2010 Vermilion Muskies

[delcecchi]

I heard there is a tournament this week, but can't find out anything? Just curious, does anyone have information?

[jonesen]

170 folks from Muskies Inc. having a little get together, not a money tournament just a chest pounding ego boosting thing.

[Silver Scale]

Muskie Inc's Gil Hamm Chapter Challenge. Wed-noon on Friday. Nothing on weekend.

[Esox_Magnum]

30 guys in our camp, fish being seen but only a couple sub 30's landed. We are not with the Gil Hamm tourney. Been fishing hard since Sat evening and personaly not a follow yet. Sure beats working though.

Hey Niles was you up by Van Ryper/Fox on Tuesday afternoon during the little breeze?

[Vermilion_figure_8]

Esox,

No that was not me, but i am actually heading the big V today until sunday, so ill be on the water this evening. I hope the skis start to behave how they should this time of year, but either way, it beats doing anything else. Hope to see ya out there!

Timmy

[cb north]

I was fishing for wally's with a crawler on 6 pd test and caught this 36" northern tonight on east end....funny, cause i was just wondering today if the big muskie population is affecting the northern population. I had not caught a northern for a few years here. Anyway..I thought you muskie guys might enjoy a good looking relative.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

There are lots of Pike out there but you have to target them a little differently then years past IMHO... try soaking a big sucker around some rock piles... deeper?

[Esox_Magnum]

Muskies avoidid our baits but pike were more than willing to eat. As of typing this as far as I know 200 muskie guys on the lake this week and 16 boated. I had a total of 1 lazy follow, 1 pike and 3 sunners, but the lazy follow was upper 40's possibly 50. Had a blast though to bad I have to go home.

[delcecchi]

I am finally starting to wonder if the Muskies are causing other fish to change their locational preferences. Has anyone seen any research?

My thinking was triggered by a remark in an article about Muskies following and butting things as aggressive acts without intending to eat.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

This is totally true IMHO.. I'm sure Cliff can tell you how many of his old spots just don't produce like they used to and we have found a ton of new great spots in the last 5 years... as the walleyes eat more and more crayfish they have been using lots of different spots as well.

[guideman]

Horsehocky,

Muskies and Walleye have co-existed for 1000's of years. I really doubt that one or two Muskies on a spot will move hundreds/thousand of Walleyes. Fish won't stay where there isn't a steady food supply. Perhaps it's the food supply that has moved and the Wallyes are simply moving with them.

There are still plenty of large Pike available in Lake Vermilion. My clients and I catch 20 to 30 over 40 inches every year. The slot has worked very well in protecting these larger fish.

This summers warmer water temps have had an effect on the larger Pike. They need cooler temps, so they move off to cooler water. In my opinion, you never need to use LIVE bait when targeting large Pike. Especially when fishing with a single hook rig. Large soft plastics will do the job just as well if not better.

Most of the largest Pike I catch are on large spinnerbaits and cranks. If you want to see the results, just check my website. :-)

"Ace"

[Esox_Magnum]

I agree that muskies wont chase off other fish, I cant count the times ice fishing I have seen several species of fish in the same area we are seeing muskies. I once sat and caught 38 gills with a large pike and a mid 40" muskie in sight of the camera the whole time..... I have also caught eyes/pike/muskies in the same spot on the same bait in 5-6 different casts..... Predator fish go where the food is plain and simple....

[delcecchi]

Muskies and Walleye haven't coexisted in Vermilion except for the last decade to any great extent, but you do have a good point.

It is something that I was wondering about since the location of pike and walleye on west end seems to have changed fairly significantly during the years I have fished there. It isn't rusty crayfish since they haven't reached the wakemup/headolakes area in any numbers yet (so far as I know).

And it isn't the water temps because last year was cold and this year was warm. Perhaps there has been some change in forage that has caused formerly popular spots to go dead, for example it has been quite a few years since there has been a die off of lake herring (cisco, tullibee, whitefish) of any size. And I have heard anecdotal reports of a very large year class of these a couple years ago that could be affecting fish location. I need to better resist my tendency to fish the same old spots so much.

The reef bite on the west end has been pretty well defunct for years, although I did get a few this year. I still give it an occasional try, even though about the only people fishing them are casting big stuff.

[muskyfishin]

We are heading up to Vermilion on Septemeber 3rd for a week. We are staying on the west end. This is our 3rd year in a row coming up there from southern Michigan. Just wondering if anyone has been seeing a lot of muskies or not. We are looking for some good northern pike action as well as I am bringing my wife and my buddy is bringing his girlfriend. Any info would be greatly appreciated. I have plenty of Double 8's and Double 10's just looking for some general spots and areas that might be producing . Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Anthony

[jonesen]

I remember last September was some of the best walleye fishing we have had in Frazer bay in the last 10 years. So the fish are still here, but I believe they are eating different things than they use to 10 years ago.

I spend a lot of time in a fish house with a camera down, we use to catch 100's of perch a day and watch thousands, now we catch just a few,maybe 10 a day and see just a few small schools a day. I have also notice we see a large perch hatches in the spring, only to see the little ones die off from some type of fungus. This could be one reason the eyes have relocated, (no perch to eat)

One other thing to note, we are seeing lots and lots of tulibee on the camera in the winter,we use to see just a few before dark but now we see them from morning to night. We started catching the stinky things because we were sick of watching them.

Bottom line (in my opinion) the forage has changed and the fisherman needs to change there tactics also.

[Silver Scale]

Just think how poor the walleye fishing would be if the lake didn't have muskies in it thinning out the tulibees... Unless of course you figured out how to catch those walleyes in amongst the ciscoes....

[delcecchi]

I remember last September was some of the best walleye fishing we have had in Frazer bay in the last 10 years. So the fish are still here, but I believe they are eating different things than they use to 10 years ago.

I spend a lot of time in a fish house with a camera down, we use to catch 100's of perch a day and watch thousands, now we catch just a few,maybe 10 a day and see just a few small schools a day. I have also notice we see a large perch hatches in the spring, only to see the little ones die off from some type of fungus. This could be one reason the eyes have relocated, (no perch to eat)

One other thing to note, we are seeing lots and lots of tulibee on the camera in the winter,we use to see just a few before dark but now we see them from morning to night. We started catching the stinky things because we were sick of watching them.

Bottom line (in my opinion) the forage has changed and the fisherman needs to change there tactics also.

I noticed that this year for a change I could actually fish with crawlers, whereas in past years I couldn't keep a crawler in the water for 5 minutes without it getting eaten or pecked to pieces by perch or sunfish. Maybe you are onto something there.

[Vermilion_figure_8]

This weekend was WINDY! we only saw a few boats out there all weekend throwing for skis. the fishing was a little slower then we hoped, we raised only a couple and had a few hit but not inhale the bait like normal. Biggest fish for us this weekend was this 47.5

[EsoxMVenator]

Heading up 9/11 for a week. We will be staying at Muskego Point. We usually are working the shorelines and weed beds, but I often see posts about Muskies relating to 'rocks'. Given the geological makeup of Vermilion, this is almost like saying relating to water. Any insight or pointers on how to distinguish good Muskie rocks from just plain ole rocks is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[stephendawg]

The Muskego area has been a good producer this season. My advice...stay close to home base. Tell Joe and Jenny, Steve Johnson said Hi. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

[delcecchi]

I have seen a lot of musky guys throwing at hazard markers, which mark almost all of the shallow rocks not real close to shore. So you might try just flogging those areas like boys camp, stovetop, merry go round, etc. There are other similar spots on the map that aren't quite as shallow that are also possibilities, for example the long ridge that continues from stovetop or the cluster of reefs between Center Island and the camp that don't have markers.

I'm not a musky fisherman so just telling what I see.

[thrax]

All the spots Del pointed out are good. The deeper rocks can be good now, check a decent map to find them as they won't be marked with bouys. Dawgs and rubber in general, stuff that will get down better are good options in those areas. Given a choice, I'd stick to the weeds, and use rocks as a change of pace. Thats just me.

Don't rule out a few trolling runs also, water temps are falling quickly and there are definitely fish to be had in the basins and near the reef structures.

[delcecchi]

There is an excellent map by lakemaps that had the data that is on the lakemaster chip. It is available at various retail outlets and is really useful even if you have the lakemaster chip in a gps. I really like the big picture the paper map gives.

[Esox_Magnum]

I prefer my Navionics over Lakemaster for chips, but the Lakemaster paper maps are great. I got a new Lakemaster this year for V ran it about 3 hours before going back to my 07 Navionics, I do find the quality of your GPS makes a difference to, my new HDS brings my old chips to a new life. BTW anyone wanna trade a 2010 Nav for a 2010 LM?

[delcecchi]

That is interesting. I was wondering how the Navionics survey compared to the Lakemaster survey. Does the Navionics now zoom in as much as the lakemaster? It didn't used to do so, as I recall.

[Esox_Magnum]

My HDS zooms to 50 feet.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

The Navionics is a 1 ft survey.. some of the old lowrance and H2O handhealds needed to be updated to zoom in closer than like 1/8 mile...

[delcecchi]

Looks like it might be worth checking out whether my "old" 522 can use the navionics chip. Always up for a new toy. I don't suppose anyone has overlayed the data to see how they compare?

And I don't know if I can convince myself that the 1 foot is a big deal if the CEP on the GPS is 20 to 80 feet depending on how WAAS is feeling.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I cant say that it's the 1 foot in particular that is the great part about it.. just the overall improvement of the survey and the shape/definition of the structure... I have run both chips plenty and wouldn't buy another lakemaster for Vermilion.

[Silver Scale]

Muskies have been tough but occasionally a nice one is caught. Water temps are dropping fast. High 50's everywhere I went yesterday. Cold weather and freezing nights now will drop it more. I'd say big and slow is in order now.