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He doesn't post here much anymore, but I want to give a big thanks to Cliff. Most of you don't know, but I volunteer as the director of the Minnesota Outdoor Adventure Foundation. We are a 501c3 non-profit that provides fishing & hunting adventures for kids & young adults with life-threatening illnesses, as well as combat disabled veterans. Cliff has donated a day on the water to our annual fundraiser every year. In addition, we just provided a Vermilion fishing trip for a young man that is battling cancer for the 2nd time and going through a very difficult treatment. Cliff was one of 3 guides that took him out fishing and he told me they had the most fun listening to Cliff's stories and caught the most fish with Cliff. Thank you Cliff!! You have truly helped make a difference.

Hey guys! Thanks, I really appreciate it. The response to this fish has been completely overwhelming to me. I never expected it to get so much attention. USA Today, FoxNews, Reuters, BBC, New York Post, ABC, just name a few. Then to see it on the top fold of the front page of the Strib was crazy, not many outdoor stories make that section. Although I said I think i'm done Ice fishing in the video, I know there are bigger ones out there and guess who was out on the ice until midnight again last night. :) I just love being out there and spending time fishing with friends. The fish are always a bonus and landing that fish was a team effort. Most of those fishing friends were made right here on FM. This site will always hold a special place inside me. So many great memories. So awesome to see this Sturgeon fishery rebound and become a resource for everyone in MN to enjoy, and to be completely honest, as fun as it is to now hold the record, I hope it keeps getting broken again and again. That means we are doing something right.

This cold spell has really slowed things up this spring. The past several days have had non-stop wind, rain(all day yesterday), and cold. Miserable conditions for people who wait 6 months to enjoy the soft water. Today, however, the wind let up, the rain stopped, and the temperature was more hospitable, and those boats that were so prevalent on the opener, well, maybe not quite as many but, they're back! The water temp has been holding pretty steady at 48.9-50.9 degrees. I'm hoping the warmer weather that's coming will bring the water temp up to at least mid to high 50's. I've got a bucket full of leeches that are climbing the sides to go fishing. Low 60's should be just about perfect. My wife joined the outing this morning and we started off on the far east end of the lake. 48.9 degree water. Cherry Island had ~12 boats and the spots on the south side of Ely Island all had a few boats. We started off in Armstrong Bay in 27' and fished as shallow as 15'. There were several boats on the "spots" but we had zilch luck unless you count watching 2 bald eagles on a date. I did mark a few fish but no biters. We moved over to a deep shoreline and fished the 24'-35' contours with no luck. A half dozen other boats were working the same shoreline a short ways off but we saw no netting activity. There was an armada of boats on the "S" curve this morning. There is a 25' hole on the western end and most of them were in the shallow water in front of it. There were several boats in portage bay but nothing like opening day. My wife and I tried a small bay on our way around the north side of Pine Island. The deepest surrounding water is 25' and we started there and worked into the bay up to ~16'. The bottom is mud and I marked fish from 21'-16'. The fish were scattered but we managed to land both walleyes and jumbos using our "go to" 3/4oz bouncers, 3' 10# fluorocarbon leader, and red bead and hook. Chubs were our minnow of choice this morning. I stopped by Shamrock and picked up minnows a couple days ago. Randy's gorilla rainbows scared me off with this cold water and I opted for chubs instead. It was a good choice and they worked as promised We kept enough fish for dinner. Now, if you read this post and try to glean info for your next trip, just remember, most of the spots that myself and others write about are "proven". To go out and randomly find "the" spot on a lake the size of Vermilion is pretty tough when conditions are like they are now and you're trying to make things happen on a week or two week vacation. I went to specific "spots" this morning where I have had success in the past and there was nothing random about it. If I were going to fish here for the first time, I would most definitely have sonar with a chip. Fish the depths and the types of structure discussed in the posts on this site. Lastly, I think this new format and "look" for the fishing forum is fantastic! It is easy to navigate and the new features are state of the art. Rick did a great job and I for one am most appreciative. The "like bar" included in every post or reply is a valuable tool. It is a way of letting posters know that their efforts are appreciated and, equally important, LIKED! Thank you to all of those who have clicked the "like" box on my posts. I will continue to post up to the minute informative fishing information. Good Fishing, MarkB The picture is of our best fish of the morning.....

Pretty slow walleye weekend for us around Moccasin Point area compared to what we usually do. Managed to put together a fish fry and bring a couple home but had to settle for 14" - 15" to get them. Did get a couple in low 20" range and I managed to pull in this 31" beauty. Biggest walleye of my life.

Here is a 32” eye I pulled out of vermilion last Monday. The bite has been good. Just waiting to get my ice castle out there.

The fish Gods smiled on me last night.

For the past few days, I've been fishing alone because of the chilly inclimate weather(or so she says). Whenever I don't really "have to" catch fish to keep my wife enthused or we want fish for a meal, I like to "explore" and fish places I've never really tried before. Such was the case yesterday. Actually, I had in mind where I wanted to try, and when I pulled into the little bay, I had the area all to myself. Water depths ranged from ~28' at the mouth on up. The water temperature was 51 degrees with a gusty west wind. When I got my first hit, it kind of took me by surprise and nearly pulled my rod over board. I had the fish on for a bit but lost it with the phony hook set that I managed. With nobody around, I dropped a marker and, for the next 2 hours or so, I followed a big school of walleyes all around that bay from as deep as 24' to as shallow as 19'. My first hit came on a minnow and every single hit after that was on a leech! I couldn't get them to hit a minnow! My best fish was 18.5" and I ended up boating 12 walleyes and 2 jumbos. I caught a few dinks(3) but I could have kept an easy limit of 15"-16"ers. So, today my wife was excited to go. Clear skies, light and variable wind, horrible day for finding walleyes! I went back to the spot from yesterday. Today, however, another boat was in the vicinity. When 2 boats started fishing in proximity to each other, a third came, then a fourth. Typical. Fortunately, the hits today were few and far between. We managed 1 walleye on a minnow and that was it. The area where they were so active yesterday was totally void this morning! So I moved.... On my way to "plan B" I happened to notice bunches of funny looking little marks close to the bottom in 35' of water. I slowed everything down and retraced my GPS track and the whole bottom lit up. Eventually, I marked fish for a 1/2 mile in the 32'-35' depth. I baited my wife up with leeches and I stuck on a big sucker minnow. Almost immediately I hooked up but lost the fish half way in. I dropped the minnow back down and immediately got one 16". Aha! Hungry and nice...my favorite combo. I changed my wife over to minnows and when we left at 12:30, we had boated 17 walleyes and one jumbo. I can't guess how many we missed and lost, but suffice it to say, plenty! They wouldn't even look at a leech! Go figure. We used our standard rig. On a side note, two other boats pulled up beside us and fished. They were close enough that I could see exactly how they were fishing. I didn't see either boat catch a single fish! 3 fishermen in one boat and 2 in the other. Both boats were using jigs and minnows. I observed these boats as they blew by us on their trolling runs. The angle of their line, probably due to speed, was <30 degrees compared to the side of their boat. I have no idea how much line they had out but I would bet they were NOT close to the bottom.. I believe that speed is as important in fishing as wind is in hunting! We maintained our speed at .3-.5mph. Anytime we deviated from that speed, our hits stopped. I think speed is the main contributing factor for lack of success in fishing. Knowing where to go and what to look for doesn't hurt either I kept 3-14"-15" walleyes and a jumbo for lunch. When cleaning the walleyes, they were full of mayfly larvae and some had miniature shiner minnows in their stomachs. The shiner minnows were about the size of a "nice" chub minnow. They liked both suckers and rainbows. When we left for home, the water temp had warmed to 53 degrees. Good Fishing, MarkB

Was out on Basswood Lake yesterday.

Fishing has been here and there for me this week. First couple hours of the day have been good pulling lead core. A lot of 12-13" fish in the system but getting plenty of 14-16"to. Beyond 9am the bites have slowed way down even though there are fish everywhere on the graph. I've had good stretches of time in 17-19 feet and 23-24'. Cranks with rattles have worked best for me. Last night produced some nice 14-16" for some family members in 8-12'. Lastly..... Couldn't believe how fortunate I was to witness this. Between birch and pine islands.

I ran up to do some chores at the cabin and got out solo each of the last two evenings. The fish were definitely nibbling. I caught 42 fish in those two outings mostly in the slot, with three overs and a handful of unders. All were released. I found fish anywhere from onshore to 18 feet of water. The most productive depth for me was 10 to 13 feet, casting a variety of lures - including a chatterbait. I don’t know about others, but the bite this season has been exceptionally good and at times spectacular. Hope it continues!

Personal best this year. A very healthy 29 1/4” walleye. Safely released to thrill another fisherman.

I just returned home from a sweltering 4 day trip on Vermilion. In all of the years that I have fished Lake Vermilion, I don't ever remember it being so hot for so long. We had no top on our boat and once that sun got overhead, it was game over for us. The heat was just too unbearable. We heard that a couple of people were hauled off in ambulances due to heat stroke. But now, for the fishing report. During the 4 days that we fished, 2 were great and 2 were not so great. We fished the same spots basically, all 4 days. Nothing changed weather wise and, except for the heat, conditions seemed ideal. We saw only very sparse mayflies with no slicks anywhere. We found the walleyes in 18'-32' of water. When we were right on top of the reef in the rocks, we caught some real nice smallmouth and jumbos right along with the walleyes. Our best smallmouth was 18.5", our best jumbo was 11.5", and our best walleye was 26". We used both crawlers and leeches and I could not define a preference for one over the other. We ate walleyes while there and brought home our limit for 3 fishermen. None of the walleyes that we kept had mayflies. Surprisingly, the jumbos that came from the same reefs were full of mayflies. The areas that we fished were snaggy and I found that a 1oz bottom bouncer and a teardrop floating jig(blue and white) with a 3'-4' leader greatly reduced snags and satisfied the fish. We generally fished till about 1:00 when the heat became unbearable. We fished Big Bay, Portage Bay, and Fraser Bay. Big Bay and Fraser Bay produced all of our fish. We tried slip bobbers on top of reefs at varying depths and basically struck out. On Wednesday, we were fishing Fraser Bay when a smaller boat with a man and a woman came trolling by us next to an island(Alepo, if you must know). She hooked up and proceeded to fight what appeared to be a big fish. The fight continued and we finally decided it was a muskie. It was a joke watching these very nice people trying to land this fish because, they had no net and were completely unprepared to land this fish. She brought the fish up beside the boat and the man cradled his arms under the fish and lifted it up. That fish slapped him in the side of the head 5 or 6 times on the way into the boat. It was difficult to keep from laughing. We congratulated them and moved away only to see the man pick the fish up and heave it over the back of the boat. I went back and, sure enough, the big fish was on it's back and was belly up. We asked if they wanted us to revive it and, so, we did. She was mishandled and it took 10 minutes or better to get her to where she kicking pretty good so we could let her go. She swam away and disappeared. The fish was 45" long by their measurement and it was caught on a small spinner with a sucker minnow for bait. They said they were fast trolling this set-up for northerns. All in all, it's always great to be at the lake in spite of the weather. We have a second trip planned and reserved for late September. I'm pretty sure the weather will have cooled by then. Good Fishing, MarkB? My best walleye of the trip

Jeff and I fished lake V this past weekend on a multi-species mission...walleyes early and late, smallies at mid-day, and crappies at night. We also keep a rigged muskie rod on the deck as we always seem to run into some during the course of the day, The bite was pretty good for all species, though the highlight was the school of mega crappies we found on Sunday night. For about 2O minutes we were in 'Crappie Disneyland', catching one giant 14" to 16" slab after another. Then the school dispersed, but what an awesome experience!

Brother in law caught a 30 incher Saturday at 11am on a shallow hump on the first cast. His new personal best. Officially ranks second in our group for vermilion walleyes behind my 31 incher from 1999. I’ll be up Wednesday through Friday but they did well in the evenings on a shallow rock/sand transition. Caught 37 walleyes on Sunday night with a mixture of big perch, smallmouth, and pike mixed in.

Finally got out fishing at McKinley Park today. Missed the morning bite but still got plenty of bites up until 3pm when they shut off. Catching was another story. They were biting nice and solid but missed about 70% of the bites. Did end up getting a small meal. Chubs were twice as good as pike suckers. Fuel and Food didn't have rainbows or shiners so I may go to the Y tomorrow to see if they have any. Good to be out again.

We returned home today from a short 3 day fishing trip on Vermilion. The weather was chilly most of the time and windy during our entire trip. All of the fishing took place on the east end of the lake and we fished from Daisy Bay to Armstrong Bay with many stops in between. The fishing party included myself, my cousin, and a very dear friend. We bought pike suckers and nitecrawlers for bait. We used jig/minnow, bottom bouncer/colored hook and beads, and lindy rigs. We fished water from 15' to 30' and targeted rock reefs and holes. The water temperature varied between 57 and 59 degrees depending on the time of day. During our stay, we caught one fish on a minnow and 80+ on a half crawler. In addition, we caught several jumbos that were incidental to fishing for the walleyes. We found that a bottom bouncer, 4'-5' leader, 2-fluorescent light green beads, and red hook worked best. We found fish at most of the places we stopped at and 20'-26' was the optimum depth. The fish bit lightly and most of the time a hit was indicated by a bump followed by a slight drag on the line. We missed lots of fish by setting the hook fairly quickly after the initial bump in an attempt to avoid gut hooked fish. We found the fish scattered with the larger concentrations on mud bottom. Probably 1/2 of our fish were the 10''-13" up and comers while the rest included lots of 14"-17" eaters and several slot fish from 20"-22" and one 28". We had two fish fries and enjoyed every minute. We reserved the same time slot for next year. I think we hit the fall colors at it's peak and it was spectacular to say the least. Good Fishing? MarkB This was the largest walleye that we caught during our stay........

A buddy of mine pan fishing on an west metro lake last week.

RLG, thanks for the shout-out! Jeff and I are still trying to wrap our heads around what happened this past weekend. We are humbled and full of gratitude for having won 'The Classic' for a second time. We practiced through all the rain on Thurs and the wind on Friday and found six different spots holding big fish. Fishing was good on both days with several 'overs' in our catch...but would it hold up for another day? We didn't know. On tourney day, we made a long run to our first spot where I lucked out on a 26.5"er on my second cast. Jeff followed up with a thick 27" er a few minutes later, which turned out to be the big fish for the event at 7.26lbs. We finished out our limit and weighed-in at 10:30 am for the welfare of the fish in our livewell. There were some big weights in this event which would have won in most other years, but - for whatever reason - this was our day. Everything just went our way. Again, we are just super grateful and humbled by this success. We also want to congratulate all the other anglers who did well and give a big 'thank you' to the tournament organizers who put on such a great event!

Jeff and I went up this past weekend on a short multi-species trip. Water temp had dropped 7 degrees from the time we were last there. When we started grinding for one species we switched to another. Fun way to fish!

Spent Monday/Tuesday on the lake with my son, chasing walleyes early/late and smallmouth in the middle of the day. The fishing remains good for both species and I would even go so far as to say we put a hurt on em. We fished both East and West, where we found water temps ranging from 43 to 45. Not many folks on the lake these days. Very peaceful. Walleyes…most of our catch was 17” - 20” fish, with lots of slot fish mixed in, and several ‘overs’ each day casting artificials. Jeff got his biggest of the year Sunday (28”) on a chatterbait, followed by a new PB Monday that weighed 9lb 4oz (photo below). All our fish were released. Smallies…nice average size with several over 4lbs each day, on small paddletails and jig/craws on deeper rocks. Low and slow were the keys. Looking at the forecast, open water opportunities have come to an end for us. That’s always a sad realization, but has us looking forward to the coming ice season.

My son and buddy tried fishing Vermilion yesterday and didn't do well. I got up here today and we decided to try a different lake for some panfish. We checked out some lakes on Navionics we've never fished before and went north a bit in search of some fish. We found about 7" of ice, caught approximately 30 crappies up to 12", a couple of small walleyes 31" pike and some smaller sunfish. Kinda sad, we have a place on a 40,000 acre and had to go to a different lake to get some safe ice and fish. We kept some crappies for a nice dinner. A fun day on the ice!

Fished this Morning on a area lake on the Horseshoe chain and it was a crappy kind of Day. ? Got out before daybreak to get setup to be in position as I found this pod aka school of fish couple days ago and the bite window is early and late. Midday bite has been non existent with this school of fish as they move into a different feeding area. Cant stress enough how location plays such a huge role in a day of success. This summer walleye fishing I came across a perfect transition area and I made a note and GPS it to investigate this winter. To my good fortune its been holding some nice pies recently . Its a rock to sand transition are that is in located in around 20-26 foot of water. Zooplankton is thick early and late in the day and the crappies are actively on a tear feeding during this period roaming the area. Key lures were Clam drop kicks and Amped outdoors 4 mm tungsten heads with plastic bodies specifically Panfish Plastics Chigger Fry's. Hot Colors were white and firecracker. The Thorne Bros lineups sealed the deal especially the Power Noodle when they were aggressive and switching out to the Tripwire when they got a little more stubborn and bit softer. Been using some of the Clam inline Gravity's and have been real impressed with them so far. Great real at a reasonable price. 3 lb Berkley micro ice solar green was line of choice. Caught many crappies from 10-12 1/2 inch range with two over 13 and the biggest measureing out at 13 1/2 inch all fish were released to fight another day. Looking forward to checking out another area soon I found this fall as I think there's a pot of gold wating for me under the hardtop!?

We arrived at the lake late afternoon the 26th and decided to wait until the next morning to start. We found lots of biter walleyes in 21' to 27' of water. They were mostly located on mud bottom adjacent to terrible snaggy structure. We observed huge baitballs and large schools of walleyes in close proximity. We caught 23 walleyes, 3 bass, 1 northern, and 3 jumbos. Countless fish were missed and hooked and lost. The weather was cold and the wind was negligible. I used crawlers exclusively and my companions used pike suckers. We did equally well. Saturday was the nicest day we fished and we ended up with 28 walleyes boated and several hits missed and fish lost. We also caught 4 smallmouth, 2 northern, and 2 jumbos. Our largest fish was a 25 inch walleye. Sunday was cold and the wind was almost unfishable. We quit before noon to watch football. Lasted until midway through the first quarter of the Vikings game before we went back out. We ended up with 19 walleyes and 2 jumbos with the largest being a 23 inch walleye. We fished Monday until 2:00 and packed up. Our last day produced 17 walleyes. All of these fish were between 15" and 17.5". Hooking the fish was a hit or miss proposition for us. We missed as many fish as we caught. We caught no dinks on this trip. 14"- 25" was our length variation with the average being ~ 15.5". Speed seemed to be the key with .4 to.7 mph being optimum. 1oz bouncer, 3ft leader, a red bead and red hook was the terminal tackle. We fished 3 different spots during our stay and caught fish at every one. I found that looking around rock piles in the adjacent deeper water until we found concentrations of fish produced the results we were looking for. It was another great trip on my favorite lake. I have included a couple of pictures of my cousin and his friend. Good Fishing, MarkB?

Cliff's point about the spawn are true, more Walleyes spawn out in the basin and in other locations on the lake than in Pike bay which represents about 5% of the total eastern basin spawn. That means that all of the spawning Walleyes on the west end are unaffected by the hatchery on Pike bay. Years of over fishing and stocking freezers has had more effect on Walleyes on the west end than the Pike river hatchery has. The DNR test nets in the fall showed Walleye on Lake Vermilion are well over the state average on both ends of the lake and the numbers have improved on the west end over the last few years. So don't blame the DNR if you are struggling to catch Walleyes. Stop fishing your memories and try something new, either location or presentation, because the fish are there. I have been fishing Vermilion for almost 50 years now and in my humble opinion the Walleye fishing has never been better than it is right now. Ad to that a world class Muskie fishery, giant Pike, excellent Bass fishing (Both species) jumbo Perch, panfish and the shear Beauty of Lake Vermilion. What is there to complain about? Count your blessing Vermilion anglers because it doesn't get any better than this. JMHO.

Last week while visiting friends in Ireland I had the pleasure of fishing for pike on the Middle River with a friend of my host & friend Cirian. Beautiful hand made wooden boat and a real pleasure to fish out of! This is my once-in-a-lifetime (fishing before the opener) opportunity! We caught and released 12 pike that weighed from 4lbs. to 12lbs. Cliff

I went out from McKinley this evening. I found a solid 4 inches of ice all the way out to where I fished! Fished from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. in 16 f.o.w.. Iced 7 walleyes and lost at least that many more. Kept my limit of 13" to 16" fish. Very steady bite! Used 1/4 oz. Rattle Spoons in perch/white glow and gold with a shiner head on them and also a dead stick with a shiner. Both presentations worked about equally well. Good to be back on the ice again! Cliff

Jeff and I poked around a bit on the 4th before being joined by my son-in-law on the 5th. The action wasn't fast, but some quality fish were biting. Highlights for the weekend was an absolute monster of a Frazier Bay walleye Jeff caught on some deep rocks, along with my son-in-law's PB pike and first ever musky. Overall, not too shabby!

I was there at the PMTT awards ceremony and listened to the winners description of their tournament. Very interesting! Seemed they could do no wrong. That's when you know its your time... As for Jeff and me, we hooked enough during the tourney to be right at the top - including a horse that I couldn't even budge - but lost them all. Def was NOT our time! Still enjoyable spending a long weekend fishing with my son - who is not a musky angler btw. Doesn't even own a musky lure! Still, he had 3 of our 4 bites. We pursued other species after the event just to get our 'string stretched' and did well. Mixed in largemouth in shallow slop, with smallmouth out on deeper rocks, and walleyes in between. Our last fish was an 8lb 4oz east end walleye caught at mid-day with a crankbait. Was a great end to the wknd.

Hit this one today 35 inches

The wife got lucky last night, 29"er, just a dandy walleye in anybody's book. Leech under a slip bobber. NO, I'm not going to tell you where we were. LOL

Been on lake this week as well. Tough going on this side. Staying at Pike Bay Lodge. Between rain and wind haven't been out as much as I'd like, but still enjoying the time. Seen a lot of may fly larvae this morning. Didn't have a lot of gas in boat so stayed close to pike bay entrance of big bay this morning. Worked out well as I got a PB of 28.5. Awesome fish. I'm not a good selfie taker. Happy 4th weekend everyone.

I just returned home today from 4 wonderful days of fishing my favorite lake. We arrived late Saturday and was able to fish a bit that evening. Our group was comprised of my cousin, one of our very close friends and myself. On Saturday evening we managed to catch 16 walleyes on crawlers, leeches, and minnows. In spite of less than perfect weather conditions(95 degree heat and high to near hurricane force winds) we ended up with 103 walleyes boated and perhaps that many missed and lost during retrieval through Wednesday early afternoon. Minnows worked best one day, leeches worked great one day, and crawlers were the ticket Wednesday with our biggest fish of the trip coming that day. The bites ranged from very light to jerk the rod out of your hand. Our terminal gear consisted of jig/minnow, Lindy rig, to my old standby 4 ft leader, 1oz bouncer, 2 red beads, and a Gamakatsu size 8 orange hook. The bouncer rig outfished the rest by a wide margin. Speed was a huge factor and .4-.6mph was the speed that worked best. The high winds made boat control/speed a real challenge. We caught all of our fish from 8ft to 24ft with the optimun depth ~14ft give or take. When we got to the lake the water temp was 64.5 degrees and yesterday afternnon when we quit, it was 68.5 degrees. We did not see any significant amounts of mayflies except in the water columns in a few areas of the lake. The fish we cleaned went from stuffed with mayflies, full of crawdads, to full of perch minnows. We found the fish in the rocks and on mud flats. I looked for the fish with sonar and only fished where I found fish. I found our fish in the east end of Big Bay, Daisy Bay, Armstrong Bay, Portage Bay, and Bystrom Bay. We caught fish at every place we stopped. Wind dictated where we fished on any given day. On Monday, I had to cross the east end of Fraser Bay and in over 60 years, I have never seen it that rough. We found the cheapest gas at Shamrock Marina($6.29/gal) and the best bait at the Y store. We have eaten pizza at the Vermilion Club for more years than I can count and, to put it bluntly, we were very disappointed this year. To us, it was definitely not the same quality of pizza we have become accustomed to. Suffice it to say, we will be ordering something different from the menu in the future. All in all, Lake Vermilion provided us with another lasting memory. Great fishing on the greatest lake in Minnesota. We will return in mid-September and we are already anxious. Pictured below is my cousin with two nice walleyes caught 10 minutes apart. They were caught on crawlers. Good Fishing MarkB

A few interesting pictures from the trail camera last weekend.

Left the lake at 1pm today. Added 1/2" of ice (now have 6.5") from Tuesday to Thursday; pretty good considering how warm it was. My fishing holes from yesterday evening had 1/4" of ice on them this morning even though it didn't get below freezing last night. Pictures are from McKinley Park when I was leaving. If we don't get much snow before it gets cold next week the ice will be great for vehicle travel. Fishing was another story. Went to the Y-store Wednesday morning and the only minnows they had were light northerns and crappie minnows. I took a dozen light northerns for emergency use. What a mistake. These minnows were bigger (6-8") than I even like to use for lake trout. Never did try using them. Kept recycling my leftover pike suckers and chubs. I think I caught 3 walleyes on the same used chub. Kind of felt sorry for the poor minnow subjecting him to repeated trauma. Wish I had rainbows or even more chubs. Walleyes were small (10-16") except for the 28", 6#-13oz that I caught today on a 4½" pike sucker on a plain hook. She bit fairly light and didn't even peel out any drag. Watching her come up to the hole through the dark ice was quite a show. Like a big screen TV, I think the ice made her look much bigger. Had trouble getting her head into the 7" hole, but she was heathily released after taking the poor-quality photo. Fished in 26 FOW over a muddy bottom. Lively chubs or small (3½-4") pike suckers on a plain hook were the best although I did catch a couple on a 3-segmented jig. I am sure rainbows would have been even better. Good luck if you venture out this weekend and be careful on the ice.

Morning everyone one! Prayers do work my wife was able to get ahold of unemployment today in 2014 someone attempted to use my wife's info to get benefits it was denied because it was incorrect. The person helping her said she should get her check on Friday and they took care of the issue. Here is hoping? We have been looking at our boat like Wile coyote waiting to eat it?. So I don't want to get to personal or to much info but please bear with me. In 11th grade I was thrown out of the house I was homeless during this time somehow managed to graduate and go to post secondary school. It was very rough but made me who i am today. Well as you can imagine I have not talked much to my folks since. After reading many of the posts on here about families I got to thinking they are still alive and why not reach out to chat they can only say no. I called them this weekend and we got together. I felt like I was on my first date and the Dad was cleaning the shotgun? It took awhile but we started chatting some I have kept in contact with my Mom some but not like a son should. Lets just say some healing went on and yes I know you should not be visiting people but this could not wait longer. I don't know what the future holds but let's just say these posts really helped me assess what life is about. My Mom asked me if we can go fishing this summer You know my answer

I had my last official guide trip Monday and Tuesday and we fished for Smallmouth bass. It was one of my regulars that I have fished with for over 10 years. George and I have caught 100's of Smallies over the years and this year was no different. We boated around 65 bass in two days in less than perfect conditions. Most were on topwater baits of one kind or another and the rest were taken on crank baits. I wasn't able to fish to much so George caught most of the fish. I know I will miss guiding and the friends I have made over the years. I guess I'll just have to fish more to get over all the time spent guiding. Have a great season everybody. "Ace" "It's just fishing man"

I was up at Vermilion with my family last Saturday - Friday. We stayed at Everett's Bay Lodge and also Glenmore. We had an absolute blast. Because I had my two young boys with me the walleye fishing was basically limited to the evening bite. It didn't disappoint and we caught lots of little ones with plenty of eaters mixed in. We mostly used slip bobbers with leeches in 2'-6'. We had a surprise catch while bobber fishing. A BIG musky clamped on to one of the walleyes that my son was reeling in and we actually got her in the net! My boys were thrilled. After a quick photo she was released. I also spent a fair amount of time chasing smallies and did very well once I figured out the cover that was holding the most and biggest fish. Great trip.....wish I was there right now.

Caught on opener, 28 inch 8.5 pounds. Big Marine Vikinig his biggest ever, went back in the lake

Finally a nice day to get out on the water! My clients and I left the dock at 8:30am and returned at 4:00 pm today We boated a total of 70 walleyes, 3 pike, and 3 perch. My clients kept their limits of 14" to 16-1/2" walleyes. 3 slot walleyes, 21-1/2, 20-1/2, and 18-1/2 inchers. All 3 pike were in the slot. 26" to 32" fish. Only one perch was big enough to keep, a fat 12" fish. All fish came out of 26' to 32' of water. We used leeches,chubs, and pike suckers on lindy rigs for all of the fish. With the weather forecast for the next few days, the bite should get even better! Cliff

It's been a month since I posted a fishing report, so thought I would share our results this past weekend. The water temperature has dropped to as low as 41° in the shallow bays, though some of the deeper bays were still at 45. Friday night and Saturday Jeff and I targeted walleyes and caught 95 of them with 13 over the slot, the biggest being a couple of 27 1/2"ers. All of them were caught casting and all of them were released. One of our 'overs' struck a 6 inch swimbait so violently that it blew the bait completely through her gills, where the lone treble hook stuck on the outside of the fish, halfway down her body. Amazing... On Sunday we targeted smallmouth bass and got 54 of them, with a handful in the 4 pound class though most were in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound class. We also caught a musky and a 26 1/2 inch walleye as a bonus by-catch while bass fishing. That musky picked up a little finesse jig/craw worked on bottom in 20 feet of water. All in all, it was time well spent on beautiful Lake Vermilion. To do that with my son made the trip that much more special..

My cousin, our good friend, and myself just returned home today from beautiful Lake Vermillion. We arrived Sunday afternoon and left for home this AM. We weren't able to fish Sunday afternoon due to wind, rain, and lightning. However, the 3 and1/2 days we were able to fish were unbelievable. Despite gale force winds every day but Wednesday, we had the best fishing we've ever had. Water temperatures were running 57-59 degrees early in the week and were steady 56-57 degrees towards the end. Morning fishing was brutally cold(hands) Monday and Tuesday but became bearable Wednesday and Thursday. We fished 3 different spots and caught loads of fish at all of them. We found the walleyes on mud bottom 20'-26' of water in the mornings and 15'-20' rock piles in the late afternoon. The bite was fast the entire trip and as the week wore on, it became noticeably lighter with the majority of fish hooked in the upper lip. I found that the speed was, once again, crucial and optimum speed was.4mph-.6mph. The walleyes weren't choosy about either crawlers or big sucker minnows, but, ALL of our BIG fish came on suckers. I was amazed at the lack of boats in the areas that we fished and, most days, we had the entire area to ourselves in the mornings. We caught walleyes, smallmouths, jumbos, and northerns while fishing for walleyes. Our biggest walleye measured 28" and we caught lots of slot fish between 20.5" and 25". We returned ALL of our walleyes over 16" and ate walleye 3 times while we were there. We caught 193 walleyes during our 3.5 days of fishing. The fall foliage is definitely behind for the time of year. We were able to watch bald eagles, ospreys, and young of the year loons on a daily basis. We decided to give the Vermillion Club another try after a less than satisfactory spring visit for pizza. This time it was just as it used to be. Excellent pizza and beer. We booked our spring and fall trips for next year before leaving and now the long wait begins. The pictures are of a 28" walleye our buddy caught and of lunch for one of the days. Good Fishing, MarkB

The truth is, how can you single any one or two members out...the list loooong... Love reading the Red lake reports, Kelly and the guys always have some good stories to tell. The Vermillion area too... Cliff adds some good stuff.... Prinston area, well if it wasn't for Moose there wouldn't be a whole lot going there... Jb adds all kinds of good content in a few areas. Smurf is just funny, but the place wouldn't be the same without him... Ozzie, he adds his insight and wisdom when needed... Pappadarv, can't say enough good things about what he brings... Wander, great guy with tons of Knowledge... Anyfsh with his reports and humor... smalliehuunter, some great pics from him. Chill62, pretty much keeps the Ottertail forum alive... Mr Pike, one of the nicest guys I have ever met... and has some darn good stries and reports shared. The St Cloud crew.... Well, they are a great bunch and definitely make this place more fun. All the Members I didn't name... Your input keeps me coming back. And last but certainly not least... Rick P... Without him, we wouldn't have FM... Thank you most of all!

Another season of big game fishing has came to a end. Its never been easy for me to call it a season as I really have loved working on the lake. This year because of my car accident I did not get to have that enjoyment. Yes there 's time where you ask yourself wtf. Have cuss words been used? yes. Fighting mother nature can be so brutal. The only way to have a chance against her is to try and plan ahead, which is easier said then done. The equipment takes a beating. Trying to track down parts for trucks that are pushing 40 years old is always a challenge. This year our son jonny boy had to step up and take over for me. He got a good taste of the planning it takes to keeps things going forward. He had his moments learning the hard way by trial and err. He did a fantastic job finding fish considering how handcuffed we were as to where we could go. There were numerous comments from new and old customers how well he took care of them. For me its always been about customer service, repeat business. To know they have carried that on makes me very proud. I did get to visit a few customers this year but it was very limited as I just did not feel comfortable visiting. We did recruit Richie to help us to start the season, Jonny and him sure got along well, which was a blessing. He had to head home the end of janurary. Our grand daughter Ashley stepped up as she said "Jonny boy took her under his wing". They sure had fun working and fishing together. She sure enjoyed visiting our customers. She even learned how to pull a house out of its spot and tow one across the lake. She also has a passion to fish, spending numerous nights on the lake. It is a treat having her here with our great grand son Bentlee. Bentlee hanging out with his mom and great uncle John on the lake makes him a 7 generation here on the shores of upper red lake. The final weekend of fishing report was not to bad. Phil and his 2 buddies were in montana, they went home with 12 plus missed plenty of fish. I spent time in old Minnesota before, during and after wayne and pauls visit. I fished hard the last week Jigging a orange chubby darter. I think I landed at least 12 fish. If they did not hit the lure they hit a set line. Wayne and Paul went home with 6 but should of had more as they also lost and missed fish. I spent sunday afternoon out there and landed 3 nice fish before packing it in. Florida had Ed and his wife Pat they did not do that well. Ed said he marked a lot of fish but could not get them to bite. They did go home with a couple. Dan was in California with his daughter Anna. They just fished for the day. She did get to catch her first walleye before packing it in. Rick, his brother Mike and young one Joe? fished in Colorado .The first night on a new spot was not good so Ashley and Jonnny moved them Saturday afternoon. I think they had some better action but they pulled out early sunday morning. North Dakota was a no show so Ashley and Jonny boy got to spend the last weekend on the lake where they also caught and missed some fish. All the houses are now getting staged to comer to shore. Jonnny has plans to look for the mother load of the elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie. The plan will be sleds and portables. Our crappie get together is still in the planning. I expect a few of the guys to make it up as the snow melts. I would love to get out there and wet a line, just not sure if I can bounce on a sled, time will tell. I owe such a huge thank you for all the help I received this year. It was truly amazing. I can never thank people enough for there generosity . Again thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope to have a few more fishing reports before the ice melts on such a grand lake

I was sitting on the lake the other day and this thought crossed my mind. With all the social media, forums, face book groups now a days you have to wonder how are anglers judged? For instance how are anglers judging other anglers? Are they judged on there fish pics, there success catch rate? I would say in todays industry unfortunately yes most throw judgement on how good of a angler you are by how good your day on the ice was. Well I want to tell you there's not one Angler out there includeing myself that hasn't got a good butt kicking and struck out from time to time . Unless there ego won't allow them to admit to it. LOL! Its actually more common than one thinks. I once was shooting the crap with Legendary Al Linder about this. We all know how much he fishes. He said in a given week of fishing he had 2 good days 1 marginal and 2 not so good. Take for instance this week I and a few good anglers set out on a local lake in search of panfish after hitting numerous good locations and getting almost nothing we threw the towel in. Next day we set off to a Lake by Ogilvie fished it hard for 6 hours cutting numerous areas out and basically struck out in our eyes. Yes we caught fish but not the size structure we were after so in our eyes a bust.. Yesterday afternoon I decided to hit a local Lake on the chain near me. I was hoping for a last window bite and ended up hitting a home run. Well I guess what I'm trying to say is we all have good and bad days. I know a few of us post are good reports pics and we sound and look like ice fishing super hero's to some. I'm here to admit, We get butt kickings and strike out just like the next guy at least I do? . Most including me don't report are bad days but maybe we should. We are not telling you the hard work mega holes we cut etc. So no matter how much experience you have fishing don't get discouraged if you strike out have a bad day. We all do keep your head up! Just keep going out after it and sooner or later it all falls in place. Judge your outing by who you were with the laughs, memories, moments shared in that day out on the ice. It's those simple things in life that are more important than a limit of fish that's a bonus in my eyes ? Also if any of you ever spot me on a lake PLEASE Stop over say Hi and introduce yourself I'm all about meeting new people and shredding some ice together like I said its all about the moment.

Isaiah 9:6 6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Finally made it up to Vermilion to ice fish. I saw numerous ATVs and snowmobiles running around out of McKinley Park so I took my snowmobile out. I found 9" of ice just outside the bay. The top 1" was white but the rest was good and dark. There was 3-5" of snow on the ice and there was a lot of slush. There were a couple of fish houses out by Birch Island. Fishing was very good but they were small except for the 20.5" eye in the picture. Couldn't shrink that fish enough to keep it. Taking the permanent out tomorrow for comfort. Good luck fishing and be cautious for ice conditions.

Had a great time with the boys fishing over the weekend.

Long time follower, first time posting. Despite the cold front and high pressure, the fishing has been good. A lot of small fish, but let my buddy take my tip up and turned out to be a 30 1/4” Walter.

My buddy and I headed up to Mille Lacs lake on Saturday for some late season Pike on Tip-ups. We were setup in 9ft of water and were using 8-10" sucker minnows. Only iced 2 pike but one was an absolute Tanker! Didn't get a measurement but she was definitely eating good! Check out the video: https://youtu.be/CZhuYbVZuis

Trolling for walleyes and my son caught this muskie-just shy of 50". I took a picture that didn't show the whole fish, my buddy is holding the full length shot.