Lake Vermilion Area Fishing/Conditions Reports

[mntim]

Thanks for the info Casey, we are staying on Pike Bay so we use the south road. Hopefully things will settle down with the cold weather over the weekend. Hopefully no more snow for a while.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The walleye and perch bite has been only fair for me this week. Still able to pick up a meal or two in a couple of days but usually have to put in your time as the bite period is very inconsistent.

Cliff

[Casey Sunsdahl]

seems like am and mid day has been the best time to target fish.. lots of little walleyes and missed fish/light biters.. afternoon has been dead for about 4 days? fair amount of perch from 10-13+ inches...

[guideman]

Same here, catching small fish and few and far between most of the time. The Pike action has been pretty good if that is your bag. Tip-ups with medium sized suckers or dead shinners has been pretty effective. Shoreline breaks in 6 to 12ft have been active for Pike. I'm also doing well on the weed flats and along the deeper weed edges during the middle of the day, right up until sunset.

"Ace"

[Vermilion_figure_8]

Got back from Vermilion today, we had spotty action on the west end, the walleyes we got were extremely active, just hard to find bigger schools, would only graph a few here and there, but the ones we did, hammered the jig. Came across a few pike throughout the day, with one giant pike. also encountered the historic slush that lake vermilion offers, so thats always fun.

[walleyehunter80]

is there a depth that crappie, walleye and perch can all be targeted in the same hole?

Are the fish being caught in the rocks, sand or mud?

Any help would be great

[walleyehunter80]

I guess I should have been more specific on what end of lake........East end info please

Thanks again

[Cliff Wagenbach]

If you want to target all three in the same spot you will have to find deep mud close to rock!

That is usually around 32' to 42' of water.

Cliff

[53orbigger]

Figure_8 you can't tease us with "giant pike" and not give the dimensions and/or picture!

53orbigger

[Vermilion_figure_8]

Here ya go 53orbigger, i suppose not a giant, but for sure a healthy fish

Timmy

[Cliff Wagenbach]

That is a real dandy! Especially through the ice!

Cliff

[chaffmj]

Nice pike!

[53orbigger]

Thanks. A very nice pike indeed!

53orbigger

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Nice fish timmy!

[gonefishing70]

Wow that is a very nice pike. Good job.

[Jarrid Houston]

Great fish Tim.

[harley2011]

heading out to vermilion on sunday! hope to catch a few eyes. probably fishing out of mckinley park, off of birch island.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

harley,

Welcome to HSO!

Good luck out there!

Cliff

[harley2011]

Cliff, do you know if their is a plowed road out to potato island? How thick is the ice? I havent been out in a month? I plan on fishing off of birch island in 27-35ft. I see that the wind is going to change to the south tomorrow... That will either be good or bad. I'll let you guys know how I did.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Harley,

There is no road plowed out as far as Potato.

There is a road plowed out as far as Birch yet. that is where I am located now.

Lots of slush under the deep snow if you leave the plowed roads very far!

Cliff

[harley2011]

Just got back from Vermilion and ended up doing pretty good! We ended up with 6 between the 2 of us. Also had a few missed on the tip- ups. Caught half on tip-ups and the other on a dead stick in the house. Caught fish in 27ft and 30 ft. We graphed a lot of fish but there was a lot of lookers. Biggest was 15" and smallest was 12". We left at 3:15pm because of the blowing snow was so bad! We ended up getting stuck and had to shovel out because the road had drifted on us. I think if we would have stayed we could have done good for the evening bite...

[BassKnuckles]

I'm going to be driving up to Virginia next Saturday and was thinking of checking out Vermilion. Any recommendations where to go? I saw someone say they got stuck and seen talk about slush. Can people drive out there? I've never been to the lake before so that's why I'm asking. Figure8's fish got me excited.

[mntim]

Just got back yesterday and fishing was slowwwwwww. We did get a couple of nice eyes. Took back 5 nice eaters, some perch and released a couple 25". Weather was dang cold which made it difficult to move around and work for them. Slush was bad, even on Saturday morning when it was -39 the day before. We even tried driving out to some smaller lakes to go after crappies but got the truck stuck in 2 minutes since there were no plowed roads. Hopefully, things will pick up for the rest of you guys with the weather turning a bit.

[Hunter21]

Ok, so I have fished Vermilion 7 times this year and I have caught 1 eye and 4 tulibee.... I have fished Mckiney in 25fow,27fow and out in 30fow.... I was looking to go out Saturday morning... Can anyone give me some tips or hints or has it just been that slow???

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The best bite has been in 30' to 32' of water. The mud seems to be the best bite areas. Not that great but better then the sand and rock areas!

The best bite time is from 8:00am to 1:00pm. Set lines with rainbows or chubs are working best.

If possible get off by yourself for a better bite also.

There will be VERY LIMITED access by tomorrow! We have at least 7" of new snow on the ground already tonight!

Cliff

[Hunter21]

Ya I figured the snow was gonna limit access by truck. Also are there detailed mads to show where mud flats are etc? I had a map like that but Lost it. Thanks for the input Cliff

Gary

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The walleye and perch bite on Vermilion is still about the same as it has been the past few weeks.

Some days are pretty good and others are very poor! Very hard to pinpoint a best time to be out there as the bite time has varied almost every day!

You just have to be out there fishing when and IF they decide to bite.

Small crappie sized jigs with a crappie minnow or a wax worm have been the best presentation if you want to jig. Pink, gold, and orange/green have been the best colors. Set lines are still catching a majority of my fish. I have been using rainbows or small suckers as bait on these lines.

On another thread: I tried to get to one of my favorite pan fish spots today with my brother and grand-son using snowmobiles and portables. To make a very long story short, we got buried in 1-1/2' to 2' of slush and spent the entire morning getting out! We were all soaked up to our waists after finally getting onto harder ice and called it a day.

Cliff

[duluthdangler]

I'm in need of some help plowing soon. We're only about 50' off of a plowed road. Is there someone out there who plows out in the McKinley park area? Somebody helped me out last year, but I lost his number (phone down the hole last weekend).

schr0518 at gmail dot com

[BEEGONE]

DD I sent you an e-mail about the plowing.

[gonefishing70]

Cliff.

I have a couple questions for you, me and a few guys are going to be fishing out of mckinley just wondering how the bit has been what depth, still around that 30 foot mark, and hows the slush out there with all this warm weather. Any info would be great.

Thanks.