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The clutter you see on the bottom is not fish. It is cold water. After the last cold front you are seeing some turnover as the cold water sinks

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Im with cliff on this one,  not even close for water to turn.  we caught more sunfish last week than ever with same results on graph.

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It's not turnover yet but the start of the process as the days get shorter and the evenings cooler nearly every day the water is doing the reverse of what it's done since ice out. Birch Pt is right and it's worth paying attention to.

As far as what your seeing on your graph it's anyone's guess unless we were there as it pinged the bottom and we knew the settings of your locator and speed of the boat etc. maybe a screen shot would help? I've seen a hundred plus yards of carpeted walleye and it's not that uncommon.

On the west end it's usually gills and perch.. 

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Speed of the boat was from slow up to maybe 3 or 4 mph.  Elite 7 hdi , ping lspeed max or thereabouts.  See it not just recently.  Finally decided to dust off my antique aquavue but the battery no longer sold a charge.

The resolution will have to wait, unfortunately.  We are heading south, got some company coming then a wedding in North Carolina. .. 

Be back next year. And watching during the winter.

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Good plan with the aqua view that's always fun. 

Lowrance had problems with destroying transducers that was credited to running max ping speed on the units. I usually run at about a third for the clearest picture on Humminbird. Maybe by backing it off a couple notches I can at least save you a hundred bucks? 

Good luck.. Maybe dynamite?

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delchicchi --- I've seen the arc's you're talking about by Woody's cove.  I've tried Lindy's on several occasions with no success.  Get that camera down there and solve the mystery!

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Del, I run Lowrance too. Recommended ping settings on my model are 50-75%, with the higher setting for shallower water.  As far as the fish are concerned.  We have been picking up Bluegill in our walleye spots this year for some reason. However, they are aggressive.  When we come across what you are describing,  we start trolling cranks and have good success with walleye and/or pike.  When we don't get anything, right or wrong, we blame it on the large muskie lurking and scaring everything else off.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a question. Earlier this year,  I watched a YouTube video with Al Linder catching fall walleye on Lake Vermilion while jigging Rapalas.  I wrote this off as a strong advertising piece as I have done some of this in the winter with limited success.  I guess I was betting that adding another $150 worth of gear to my tackle box wouldn't add much to my success. However, this weekend I watched a couple of guys crush it doing exactly that.  I would be interested in your comments.  Do you fish this way and if so do you have success?

Edited by OhioVike
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Ohio,

I do not use that method but know a couple of other guides that do. They have had great catches at times with jigging Raps!

I tried it and suck at that method! It is all a timing thing just like snap jigging!

Cliff

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Ohio, I've caught a few on Jigging Raps but be prepared to lose lures!  Those Vermilion rocks are hungry! Lol  At $6 a pop, it starts to add up.  Had better luck and lost less gear with traditional methods...trolling, rigging, and live bait jigging.  Cliff and others are on top the bite and giving good advise, but let us know how it goes if you do try it out.

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I used to say that I should just throw my tackle box in the lake and get it over with.  

All that dragging stuff doesn't work on the rocks in Vermilion.   Find sand/mud etc or get your timing down to stay above the rocks.  That "let it settle on the bottom" stuff no go if rocks.    If I had the money for all the stuff I have left on the bottom of Vermilion, I could retire.  (oh wait, I am retired) :):P

Well I could buy a bunch of beer to drink in the boat then...

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Thanks Brian. I will pick up a couple and give it a shot (but stay away from the rocks).  I suppose it will be like anything else new, it takes a while to get it right!  One last question on snap jigging and rap jigging. Would you describe these as similar presentations or distinctly different presentations?

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I'd say they were the same.  Oh, and full disclosure...you will lose a lot of fish on that bait.  It's heavy and they can get leverage on it easily to shake it loose.  Al never shows that though.  lol  I've lost probably half the fish I hook on that bait, but didn't switched to mono as Al Lindner suggests.  Maybe line type makes a huge difference?  I dunno since I didn't make the line change.  I just went back to a jig/minnow and whammo.  

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  • 1 month later...

Does anyone have feedback for the fishing action on the west end?  I am going up this weekend to give it one more go.  

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  • 6 months later...

Bumping West End Reports to the first page. Can't wait to get up to Vermilion in a few weeks, little later start this year than previous years!

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Generally I found the bigger fish were in shallower water and not always in the spots I was expecting.  Deeper water produced some eaters but didn't get a steady bite there, even though there were fish.  

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We're heading up this weekend.  Any hot areas to try?  We've been trying to get eater walleyes on the west end with no luck.  So any suggestions are appreciated.

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I suppose this is going to sound counterintuitive, but right now, I would work the areas you normally work for walleye and just move out a little deeper. We were fishing in 12-14 feet and catching exclusively slot fish and when we pushed our troll out to 18" we started picking up 14-15"  Otherwise, I would go over to Fraizer if that is not too much of a haul for you.  

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  • 2 months later...

Neighbor guy got a couple slot fish on west wakemup with leadcore.   I got a couple, one 19.95 and other 22, rigging crawler also on west wakemup although a different area.  Mine were in like 18 feet. 

 

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I didn't fish any walleye this weekend- only bass. I would fish Friday and Saturday mornings from 530-830 and caught half a dozen largies in the 3-4lb range on a spinner bait.

I just got my Garmin fish finder with sideview which will hopefully help me better locate the walleyes.

Del, were you marking fish as you'd go over them? 

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1 hour ago, Wakemup said:

I didn't fish any walleye this weekend- only bass. I would fish Friday and Saturday mornings from 530-830 and caught half a dozen largies in the 3-4lb range on a spinner bait.

I just got my Garmin fish finder with sideview which will hopefully help me better locate the walleyes.

Del, were you marking fish as you'd go over them? 

I was marking various things, but I didn't note a correlation between marking something and catching the walleye.  Also was catching smallies on the same reefs, although maybe at a little different depth.   In fact I was surprised when the walleye hit.  Likewise the other one the next evening.

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Neighbor and I went out in Wakemup for a couple hours tonight and got a 18" and 19" and had a nice one come unbutton on the way in....Leaches and crawlers.  That's good for me!  20 - 34' off a break line.  Del, working on the last flight of the steps-was looking for you to stop by and help!:)

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9 hours ago, CigarGuy said:

Neighbor and I went out in Wakemup for a couple hours tonight and got a 18" and 19" and had a nice one come unbutton on the way in....Leaches and crawlers.  That's good for me!  20 - 34' off a break line.  Del, working on the last flight of the steps-was looking for you to stop by and help!:)

I've been by a time or two trying to figure out which place is yours.  

I was out on wakemup last night too.   Got nothing, on crawlers.  Started out at merry go round, went to "picnic island" (little island east/south of taylors).  rigged along edge of those two humps in like 18-25 feet.   Musky guys were coming so I turned.  They turned too, chunking baits in the vicinity of my boat.  

Then some guys in a pontoon pulled up and anchored in front of me  and threw out bobbers.   Fished a while longer, and it was getting sort of dark so went home.   Weird.  I've been on those humps a bunch of times this year, and suddenly I get company.   And, even though it is a pretty big area they gravitated to where I was. 

I'll be out today too, so if you need help with supervision, let me know.  :D  But I will drive by to check out the new construction.   

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We were out near Taylors.  Couple boats and us and a pontoon and a pleasure boat cut right between us "sight seeing".  Blows my mind how they cut right between boats that are fairly close to each other fishing an area and cruise right through without a care in the world!  Del, I thought last year you figured out which place I had?

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Wasn't sure, but I found it. looked like  you were cooking something on the grill.  

Edited by delcecchi
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