2017 Vermilion Ice fishing reoprts and ice conditions

[JerkinLips]

Moved out to deeper water and the fishing was definitely better.  Fished Dec. 20-23 in 28FOW in Big Bay, catching 26 walleyes, including 7 slot fish.  22" seemed to be the magic length since that was the length of 5 of the slot fish, and the biggest I caught.sucker minnows were best on Dec. 20, then couldn't catch another on them.  Chubs took over the next two days.  Caught a few on shiners.  Only fished a plain hook.  Good luck.

[VermilionGold]

Thanks for the report JL, how much ice did you find in big bay?Will be up next weekend with the family, hoping to get the sleds out on the lake.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

• Plenty of ice on the lake for snow mobiles!
• Had about 11 to 12 inches today when I drilled new holes.
• Cliff

 

[JerkinLips]

I had 9" of ice in Big Bay.  Entire lake should be safe for snowmobiles now, being careful around narrows.  It looks like they staked the entire lake now.  Found a few small spots of slush.

[RoosterMan]

Is the bite going better in the AM or the PM?  

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Roosterman,

I have had a good bite in the AM from 8:30 to noon and then the last couple hours before dark!

Even getting a fish or two some days during the deader mid-day period.

Overall this has been one of my best early winter bites that I have had for a few years!

Cliff

[BulldogInTC]

Thanks for the updates Cliff and JL. We are driving up now for a couple days and pretty pumped for first time out this year. We'll be sticking around the west side and hope to give some updates as we can with little cell service.  Any update on snow total from the snow storm?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Not a whole lot of new snow in this area. 3 -4 inches maybe. Drifting a lot though!

Cliff

[JerkinLips]

Walleye bite has been scattered throughout the day for me this year, including numerous fish between the normally dead hours of noon-3pm.  I have not had a good morning bite except for my last morning last Saturday.  The late afternoon bite seems to shut off for me at sunset.

[Slobslayer99]

Coming up this weekend what's the hot color been? What's the better bite off shore structure or the points and breaks thanks for any advise much appreciated 

[Cliff Wagenbach]

SS,

Either type of structure is holding fish.

I have been doing my best with a 1/8 oz. hammered gold/firetiger Maynards slammer jig with a crappie minnow on it.

Cliff

[gonefishing70]

Cliff. Is there anyone pulling wheel house's out to birch yet? heading that way Thursday to check the ice.  

[Cliff Wagenbach]

70,

Quite a few wheel houses showing up now. Probably 15 houses out by Birch.

4 wheeler only yet!

Cliff

[RoosterMan]

Cliff thank you. 

[gonefishing70]

Thank you Cliff.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I saw 12 pick ups on the ice today!

14 inches of ice in newly drilled holes!

Cliff

[gonefishing70]

Wow, That came quick glad to hear that. Thanks for the update. 

[Slobslayer99]

Think I'm allrite with an SUV this weekend Useing the McKinley  access  and fishing around the ely island area 

Edited December 29, 2016 by Slobslayer99

[Cliff Wagenbach]

A small suv is lighter then the pickups that I saw out there!

Cliff

[RoosterMan]

Well we did not kill em today but we managed a few bites. My son had a blast.  Beautiful day on the lake to run around with the sled. 

[goalieman01]

Update from the week. Overall we did very poorly and tried a lot of spots as well as a lot of different techniques. Fished from 30ft to 11ft and could not get the fish to bite. Only saw 2 other portables out in Frazer bay and didn't seem they had much luck either. Ice was good, ranged from 10 to 14 inches of clear ice

 

2 years now we have tried many spots with no luck. showing lots of fish on the vexilar but cannot get them to bite, I plan on getting a camera next time to see what is down there.

 

I guess that's why its called fishing not catching. Still had a good time and enjoyed the week.

[JerkinLips]

Fishing was a little slower for me 12/29-12/31.  3 of us got skunked 12/29pm.  Then I caught 7 fish on each of the next two days fishing alone.  I still think the Vexilar scares walleyes away from a dead stick since we had it on 12/29 and I didn't use it the next two days.  Caught 5 slot fish including a 24", 25", and 26" caught in sequence on Friday (24" and 25" were a double).  Best bite was on sucker minnows, and a few fish on both shiners and chubs (all on plain hooks).  My last slot fish had a half dozen growths on it as seen in the last picture; fish seemed very healthy otherwise.  One fish had its eyes popped out as shown in the last picture.  This fish came up very fast from 30 FOW.  Is that enough to pop the eyes out?  Is this fish safe to eat?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

JL,

I have seen a lot of walleyes with those growths. They are a virus type growth that they get in cold water. No problem with eating them as the growths are only on the skin. All fish that I have caught with those growths have always appeared to be healthy otherwise. I have caught a couple that had at least a dozen of them!

Cliff

Goalieman,

I had a friend that was fishing Frazer the past few days and he did OK there. He said that he was fishing in depths from 30' to 37'. Best bite was up until 11:00am for him.

Cliff

[BulldogInTC]

Additional update on last week in Frazer Bay from Goalieman's.  My father-in-law and his brother were up the night we left and took over fishing duties until Sunday.  They had similar luck, pulled in 2 15" walleyes Friday-Sunday and a crawdad.  Neighbor had best luck though with bringing in 2-3 walleyes Thursday night bite.  Hopefully can find a weekend to make it up one more time this year.  I'll try and get an update from FIL on how he does next weekend.

[Slobslayer99]

Fished the 31st-2nd fishing was pretty good caught around 40 walleyes fishing 28ft of water Saturday 10:00 - 1:00 pm best bite and on Sunday morning caught several fish when it was snowing then the sun came out and the bite shut off picked a few more that evening before dark and then yesterday morning caught about 10 more by 10:00am and drove back to the city

[Cliff Wagenbach]

We ended up with about 10 inches of fluffy new snow in this area the past couple of days.

Still not to bad driving on the lake. Managed to drive to my fish house without much trouble this afternoon.

Cliff

[Jacobdenn]

Me and a few buddies were thinking about coming up to Vermillion this weekend and catching some fish. He has family in the area and has been going there since he was little so knows the lake semi-decent. I was wondering how much ice your finding and where your finding it. Is there plowed roads out there or is it pretty tough going? We would be pulling up an 8x16 wheel shack. Would love to get up there and try a new lake!

[JerkinLips]

Can a walleyes eyes "pop out" being pulled from 30FOW rather quickly as shown in the attached picture?  Is this fish safe to eat?

[goalieman01]

Yes they can start to bulge even shallower than that if pulled up to quickly. The fish may have been deeper and came up only to eat and had not acclimated to even 30ft. The eyes bulging or bladder coming out of the mouth does not affect the health or edibility of the fish. 

 

I am curious if the pressure at 30ft deep is different between summer and winter. In my head i would think winter the pressure at 30ft is greater because of the ice on the surface but i have no evidence or proof of it. 

[side_laker]

How much ice are you finding up there.