lake vermilion West End Fishing Reports

[BigVwalters]

Was up last weekend and fished Saturday morning.  Found the walleyes in 20-30ft.   Caught 8 between the two of us.  4 keepers.  25" being the biggest.   All on leeches and minnows.  Heading up right now hoping they are still biting!

[Wakemup52]

Got up to Vermilion tonight and was able to fish off the dock with a bobber - no walleyes for me but did catch a few smallies. Beautiful night, can't wait for tomorrow!

[bassbouncer]

Fished for a couple hours tonight caught a 15" and a 20" within sight of my place on a spot I used to fish as a kid. Very encouraging. Missed a couple also. 27' mud bottom next to rock-rig and a leech. 

[OhioVike]

I'll be up on Wednesday. Any mayflies yet?

[bassbouncer]

I haven't seen any yet

[DLD24]

Me and the gf fished bass from 12-530 and eyes from 6-9....caught some decent sized largies and some small smallies, wasn't a good top water bite I was hoping to get the gf on....We ended up with 3 eyes rigging with a leech on a rocky hump (she caught them all ha) 26" was the biggest. It made the trip seeing how excited she was...

[Xplorer]

Son and I made it up to the landing next to the campground at 10.  Headed up to the far end of Norwegian Bay and threw frogs back in the bays for largies until the storm rolled in.  We missed over a half dozen, just couldnt get the hang of fishing them.  They would pounce on them and take them down but not hock-up.  We hunkered down on shore as the storm/rain rolled thru and had a sandwich.

Headed back out after and hit the reed beds casting small cranks.  Son immediately has a big fish on, and its taking tons of drag on him.  After about 10 minutes I slip the net under a very nice fat 33" pike!!  Made his day!  

After that he caught 6-7 smallies, a few rock bass, and he even caught a bluegill on the same crank that he caught the pike on, that was unexpected

Got back to the launch at 430 and headed home, was nice to spend the day out there together despite the downpour.  Lots of folks fishing eye's on the rockpiles.  Temps were as high as 68 in those northern bays. 

[JFitz]

Got into a few keeper walleyes this morning in 18-20 ft over sand. Caught them dragging lindy rigs and the old Uncle Josh pork worms. Sun came out so we bailed and went crappie fishing instead. Found some nice ones still up in shallow weeds. Fun first wknd back on Vermilion!

[Wheres_Walter]

I have heard a good amount of chatter about senko worms for bass, both smallies and largemouth.  I assume there are those on Vermilion that are already using them and have been for a while.  I'll be up after the 4th of July and wanted to test my luck on some smallies, and wondered if there are some colors/sizes that tend to perform best on Vermilion?  And are senko's a good mid-summer presentation for Smallies?  Thanks.

[JFitz]

Weightless Senkos work great any time the bass are shallow. My favorite is the 5" in green pumpkin. If you throw it around docks or wood, you'll catch fish!

Seems like a lot of the bigger smallmouth start moving towards deeper water this time of year but you should still be able to find some shallow. 

Edited June 27, 2016 by JFitz

[Wheres_Walter]

Jfitz- Thanks for the response.  I've read that you can drop shot a senko to get to deeper fish.  Ever tried that?  If not, what do you suggest for fishing smallies when they go deeper?  Slip bobber?  Jig?  Live bait?

Edited June 27, 2016 by Wheres_Walter

[delcecchi]

If a leech doesn't get bit, there are no bass in the area.  

[JFitz]

The leech would definitely work! I haven't fished a drop-shot much, but I know some tournaments get won out there using them. A senko would be perfect, maybe even wacky rigged. I've done well throwing a brown football jig around deeper rocks (10-15'). If it looks like a crayfish, the smallies will eat it!

[Wakemup52]

Headed up the Big V on Friday for the long weekend, I am looking to target muskies on the West End for the first time. Does anyone have any musky reports or patterns? Planning on throwing blades above the weeds and plastics on main lake rocks as well.

[neptune]

I haven't been up for two weeks but some guys caught a 46" on double blades just out from our dock in Greenwood that weekend.  The area is about 6-10' and fairly weedy at the time.

[delcecchi]

Come on.  Surprisingly few folks fishing muskies on west end yesterday.  Water is 70 more or less.   

[Wakemup52]

I didn't end up fishing muskies, too much work to do around the cabin but did fish bass for a few days and did decently well. Soft plastics and spinner baits on rocks and docks. Water temps between 72-74.

[CLOTAGAMES]

We were up three weeks ago fishing walleye in Norwegian bay. Had caught a few slot fish and had a nice 24 incher up to boat and wife was ready to net when a monster muskie decided he wanted walleye for supper. Grabbed it sideways and wife hit it with net. Got the walleye back. I am certain the next state record walleye will come out of Vermillion. Had a guy catch this 54.5 Muskie the day before in front of Life Of Riley.

[gocubsgo]

1 hour ago, CLOTAGAMES said:

We were up three weeks ago fishing walleye in Norwegian bay. Had caught a few slot fish and had a nice 24 incher up to boat and wife was ready to net when a monster muskie decided he wanted walleye for supper. Grabbed it sideways and wife hit it with net. Got the walleye back. I am certain the next state record walleye will come out of Vermillion. Had a guy catch this 54.5 Muskie the day before in front of Life Of Riley.

was it released?

[CLOTAGAMES]

3 hours ago, gocubsgo said:

YES!!!!

 

[OhioVike]

How has the bite been on the west end? Are the walleye still hitting on leaches or am I better served by offering crawlers?

 

[Wheres_Walter]

The past two weekends I've been getting plenty of 13-15" eaters on a jig with half a crawler under a slip bobber, particularly in the evening.   Reef that tops out at 18-20 FOW.  Yesterday morning i picked up this fish, 26", doing the same thing.  Second biggest I've gotten on Vermilion, so I was pretty pumped.

[delcecchi]

Grand daughters left, so I got out this afternoon.  First cast was a 40 inch northern (she swam away) went downhill from there.

I'll post picture later.

 

Btw, talked to the new dnr guy, he said they are considering regulation change.

[delcecchi]

Here is the fish....  Only had a 36 inch ruler on the gunwale...It was a palm width over 36.

•  

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Nice pike ,Del!

Cliff

[delcecchi]

She is still available somewhere over here.

[OhioVike]

Thank you. WW, where do you set your bobber? 10" off the bottom?

[Wheres_Walter]

Cliff suggested, in a previous post, to set it 12-16" off the bottom, so that's where I tried to keep it.  

[Wheres_Walter]

Ohio- For what its worth, under the slip bobber, chartreuse jigs (1/8 oz)worked best the past two weekends on Frazer Bay.

PS- That's a gator, Del!

[delcecchi]

A buddy and I put a geocache near the one on the west side of norwegian bay, oriented towards kids, if you need an activity. 

Went out last night,   long about 830 stopped at a rocky point with a hazard marker and got 8 bass on about 10 casts using an unweighted wacky 4 inch senko.