Lake Vermilion Fishing Q&A

[delcecchi]

Crappies are a mystery to me. As for Gills, seems to be that anywhere there are weeds should be good. As for big water and small boats, you can go anywhere around there, just using a little common sense. There is usually some place to get out of the wind.

I don't know that area too well, but word is that the best bet for walleye would be to go to Frazier Bay, to the east through oak narrows. See the DNR fishing report, the new one was just put online

search for FisheriesManagementonLakeVermilionin2011.pdf with your search engine. here is a quote...

"Angling prospects for walleye look favorable in 2012. There

are good numbers of 13-17 inch walleye in the population,

especially on East Vermilion. Most of these fish are from strong

year classes produced in 2006 and 2007. The number of keepersized

walleye has also improved in the Niles Bay area of West

Vermilion. Prospects for catching quality sized fish (over 18 inches)

are also favorable, especially on West Vermilion. There are high

numbers of walleye over 18 inches in the population from the strong

year classes produced in 2002 and 2003, however these larger fish

must be released in order to comply with the special regulation on

Lake Vermilion."

It is worth looking for. Also many of the threads on this board are quite informative.

[cigar man]

Coming up on Memorial Day weekend and even though it's prior to opening weekend, I thought I'd check to see if there are any updates on the walleye, bass crappie action on the West end.

[Shep7]

Hey CometCoach,

Small world, but I'm coming up from central Illinois to Lost Weekend Cabin the 9th through 16th of June. Be sure to take good notes and leave them for us.

In the past we have had good luck for largemouth, northern and crappie in any of the bays in the area. We hit every lay down we come across with crappie tubes under slip floats for crappie. They aren't on every tree, but when they are, the action is awesome. Soft plastics and spinnerbaits work for the largemouth, and the northern will hit them as well. I lose alot of tubes while fishing for smallmouth because of them.

We've also done well for smallmouth on any rocky shoreline that has some decent depth close. We typically use tubes or any other crawfish-imitating soft plastic. My buddy had a musky latch onto a smallmouth in Wolf Bay the last time we were up.

Haven't done well with walleye, so this year we are getting a guide.

Looking forward to see how things go this weekend. Hope some of this helps.

Shep

[cometcoach]

That is cool that you are from Illinois as well I will leave some info from our trip when we leave. Thanks for the crappie info that might be valuable if we decide to do something different. Me and my partner fish for mainly walleyes but when the fishing is slow we fish for smallies. We did not have a hard time finding them last time either. We caught a lot with most being 12 - 16 inches not bad considering we cannot find them here that size. I also had a HUGE muskie follow twice last time and it was so big I was not sure that I wanted to mess with it. It was cool non the less. This is our first time fishing at Lost cabin last time we stayed over by the dam. I am hoping to find some more walleye spots this trip so that we can do more spot hopping. Last time we found them in a bay but the bite was very inconsistant. We did have enough keepers to have a fish fry which was good.

[Shep7]

Down here in the land of corn and soybeans, I don't get to fish for walleye very often, so when the bite is slow, it's hard not to go catch 3 and 4 lb. smallies. I've been on fly-ins in Ontario, and that has kind of spoiled me as well.

This forum has been great, though. I've picked up a lot of great advice. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

Shep

[james_walleye]

Start tuned shep, there will be a lot more great info in the coming weeks. Last year I got my feet wet on V. Hopefully I can contribute more info myself this year.

[GSP4ME]

Good luck to everyone heading to the big V this weekend. Keep us updated. I wont get a chance to get there until the 2nd week of june but am just comping at the bit to get there. good luck and keep the hooks sharp and the lines wet

[GSP4ME]

come on you guys are killing me how was it out there????/

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The fishing was very good on Sat, Sun., and Mon. for walleyes!

A little tough on Sunday though because of the heavy winds! Had to use a drift sock and 1 oz. of weight on our lindy rigs.

Boated around 60 walleyes and a couple of jumbos in the three days.

Cliff

[Shulsebus]

How has the walleye and pike fishing been on the east side? Only twelve days until I get up there, I'm pumped! What's good to use to catch walleye? Lindy rigs, jig, lures?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Shulsebus,

The walleye bite is still very good on the East end!

Lindys are working great for me. A few are also using jigs and catching fish.

Cliff

[cigar man]

Anyone have an update on the walleye bite on the west end? Be there tonight through Monday.

[guideman]

I haven't fished the west end yet this season, but I can tell you this. There were 6 west end guides fishing for Walleyes on Big bay last thursday, that should tell you how the bite is on the west end.

I'm just saying..

"Ace"

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I spent the whole day prefishing over there on Wed before the tourney and hit the best of the best.. marked a lot of walleyes and they just wouldnt eat... I know if you hit the right spot during a feeding window it's game on but we only boated 2 walleyes and lost 2.. both fish were in the slot. Very poor start to the west end bite! Have heard some OK reports but there is little consistency over there.. you really need to work your butt off... The east end continues to shine.. deep shallow sand gravel rocks whatever... not hard to find or catch fish. had a couple really great evenings this week from pitchin jigs to lindys. Hope this continues!

Capt.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

By the way, when there are 50 boats a day on one spot for a week and a half there are probably more active fish somewhere else... I spend two hours there one day and that was enough... Sad to see IMHO

Capt.

[Shulsebus]

I hsve a couple question about lindy rigs if someone could help me out. Is there some that are better than others? I went to the store to look at them and there are a lot of different choices. For technique is it best to slowly drift and slowly reel in the rig? I'm pretty new to fishing these that's the purpose for my questions. Is there any different way to fish lindy rigs or better way maybe? Thanks in advance!

[Fish Head]

I make my own rigs and I think a lot of the guys here probably make their own. Generally you don't reel in while using a rig. You would drift or move along with your trolling motor. Find bottom, than hold the weight up just off bottom so you don't get hung up on a rock. Keep your bail open and when you feel a bite, I let go of the line. Give it just a couple seconds or so, reel in the line so it’s tight and you can feel the fish, than give a sweeping hook set.

Good luck

[delcecchi]

There are two ways of making a rig. If you have mono on the reel you can put on a sliding sinker and then tie on a hook. Put a small split shot on the line to act as a stop. (you can use a bobber stop instead).

Or you can put on the sinker and tie a small swivel on the line. Tie a piece of mono or fluorocarbon line to the swivel and the hook to the end of that. If the mono is lighter than the main line you might get the sinker back if you snag.

A third way, that I am going to try, is going drop shot style with the hook above the sinker.

Buying rigs seems like a waste.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

There are two ways of making a rig. If you have mono on the reel you can put on a sliding sinker and then tie on a hook. Put a small split shot on the line to act as a stop. (you can use a bobber stop instead).

Or you can put on the sinker and tie a small swivel on the line. Tie a piece of mono or fluorocarbon line to the swivel and the hook to the end of that. If the mono is lighter than the main line you might get the sinker back if you snag.

A third way, that I am going to try, is going drop shot style with the hook above the sinker.

Buying rigs seems like a waste.

Buying the rigs is a huge waste of money! You can make at least a half dozen "custom" rigs for the price of a bought one!

Very easy to make the standard rig.

First select the weight and type of sinker that you want to use, slide the sinker onto your main line,tie on a 11/16" swivel(or something close to that size), tie about 3' to 5' of 8# fluorocarbon or mono line,

add a bead or two if you like, tie on a #4 bait hook. DONE!

Fish these rigs right on the bottom with the sinker bouncing along slowly by either drifting or trolling with your electric or motor.

Cliff

[Shulsebus]

Thanks for all the info! I thought making your own was easier and cheaper. I have made my own crawler harness before so one of these is nothing. I can't wait until june 2nd to get up there a fish the lake!

[CHEX1982]

Are largemouth just not on people's to-do list while on Vermilion?

[Uncle Boney]

You don't hear much talk about the largemouths, but on the west end they have been increasing in my experience over the last 5 years. Our nephew fishes almost exclusively for them and does quite well. Most any heavily weeded bay. Last year I caught a couple on rocky plateaus where walleye usually are.

[NilesBayHusker]

The large mouth action has been picking up on the West end the last 2 years for me. I like the action and the size of the fish. Plastic baits (tube jigs, sinckos, worms, etc.) work well for me.

[guideman]

You can find Largemouth bass on both ends of the lake, however the west end has a lot more habitat for them. In my opinion the LM fishing on the west end is as good as any of the Big name locations that get more attention. You rarely see to many people targeting Largemouth, especially the locals. We had an everstart tournament up here back in like 2002 and many locals didn't even realize that we had Largemouth bass in Vermilion.

The action is good and they aren't hard to find.

"Ace"

[SkunkedAgain]

You rarely see people talking about LMbass, muskies, or panfish on these forums because they are everywhere...okay maybe not the muskies but those guys know where to find them. You'll see the occasional SMbass or crappie question with 90% of the conversation being about the walleye since they are so finicky.

[Shulsebus]

Any word on the northern or crappie bite? I'm going to be up there this saturday and wouldn't mind catching some of these. Also since it will be the muskie opener this saturday, is there anything I should be casting trying to catch them? I will be on the east side of the lake. Also it's my first time fishing this lake.

[guideman]

You won't find much Crappie action on the east end, unless you know something we don't. haha You will find some decent Pike fishing but you'll have to go where they are. Stuntz bay, Armstrong bay, Mud Creek bay, Pike bay Bystrom bay and Greenwood bay all have some decent pike in them. If you are thinking about chasing a Muskie or two. Make sure you have all the release tools in the boat with you.

A large net, long pliers, jaw spreader, hook cutter and maybe a baker hook out to round it out. Handle them with care.

"Ace"

[Shulsebus]

Thank you for the advice sir!! If we do hook into a muskie we to have all the tools and will take very good care of the fish. The only fish we look to keep is for eating. Obviously not going to be keeping any muskie. I probably wont sleep tonight I'm so excited about leaving tomorrow. I hope in the next couple days I can actually contribute with a fishing report and not just asking for advice. Thanks to all those who have giving me some tips on this forum. It's greatly appreciated!

[10,000 Casts]

Quick question,

I moved to Virginia and one thing I keep hearing from the locals is that the muskies ate all he walleyes and thats why V is declining every year.. First off, i think the walleye fishing is great right now and second, its not the muskies so i don't want to start that debate but my question is, is the walleye fishing as good as it was 10 years ago and if not, what could be the causes? I think that technology leads to the people catching and keeping more fish on soft and hard water, that lea to more people out there and that a lake like v is so big with so many islands and bays that it may not seem busy but it always has a good amount of people on it and that has lead to fewer walleyes, or another thing is that the people that complain seem to be novice anglers and that's why they could be having trouble.

What are your thoughts?

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I would say you have the right idea with technology and mass sharing and anglers fishing memory's.. A friend of mine that has been coming up for 40 plus years says fishing has never been better. I can't disagree.. I have had 6 great seasons of guiding and season 7 has started Out phenomenal!