lake vermilion West End Fishing Reports

[Darrell Larson]

Last night 0130, the skies opened up but prior to that it was quite a light show, a lot of thunder and rain. I heard 4" plus in the Tower area, I can believe that, I leave my boat low on the lift and was making lunch looked out and my boat was floating away caught it just prior to it taking a trip without me. Water level in Pike Bay looks to be up 4-5 inches.  I live on a bottom of a ledge rock area water was running rapidly at the house, put in a drain tile on that side last year,  good idea of a friend of mine up here. All is good now. FYI for you all coming up for the weekend, skeeters are getting brave also.

 

[CigarGuy]

How much has the lake level gone up since Sunday on the west end? I'm a little nervous about my dock decking.  One of the neighbors down on Phillips Rd N had 12 loads of fill brought in and spread last wknd and heard most of it washed out.  

[delcecchi]

We got over 5 inches of rain in last 24 hrs in Wakemup Village.   Lake is up maybe 3 or 4 inches in the last couple days.   My neighbor set the top of his dock 16 inches exactly above surface in June.   Now it is about 5.

I can swing by and take a look in the morning... if you would like.     even send a pic.    It was pretty calm today so you don't have to worry about waves, yet anyway.  

 

[CigarGuy]

11 hours ago, delcecchi said:

We got over 5 inches of rain in last 24 hrs in Wakemup Village.   Lake is up maybe 3 or 4 inches in the last couple days.   My neighbor set the top of his dock 16 inches exactly above surface in June.   Now it is about 5.

I can swing by and take a look in the morning... if you would like.     even send a pic.    It was pretty calm today so you don't have to worry about waves, yet anyway.                                                                         Thanks Del, that's a very nice offer.  My one Saturday a month to work is tomorrow, but I was able to switch it to another day. I'm going to head up tonight and secure things.  Thank you again!

 

 

[delcecchi]

Sounds good.

[delcecchi]

Check it out.looksgood

I 

[CigarGuy]

Just got up here. Road construction sucks.....four hour trip took almost 5 hours.  Thanks Del, back end of the boat was out of the water last weekend. Do you guys use zip ties to secure the dock boards, big rocks or ?...…any good ideas?

Just got up here. Road construction sucks.....four hour trip took almost 5 hours.  Thanks Del, back end of the boat was out of the water last weekend. Do you guys use zip ties to secure the dock boards, big rocks or ?...…any good ideas?

[delcecchi]

Saw one up Norwegian bay tonight with like 10 basketball size rocks.  

Never had to do anything with my old dock since height was adjustable so got no advice there.

Posted 3 pictures to be sure I got the right place.  Bits are (nearly) free

Edited July 14, 2018 by delcecchi

[CigarGuy]

Just got up here. Road construction sucks.....four hour trip took almost 5 hours.  Thanks Del, back end of the boat was out of the water last weekend. Do you guys use zip ties to secure the dock boards, big rocks or ?...…any good ideas?  This was supposed to have been posted last night.  A couple of ratchet straps and I'm golden. Molly the dog is helping me watch my bobber Two eagles and 5 loons, no fish!!

[BrianF]

CigarGuy, cool pic. Looks like a good time/place for a cigar. lol. As far as securing your dock sections, some folks use bailing wire.  That’s what I use. Heading down in a few minutes to secure mine before the next storm takes sections away. Man, the water is high! 

[CigarGuy]

Thanks Brian, the ratchet straps worked great.... quick, easy and secured it tight. I bought a bunch of big zip ties that it looks like I'll never use.

[Pat McGraw]

The guy I bought our place from had an 1/8" cable right down the center of the whole dock. I'll likely move towards a more invisible, section by section approach. However, the full length cable setup has been effective and not as intrusive as one may imagine. Really easy to fasten all the sections at once. May be able to see in the attached

[delcecchi]

I think that's a great way to do it.  Probably only takes a minute to put it on or take it off. 

[BigVwalters]

Got on a pretty decent bite this weekend.   Lots of quality eating size fish 14-18" mostly,  a few bigger ones.  Fish were in main basin steep drop-offs in 20-30 feet.  Crawlers and leeches were working.  Weather was beautiful all weekend.  Can't wait to come back up in August!   

[Wakemup52]

Big V, which bays were you primarily targeting? Glad you had a good trip!

[BigVwalters]

Wolf Bay/ Niles Bay area.  We were also on the water a bit before sunrise both days which I think helped find more active fish. 

[SkunkedAgain]

I'm hopefully going to get a rare chance to fish this coming weekend, having gotten a lot of chores done last weekend. Are crawlers/leeches the go-to right now on lindy's, targeting deep?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Skunked,

Crawlers are my live bait of choice on Lindys right now but I have also been getting a few fish on pike suckers .

Have heard that leeches are also working in some spots.

Cliff

[BigVwalters]

Skunked I would start with crawlers. 

[Bigfatbert]

Skunkola ,  sounds like you like live bait , and so do I , and I know Cliff does , so I would say Cliff kinda summed it all up by mentioning all three live baits , If it was me , I would have all three aboard , as hour by hour the bite can go from crawlers to leeches to good sized minnows to even tiny minnows, and from one day to the next the walleyes preference can and usually does change on this very unpredictable body of water . Paying close attention to your screen also , as depth also can and usually does change on the Big V.... Don’t get hung up on Lindys as jigs fished with all of the above seem to have there times also , from vertical , to dragging..  If one method slows up ,usually just finding the correct combo usually gets em going again. To many people give up on a spot to prematurely and move on or give up totally when the going starts to get tougher . It does keep you busy by constantly changing up sometimes , but well worth the persistence . If there are two or three in your boat , you and your partners should be able to do the switch ups faster , thus lowering your down time on trying a different presentation , and putting those Vermillion golds in your livewell . In general it’s been pretty darn good out there , good luck to you , get em !!! 

[Wakemup52]

Any west end walleye reports as of late? Heading up tonight and hoping to put my uncle from Alaska on a few walleyes!

[JBMasterAngler]

Camped at wakemup bay this past week. Did fairly well, considering a couple weather delays, and not knowing the lake at all. 

 

On the 2nd morning, me and the kids watched the barge getting loaded up with rocks...one of the dump trucks almost pulled forward and miss the passenger side ramp completely. A few minutes later the DNR boat came in with a couple bins full of survey nets, so I got a sneak peak at the 2018 survey results  the future looks bright for perch and tullibees.  The DNR guy was super nice. I was more interested and excited than the kids were.

 

We mostly fished the narrows, but also ventured around Norwegian point. Heard larson bay is good, but didn’t get to fish it due to weather. Anyway, we probably caught about 40 fish. Mostly smallies, some largemouths. My dad caught a little muskie. Also caught 2 jumbo perch and an 18 inch walleye. Most of the bass were small, but my son caught a 4 pound northern, and he made sure everyone we talked to know about it. So, we have a little bit of a blueprint of that area now, would be nice to go back there next year.

 

 

[SkunkedAgain]

Awesome report. Glad to hear that another young kid has caught the fishing bug. You took some beautiful pictures.

[CigarGuy]

Raven, see your house is out and you were out there earlier today, any luck?

Edited December 29, 2018 by CigarGuy

[Raven77]

Pretty slow.  Picked up a 17 and 19.

[CigarGuy]

1 hour ago, Raven77 said:

Pretty slow.  Picked up a 17 and 19.

At least you got a couple. Wife and I went by on the sleds about 3:00 today, was going to stop and say "Hi", but no one home.

[Raven77]

Yep.  We headed in to watch the Vikings.  Should have kept on fishing! 

[BigVwalters]

Was up over New Years and fished from Saturday till Monday morning. Didn't do too well on walleyes I think we managed 5 walleyes.  3 between 14-16" and 2 decent 24" eyes.  Half and half on dead sticks and jigging.  We also managed a few nice Jumbos a well.   Anyone been fishing the west end lately?

[OhioVike]

Similar results at the same time.  

[JFitz]

Same results here. Seems like the fish haven't pushed out to our deeper mid-winter spots yet. The cold weather next week should change things.