July 28 thru August 10 report and comments

[barney]

My family enjoyed another fantastic trip to Lake Vermilion. We targeted walleyes exclusively and found them in 12'-21'of water on our favorite Big Bay reefs. 3ft snells with a yellow float,a transparent green bead,size 8 Gamakatsu hook, and a one ounce bottom bouncer did the trick. We used nite crawlers exclusively and hooked the whole crawler through the tip of the nose. I have found that using the whole crawler produces more lip hooked fish. We miss a bunch of "hits" but it's way better than letting a bleeding 17" or better fish go. There seems to be an abundance of 14"-16"+ walleyes this year and the fishery appears healthy at this time. I just hope the up and coming 14-16 inchers are off somewhere eating crayfish getting ready for their turn. We caught fewer slot fish than in the spring and my percentage fell off to ~8% from over 20%in the spring.

Trout Lake has become a serious disappointment during our July/August time slot. It seems that bass are "taking over" every reef on the lake. It's virtually impossible to try to "work" for reluctant walleyes without losing your bait to bass. Fortunately, spring fishing is still great when the bass are still in spawning mode.

My "controversial" comment for this post will involve the intersection at Hwy 77 and the Ledge store. Why in the world doesn't "the powers that be" put up flashing yellow lights and reduce the speed limit to 30mph from every direction before another terrible accident happens? How many fatal accidents have to happen before they do something? The August 8 accident put a damper on an otherwise very enjoyable visit. We pray everyone survived.

[heartattack22]

The state doesn't want to slow traffic down in that area because it would only become more congested. There is talk out there about combining hwy 1 and 77 to eliminate some of the confusion but with the new bridge going in on hwy it doesn't seem logical to reroute it now. I had also hear discussions of moving 169 to the east side of the Ystore or splitting and putting 169 nb on the east side and sb at its current location. That to me sounds like alot of confusion. Who knows what they will do. The upgrades they did to the intersection last year have helped. You will always have the people that look one way but forget to look the other or assume its still clear even though 30 seconds have passed.

[barney]

When entering Virginia, there are stop lights on a 65mph highway! I am sorry, but I can't understand how "slowing down" vehicles approaching the Hwy77/Ledge intersection to 30mph would contribute to the congestion. Getting T-boned by a vehicle travelling 55mph+ is not proper punishment for not looking both ways at an intersection with a historical traffic problem. Something needs to be done now.

[SledNeck]

Quote:

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My family enjoyed another fantastic trip to Lake Vermilion. We targeted walleyes exclusively and found them in 12'-21'of water on our favorite Big Bay reefs. 3ft snells with a yellow float,a transparent green bead,size 8 Gamakatsu hook, and a one ounce bottom bouncer did the trick. We used nite crawlers exclusively and hooked the whole crawler through the tip of the nose. I have found that using the whole crawler produces more lip hooked fish. We miss a bunch of "hits" but it's way better than letting a bleeding 17" or better fish go. There seems to be an abundance of 14"-16"+ walleyes this year and the fishery appears healthy at this time. I just hope the up and coming 14-16 inchers are off somewhere eating crayfish getting ready for their turn. We caught fewer slot fish than in the spring and my percentage fell off to ~8% from over 20%in the spring.

Trout Lake has become a serious disappointment during our July/August time slot. It seems that bass are "taking over" every reef on the lake. It's virtually impossible to try to "work" for reluctant walleyes without losing your bait to bass. Fortunately, spring fishing is still great when the bass are still in spawning mode.

My "controversial" comment for this post will involve the intersection at Hwy 77 and the Ledge store. Why in the world doesn't "the powers that be" put up flashing yellow lights and reduce the speed limit to 30mph from every direction before another terrible accident happens? How many fatal accidents have to happen before they do something? The August 8 accident put a damper on an otherwise very enjoyable visit. We pray everyone survived.

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A few people I know have been hammering the walleyes on trout. Lots if 7 lb plus fish aswell.

[barney]

Because of fantastic fishing in Vermilion, I made only one trip into Trout this last visit. I put Jim Zak on my permit and he lost his propeller on the middle reef in South bay at 9:30 in the morning! I spent the rest of the morning towing him back to the portage and, ultimately, back to his place on Vermilion. Up to that time, we had caught nothing but bass at 4 other pretty good locations for this time of year. The reef at the end of Pine island was full of walleyes but the bass drove us nuts.

Trout Lake has spoiled me for a very long time. I like it when the "hits" are walleyes and the older I get, the less patience I seem to have.