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Lake Vermilion Area Fishing/Conditions Reports


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12/29/10

The walleye bite on Vermilion has slowed down a lot since the warmer, cloudy weather moved in,at least for me it has!

I have been getting a few each day in the early morning and then again just before dark. I have been fishing in 28 feet to 31 feet of water on a sand/rock slope.

Almost every fish has been caught on the rattle reels in the fish house. The best bait has been rainbow chubs and fathead chubs.

I have heard reports that the walleyes and perch are also biting in the mud flat areas in around 30 feet of water.

All of the walleyes that I have been catching have had mayfly nymphs in them so that report is probably true.

Lots of nice sized fish being caught this winter!

Good Fishing!

Cliff

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I've been hearing mixed reports, very similar to what Cliff described. I did have a person tell me he was doing very well in about 15 feet of water from around 3:00 p.m. until dark. He also said that the fish were full of mayfly nymphs, then he said he started seeing fish with minnows in them after more people moved in around his fish house.

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Went out of the McKinley area this evening fished 27 fow then moved to 24fow graphed a few but nothing hit. Tried a few different jigs tipped with chubs or rainbows. Been up there the last few nights and nothing been graphing them thats about it. Heading to Upper Red this weekend, maybe turn my luck around.

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Cliff,

I was fishing in the portable with the 2 little yippers near you this afternoon. Only got one nice keeper. I had some suspended about 3' off bottom quite a few times. Went up after them but they just followed the bait up but wouldn't hit it. The one I got was right off the bottom and when I picked up the rod to jig it a little it immediately slammed it. I was using a pike minnow. Got that one about 4 p.m. Just had lookers and followers after that.

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Bandit,

Most of the fish that are suspended up off of the bottom are Tulibees, but not all of them! I caught a nice 15 inch walleye 4 feet up off the bottom this morning on a pink Demon jig and a small chub!

Got 3 nice keepers this morning!

Cliff

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Cliff,

I was thinking that was what they probably were. We ran into that this fall and when one finally bit it was a tulibee. Thanks.

Glenn

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Just returned from a few days at the cabin on the northeast part of Big Bay. We drove out on the Stuntz Bay road on Thursday night hoping to get off of the road and make it to the cabin. Before doing this I thought it would be a good idea to pop a hole and measure the ice. I was very surprised when I saw 11" of ice, so I popped another about 50 yards away and again only found 11" of ice. We decided quickly to drive our HD 3/4 ton crew cab back off of the ice and try the snowmobile. We got across in the near blizzard conditions on Thursday evening and the lake conditions were great, no slush at all. We popped a couple more holes on Friday and found only 11-12" with one spot of 13" of ice. For the amount of traffic that I saw on the lake including a 1 ton truck that is way too little ice for me. We went out on Friday and did some snowmobiling and the trail and lake conditions were great. That all changed by Saturday evening and especially on Sunday. The weight of all the new snow really started to make some slush and by the time we left on Sunday the slush was getting really bad in spots out in Big Bay including along the brown staked trail heading to Mud Creek Bay.

Just a heads up

53orbiger

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The latest snowfall and resultant drifting of snow on Vermilion has almost put a stop to driving your vehicle almost anywhere you want.

Many of us have been forced to plow roads to access our permanent fish houses.

These roads, of course, are now public roads of access used by almost everyone. Unfortunately the plowing of roads has again brought out the worst in the lazy or maybe brain dead fishermen!

Yesterday someone drilled holes in the plowed road right between two of my permanent houses which resulted in a flooded area on the road. mad

What is wrong with these guys?

Hopefully all of our HSO members know better then to do that type of thing!

Cliff

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Cliff, went out this morning, no one moving around much. Went out after a

2 1/2 hour break, got the call power was out, had to get the portable heaters going, results were had dinner and enough left for the hound dog, she loves walleye. Thanks, Darrell.

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Cliff, can you provide an update on ice road conditions out of McKinley? I'm hoping conditions have improved with this cold snap for I would like to pull out my crank up in the near future.

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There are very few roads and not very wide ones... you can still off road in some areas of Big Bay with a 4x4.. would help to have a plow if you are bringing a permanent fishhouse out.. portables can probably be set up just about anywhere. I talked to a guy yesterday that said there was some slush in spots off road.

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Ice roads are in decent shape at this time. There was a little drifting yesterday but that will soon be plowed off of the existing roads.

Cliff

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We're going to extend one of the roads out of McKinley, out to the West of Spider Island sometime in the next week or so, if the weather cooperates. Need to get supplies out to my cabin on Pine Island. We'll be marking the road with multiple Balsam Fir branches on either side. Won't do any plowing on the established snowmobile paths.

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be very careful out there i broke through a double layer plowing yesterday.. your best route is probably between ely and little birch island and then head north.. should help you some from drifting in on the first half of your road.. best bet might be to drive it once with a truck without a plow...

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be very careful out there i broke through a double layer plowing yesterday.. your best route is probably between ely and little birch island and then head north.. should help you some from drifting in on the first half of your road.. best bet might be to drive it once with a truck without a plow...

That's a good idea going between Ely and Little Birch, to reduce the drifting on the road. I know that drifting will be a problem almost immediately.

When you say 'broke through a double layer' - what do you mean exactly?

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After many years of ice plowing, may I suggest another alternative. I believe there is a road out of Stuntz Bay that goes up to Bass Bay. You may have better luck running up that road and then plowing west along the shoreline over to Pine. The closer you are to the shore, the less drifting issue you will have. And probably a little shorter plow than going across the bay. Double ice is when a slush area starts to refreeze. You break through the slush ice but there is good ice under what you have broken through.

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After many years of ice plowing, may I suggest another alternative. I believe there is a road out of Stuntz Bay that goes up to Bass Bay. You may have better luck running up that road and then plowing west along the shoreline over to Pine. The closer you are to the shore, the less drifting issue you will have. And probably a little shorter plow than going across the bay. Double ice is when a slush area starts to refreeze. You break through the slush ice but there is good ice under what you have broken through.

Thanks, yes that would be an even better idea if there is a road all the way to Bass Bay. I'm not very familiar with where roads are plowed, outside of the one that comes out of McKinley and swings around the West end of Ely Island. I'm on the East end of Pine Island anyway.

I appreciate all the help and ideas.

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A big thanks goes to whoever plows the roads, I fished off the Stuntz Bay road after Christmas and it was slick.

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chucker1101,

The Stuntz Bay road may run as far as Glenwood Lodge which is on the far Eastern end of Pine Island. It usually does, but I have not been out that way this winter yet so not sure about that.

Cliff

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chucker1101,

The Stuntz Bay road may run as far as Glenwood Lodge which is on the far Eastern end of Pine Island. It usually does, but I have not been out that way this winter yet so not sure about that.

Cliff

I'm familiar with the Glenwood smile

thanks all for the advice. A plow trail that skirts the south side of Pine Island on the East end should be well protected from drifting. It's something i hadn't considered until today. And we can help keep the road plowed from Stuntz Bay to the Eastern edge of Pine Island, once we start moving stuff.

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I believe Vince Vesel plows the road to Bass Bay. And there are times when it is extended all the way to Glenwood. I personally have not been over there lately.

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How's the fishing been guys? We are heading up there next week and hoping to do better than last year. We''l be fishing out of Big Bay likely.

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fishing has been good until the last 2 days....

since we have predominantly west winds the further east down the lake the road is the worse off you are going to be.. I have seen total he** on the road out of Stuntz after a big wind and a road out to Stonich not so bad during the same blow..

plus its a heck of a long way from indian point where the stuntz road turns north to spider!!!!

stick with your original plan for sure.. forget about the stunz road.

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so just for curiosity sake i did some measuring on my gps software...

birch to spider is about the same as indian point to spider

the road from stunz to indian pont is roughly 4.5 miles

from mckinley to birch about a mile...

so your looking at the same amount of plowing

but you will save 3.5 miles going from mckinley.

plus youve got about a mile less road that is exposed to the big blow out of mc kinley...

hope this helps

Casey

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I agree with Casey completely, the south route is going to be shorter. My thought was the north route would probably be easier to keep open, especially if you have several people plowing to keep a section open. If you are plowing for a single trip, go the south route, if you are looking to keep it open for extended periods, the north route may work better.....,and then, maybe not.

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After talking to some snowmobilers today they told me there is a lot of slush near the the shorelines.. Kind of a given but something to keep in mind. I did a little plowing and off roading today and all was good.. The snow on big bay is not too terribly bad.

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I agree with Casey completely, the south route is going to be shorter. My thought was the north route would probably be easier to keep open, especially if you have several people plowing to keep a section open. If you are plowing for a single trip, go the south route, if you are looking to keep it open for extended periods, the north route may work better.....,and then, maybe not.

It's a [PoorWordUsage] shoot, i realize. I understand it's shorter by about 3 miles to go straight north between Ely and Birch Island, but already having the line plowed up to Indian Point means less back-and-forth plowing. We are going to run several truckloads of building supplies over the course of 3 weeks, so we'll need to keep it open for some time.

Again, thanks for all the thoughts/comments. Having alternatives is good.

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