dark (the 16 incher at 5pm) and fished late enough to catch an 18-inch eelpout (yuck). That was the signal to call it a day. Good luck fishing, be careful on the ice and courteous to others. And please pick up your trash.

What a way to ruin fish with panko!

Yeah, I get the Prevent Defense technique and hate it too. If the D has been “preventing” the first 3 quarters, why not just stick with what works?

Merry Holidays to you all too! Thanks for the holiday wish! The wife and I pulled some Christmas Day crappies up to 13 inches this afternoon.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Merry Christmas guys I hope you all catch some monster fish!!

merry christmas/ happy holidays to all you fellers!!!!!!!!!!!

The boat is just a mode of transportation. We motor out to the spot, set decoys, then sit in chairs in the catails and dich the boat down the shore

Well got it put together and the wife was happy to help me.

Also I don't care if it froze right now, I won't have to deal with it until the 27th. It was 93 here today

My line froze last winter so I was getting water from the lake to flush the toilet. For about a week then I dug the yard up and used a heat gun. I wrapped an electric coil around it this winter.

Um, hello. I seem to remember a weekend at a camper in Ely with no working biff. I handled things just fine. Not new to the outdoors kids!

We had a septic “company” out yesterday. Basically a young entrepreneur with a steam jetter n stuff in a trailer. Well, he let his stuff get froze up before he got there. I tried setting him up to thaw his stuff but he didn’t seem too committed. Said he’d go home, take care of it, come back tomorrow. Well my old dude patience ran out about 9am. Took my thawed and warm hoses, connected to the blow down valve on the water heater and cleared that line out. Dropped a bunch of insulation on it, told the kid to run some hot water every once in a while till we warm up. It sucked but it certainly wasn’t that hard. I fear for our old man safety when we can’t just take care of it anymore.

Last time we had that up at a friend's cabin. He shoved his wifes hair dry on High down the hole went in and made breakfast. Open by lunch!

Very nice one man house. The straight front wall makes much more useable area than if it was slanted. I got one two years ago but only have used it a few times. An extra pair of hands are handy when attaching the skin to the tub. Going to get it down from the shelf in the garage and it will reside in the back of my truck the rest of the season.

I don't bring them back, eat a lot then clean them for the village. Some like them plucked and some like the breasts cut out. It's really remote where I go and the locals live off the land. I know they want me to go get some doves for them too. My buddy is a local so we'll probably go get a deer as well for some venison for some of the elders in the community

Tried Pearl lake today. Had fish in every hole I drilled. Just not active. Only one nice sunfish that fell off at top of the hole. Several very small perch and sunnies. Did land a huge bass that was a challenge on light line. 15-18 inches of ice. Sounds like a cold day Saturday coming up. I'll be at the annual Eden Valley sportsman fishing contest.

This was our overnight, last night. The smaller perch were kept because of barotrauma.

Oh man, sorry. It all happed so fast I didn’t even think of it till it was too late… I’m contemplating my selfishness over a bowl of Quaker Oats Maple and Brown sugar (made with milk), fresh ground Caribou coffee with half and half, and Second Harvest wheat toast with Gunflint Trail WILD Blueberry jam. I will try to not talk about food again without photo backup.

Well I crushed the walleyes on Mille Lacs lol ! My friend and I caught like 20 each, BUT the biggest was 17 1/2 and the smallest was 3 inches. We also end up with 10 jumbo perch. This was on Sunday we tossed a few 9-10 inch perch back. I would say 95 % the eyes were from 7-14. ice was 15 inches and growing. Bring cleats as there is no snow to speak of.

Hate to say it but peace and quiet is not all bad. Even on New Years eve. Oh crap, wife is dragging me to her sister house. Happy New Years everyone.

@smurfy those deer river workers are union workers, Im a scab working further north. We gave our nurses like a 16%-19% raise this year. They're not union, they're kind, they're good and we appreciate them and take care of them, they've never felt the need to unionize

Sure is wet out there. We’re monitoring area lakes; some guys want to get their big houses out really bad but are rightfully leery about the conditions for it. I saw a tandem axle house out on Christmas Day though, and would feel OK about getting one out with a dolly and wheeler. We might go out for an afternoon bite - those first crappies were de-lish in the beer batter. But really just focusing on maintenance of everything this weekend before going north for a 4-5 day run, hopefully on Winnie next week. Depends on if and where we can get out. Stepping up to a tandem axle house has its drawbacks for sure. The goal is to pack everything, including the spearing gear. I don’t think I can stay put in the house for that many days straight. Of course, if the rattle reels rattle and line alarms sing all night, it’ll be easy for me to talk myself out of doing much but napping a lot! Good luck all!

lol! Good one! I did grill a section of venison hind quarter that I normally cut into steaks though. No BBs or bullet frags were found - that I know of! This stuff disappears fast from the serving table. Marinade injected with some rub on the outside. Grilled MR and sliced for serving after the rest.

Correct, I'm on a 96 hr shift now, obviously I can sleep if there's no patients but it's not guaranteed. Wash those hands folks! Plenty of covid, influenza and norovirus going around. I'm not afraid of any of those viruses currently but who wants to get sick?

Merry Christmas too all!!

How bout da grill,? Couldn't find it Grilled pike. Kinda like poor man lobster... only more gooder!

How about it’s not just Coke in there?

So sorry… for turning your crappie thread into a sheetshow….. I thought it was as much about the deep freeze but I could’ve been numb to your point. I know; I can be cold at times…. Anyway happy MLK day!

Just got a picked up a clam legend XT Ice Team and am going to put it together today

yea he failed us when the Vikes played the Lions....he shoulda went big with turkey legs!!!!! he could maybe redeem himself with them today though!!!!!!!

Leech~~ Please show us your playoff wings. Please…. This is about as serious as I’ve ever been about the Vikings.

Not much snow on the lakes and cold Temps, was on big water tonight and got 5 walleye, 16 inches of ice, drove the little Honda truck all over the lake

Venny neck roast!!

We (my wife mainly) are monitoring the pages of the big three pretty closely. Not Mille Lacs though - we don’t go to the big one closest to us - haha. We’re still shooting for Winnie tomorrow but might have to shift to Red if we can’t get out there yet. Spent all day going through gear. Bought a ton of bait. Sharpened my spears and saw. Way too much gear. I also found out I forgot 1 ciscoe in my long rod box from my Ontario trip in March. Gaaggggghhh. Everything out, washed with Dawn in hot water and set out to dry. Still stinks but not like a punch in the nose stink. And like me, after a long weekend fishing, after awhile I hardly notice the smell anyway.

Just like the Twins in 87 and 91. One game at a time. I think with KOC they have a good shot. Besides it's a rebuild year according to the experts at the beginning of the year.

Hope everyone's Christmas was great. I had 28 at our house. Very nice time.

What you talkin about willis!

I think I heard Wanderer was making Christmas Goose this year. https://www.facebook.com/reel/973837851266798