West end bite

[Coffee118]

We will be making our yearly trip to vermilion next week and was wondering how the walleye & northern fishing has been on the west end . I usually pull cranks all week but wanted to switch to live bait for a change. Which would be better this time of year minnows or half crawler? Usual spots are from windsock to goodwill/fire islands & over to woody's bay. Thanks

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Bring both baits out with you this time of the year!

Cliff

[norwaybay]

It has been great reading the posts of Cliff and seeing the pictures of the nice walleyes.  I have not been up for the past two weeks but will be up on the west end this weekend.  I am anxious to troll some crank baits but will also use crawlers.  I had no luck earlier with leeches when crawlers did the trick.  I had seen fish around stove top and merry go round but had no luck.  Mid lake humps near turtle island had fish and caught smallies and some walleyes but that was two weeks ago.  Appreciate all the posts and good luck.  Can't wait to get on the water.

[midex717]

Hello all!

Just returned this past Saturday from a week of fishing the west end of Vermilion, primarily the Norwegian Bay Area.  What a beautiful area, looks almost identical to the Sabaskong Bay Area of Lake of the Woods, I'll definitely be back!

The weeks started  out cool, with heavy drizzle, rain squalls, and wind, but cleared midday Tuesday with an outstanding remainder of the week.  Weapons of choice were crankbaits trolled over rocks, and the edges of humps.  

I spent the first few days searching the north shoreline of Norwegian Bay, the reef straight out from Woody's Cove, (the reef with the single pin), Square Rock Island, Merry-Go-round, and various other discovered reefs.  I would make trolling runs mainly on the deep edges starting out with a 20' Taildancer searching for walleyes, and ending the stay on the reef with large, deep running cranks in search of muskies.  None of the spots produced walleyes, or muskies, but I would occasionally contact a pike, or schools of smallmouth.  Usually marked a lot of fish on the deep edges, but really no meaningful contacts.

I did find an area that produced large walleyes.  Sounds like you guys know Norwegian well, so my advice would be to head over to Twin Islands.  I would finish the afternoon off prior to heading in for dinner by trolling the southern tip of the largest island, and the two humps that are located southwest, and to the southeast of Twin Islands.  The walleyes in this area preferred the 30' deep, and the slightly smaller 20' deep Taildancer in firetiger color.  I would  start the trolling run west of the islands heading east, and as I approached the islands start a right turn, and head over the rocks that run from the tip of the largest island out to around 300 feet from the island.  The rocks vary from 10 to 25 feet down with spires up to 10 feet, and drop offs on the other side to 20 feet.  Tick the tops of the rocks, and hang on!  They were very hungry, and really whacked the crank!

After passing the islands I would make a hard right turn, and proceed towards the hump located southeast of the islands.  Staying on the north side of that hump produced the most fish. Same thing, tick the top of the rocks, and you will get strikes.  I would teardrop around, and repeat the pattern in the reverse direction.

The water temp last week varied from 64 to 68 degrees, so I found that 2.4 mph was the speed the walleyes wanted.  I use a line counter reel, and had the lure back anywhere from 150' to 210' varying it as I approached the rocks.  Caught a 22",  a 23", and a 25" at that hump during the late afternoon, and the remainder from 7:30pm up till 9pm in that area.  The largest 26" was caught just before 9pm Friday night on the 20' version of the Taildancer in firetiger.  

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Nice fish!

Trolling cranks certainly produces some bigger fish!

Cliff

[delcecchi]

Nice fish!

Trolling cranks certainly produces some bigger fish!

Cliff

Not too many little fish on the west end.

[Coffee118]

Thanks for the tips & reports. Will be up and on the water in a week

[Wheres_Walter]

I'm headed up this weekend for the holiday.  My weekend will be mostly about closing the cabin for the season, but I'm hoping to get out a little one evening with my son (7) and brother in law and his son (10) for a little walleye fishing.   I almost never fish at this time of year, so I'm curious if sitting on a couple reefs that generally produce for me (12-20 FOW) and using slip bobbers can be productive at this time of year.  If so, Leaches?  Minnows?  Crawlers?   Thanks in advance for any tips.

Matt

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Most of the reefs are still producing walleyes.

Type of bait  that works at each spot can really vary so I suggest that you bring all three,

Large minnows can really be the ticket now!

Cliff

[norwaybay]

Was finally able to get up and fish Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening for a couple hours each evening and the fishing was great.  Twelve slot fish 20-26 and three nice keepers Friday.  Fish were very active just before dark.  Used crawlers and biggest were caught with perch colored spinner on crawler harness with red hooks and green beads.   Fish were caught in 10-15 feet over rocky humps.  Fish were along weed edges also but had to keep bluegills and small perch from stealing bait.  Lost a few larger fish at boat.  I marked fish over mid lake humps but weren't as active.  I put two of the keepers back and kept one to eat Friday hoping the fish gods would smile on me and caught two 26's Saturday .  Leeches didn't work but crawlers really did the trick.  Fall fishing should be good.

[SkunkedAgain]

I got exactly one hour to fish over Labor Day weekend. I visited one of my favored spots in Wakemup with my wife and 4yr old all enduring the light rain. We were treated to two beautiful rainbow arcs to the east and further rewarded when my quarter-crawler on a floating lindy hooked a perfect 17" walleye off the flat bottom.

Edited September 16, 2015 by SkunkedAgain