Lake Vermilion Area Fishing/Conditions Reports

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Gonefishing70,

The bite is still very unpredictable at best! Ok on some days and very poor on most others. 30 feet and deeper is still the best areas to target. Small jigs with crappie minnows or set lines are the best presentations.

The road out of McKinley has about 8 inches of water on a lot of it according to a friends report today! I will be going out tomorrow to see. I would guess that the slush problem has gotten worse now.

Cliff

[gonefishing70]

Thank you very much, every one will be up thurs. well give it a good shot. I will post how we do.

[BEEGONE]

You heard right cliff I was out of mckinley this afternoon. There was roughly 400 to 600 feet of standing water on the road out to birch in two different sections. The deepest it got was about 8 inches. Subsequently I ended up pulling two houses off just in case conditions would not allow their removal later this week.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I was out there this morning and found the same conditions. I do not expect it to get any better with around 40 degree weather predicted for the next two days!

Cliff

[Vermilion_figure_8]

sounds like water everywhere up there! anyone throwing topwater baits? Bring on the open water!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I pulled all of my houses off of the lake today! I had to drive through 6" to 12" of water for about 1/2 mile to get them off!

Enough is enough!

Have to concentrate on pan fish now!

Cliff

[gonefishing70]

Well we fished thursday,friday,saterday, Thanks for the info Cliff we fished in 32ft of water and used crappie minnows and jigs, we caught fish every day, Best bit was from 9:00 till 2:00 it wasnt fast and nothing real big but we had alot of fun, cliff was that you guys pulling off thurs when we were setting up, It was fine going out there on thur. had to drive in about 12in. of water but takeing the house off on sunday was a pain, the road was not very good. But all in all had a good weekend.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Gonefishing70,

That was us taking our houses off! What a wet mess!

Should be very good going out there now though!

Cliff

[harley2011]

Went snowmobiling on Sunday and it wasnt the best conditions. Everything was icy and hard. The trails werent groomed either. Their was only one person fishing outside of McKinley Park. I dont think it was a good day for anything...

[Cliff Wagenbach]

3/9/11 - Lake Vermilion Fishing Report

Now that the walleye/pike season is over in this area I have been concentrating my efforts on pan fish.

I have had a fairly good bite on Vermilion for jumbo perch and large crappies.

The bite has not been fast and furious but the fish that I have been catching are very nice sized! The perch are averaging around 12" to 14" long and the crappies are 13" to 15" fish!

Most of these fish are being caught in around 34 feet of water over a mud bottom.

The crappies have been anywhere from right on the bottom to suspended at around 22 feet deep. The perch have all come off of the bottom 2 feet of water.

I am also catching a ton of nice sized Tulibees and an occasional walleye.

The best bite has been from sunrise to around 11:00am.

I have been using both wax worms and crappie minnows as bait with equal success on many days.

The best presentations have been 1/16 oz. Demon Jigs in chartreuse or pink, Hali Jigs,Diamond jigs or a plain #6 pink hook/split-shot combo under a small bobber.

Travel conditions are now very good on the lake.

Good Fishing!

Cliff

[Darrell Larson]

Excellent report Cliff, like I mentioned on the phone I am doing the Midnight shift this week, may have to sneak out one morning. I have next week off starting Tuesday, we may have to do some exploring with the wheelers. Later Darrell.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Great idea Darrell!

Should be ideal weather and conditions next week!

Cliff

[Slip Sinker]

Cliff,

I am thinking about reliving our fishing success on Memorial Day weekend a couple of years ago. It was the weekend that you had to use your clicker to keep track of the number of walleye's we caught. I think we ended up north of 80 fish. Do you have any openings on that weekend? If so, I will let you know shortly.

Thanks.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Slip Sinker,

I still have the 29th, and 30th open at this time.

Thanks!

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

3/17/11 Lake Vermilion weekly fishing report

This weekend is the last weekend that we can have our permanent fish houses out overnight.

I pulled my last house off of Vermilion this morning. Had to drive through around 6 inches of water that was on top of the ice from the recent thaw and rain last night!

Not very much to report as far as a bite this week.

Caught a few sun fish and a couple of nice perch on my last trip out but no real numbers.

If the spring thaw goes like normal there should be good travel conditions in a week or so and then another week or two of good fishing for pan fish ahead of us before it starts to get to unsafe for travel on the ice.

Please take extra precautions if you venture out this time of the year as ice conditions can change drastically in a very short time now!

Good Fishing!

Cliff

[Fighten_Moosen]

Anyone know how the drive to trout lake portage is?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Anyone know how the drive to trout lake portage is?

Welcome to HSO!

The ice in front of my house dried up last night and today.

Should be good going on the lake now.

Cliff

[Fighten_Moosen]

Thanks Cliff!

[reinhard1]

welcome to HSO! good luck.

[Steve Foss]

How is the ice for trucks now on V? Specifically, I need to get from Moc Point to Pine Island in the next couple of days and would prefer to drive the truck.

And has anyone gotten into any Vermilion crappies? I'll bet the answer is yes.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Steve,

The going is very good on Vermilion now. You should have no problems.

I plan to go out that way tomorrow with my truck.

Will be fishing for Tulibees and may try for crappies.

Did ok for both a couple of weeks ago.

Cliff

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Cliff!

[JerkinLips]

Rode the snowmobile from McKinley Park to the Trout Lake portage yesterday afternoon. Practically no snow on the lake (very few spots of 1-2" hard snow). Some snow along the shorelines (especially the north sides), but it is very firm and shouldn't be a problem.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Lake Vermilion, 3/28/11

The travel conditions on almost all of the area lakes is the best that it has been all winter now! Very easy to get almost anywhere you want to go with anything that has wheels!

Managed to get out on Vermilion a couple of mornings this week.

Fished mainly for tulibees but did manage to ice a couple of jumbo perch. No crappies on Vermilion this week though.

Made a trip to a lake by Ely on Thursday with a friend and we iced probably close to 50 crappies. Most of them were small but did keep 15 decent ones and 5 or 6 sunfish.

Wax worms on a firetiger colored Haili Jig worked the best for us.

Most of the fish were suspended at 22 feet over 30 feet of water.

Looks like we may still have a couple of weeks to get out before the landings get to bad with any luck.

Good Fishing!

Cliff

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I caught a crappie on Vermilion in the winter one time... I think the picture is in a certain book written by Steve Foss. Crappie spots are few and cherished

[Steve Foss]

I caught a crappie on Vermilion in the winter one time... I think the picture is in a certain book written by Steve Foss. Crappie spots are few and cherished

Yeah, at the last minute before the book went to print I edited out your GPS coordinates for the Most Famous Lake Vermilion Slab Spot in History. Just looking out for ya, bud!

[Casey Sunsdahl]

They change every year anyways... just gotta get out there and drill holes! I tell people that all the time and they think I am BSing them.. Get out there and put about 4 tanks of gas through the auger and you will find some!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Lake Vermilion, 4/6/11

Sunday may have been my last day of ice fishing for this winter for me.

My grandson and I managed to catch a good meal of nice bluegills in the morning.

Ice conditions in that area have been deteriorating quickly the past week and are probably getting unsafe by now.

Vermilion is still frozen solid. I took a ride out there on my ATV yesterday and the ice was dry and solid.

A few of the landing are starting to go out because of dirt and salt on the ice there.

I checked much of the area where permanent fish houses had been set up last winter and found very little litter on the ice. Way to go guys!

My open water season will start tomorrow as I will be headed to the Rainy River with a few other guide friends!

I will try to get a report in on that trip next week!

Good Fishing!

Cliff

[cartway]

3 weekends ago I picked up three loads of blocking and trash with my wheeler and cart off the ice in the fishhouse area from Cherry island, to Birch and toward McKinley. Some blocking was clearly big enough to bend a prop. Please take the time to chisel out your blocking. Thank you.

On a good note I have all the blocking a guy could want for any projects this summer.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

It was a bad year for blocking with all the snow and slush... some of that blocking was probably 8 - 10 inches below the original top layer of ice.. no excuse but understandable..