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Lake Vermilion 2017 open water fishing reports and related information.


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3 hours ago, PSU said:

Very slow for me this weekend and this morning.........thank goodness for freezers!

Same here this morning. Lost a quality keeper at the boat and missed another solid bite due to general incompetence. But that was it. Man are they stacked up out there but finding the biters was tough

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I trolled a few miles with leadcore with no action..lots of fish in middle of lake at 20 ft and 24 ft.near shore..seem like the bite doesn't start until late August for some reason..usually start biting in Big Bay first...other lakes seem to have a bite earlier...

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Tough fishing for me again.  Couldn't keep the perch off of my line.  I must have caught close to 100 of them.  Also caught about a dozen bass, including the 17½" pictured.  Had to deal with the crayfish again, but not as bad as the perch.  Only caught enough small eater-size walleyes for one meal.

IMG_2996.JPG

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Solid last few days. Just got driven off lake by rain so figured I'd check in. Lots of fish out there and they are ready to eat. Got a nice limit yesterday over the course of the day along with a few nice perch, bass, and 1 slot.  Today they were hitting hard late in the morning. Caught around 10 and missed probably another dozen from 10:30- noon. Lost my best 2 fish of the morning. Sandbars in 20-24. 

Went out for an hour after lunch near cabin with the impending rain. Got sick of fighting wind so I just let the boat drift over the top of the shallow reef I was fishing. Picked up a fat 25" in 6 feet of water! 

It's worth noting that I normally like to use a floater on my lindy rig to keep the crayfish away but I didn't get a bite yesterday until I switched to the Cliff rig, just a red bead and red hook. 

Got back into the cabin in time to watch 2 goldeneyes in our little cove chow down on 25+ crayfish. Can't believe those little birds can eat so much. 

On another note this message board is unbelievable. The information everyone provides is so good for someone like me that doesn't get on the lake very often. I lurk all summer on here just to keep up with the patterns and whenever I get to the lake I'm on fish immediately because of all of you. Thank you very much!

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I have to echo FishinCT's comments.  Been reading this forum all summer, passing the time until the wife & I can get the boat on Vermilion in a few weeks.  You don't know how much I appreciate the info passed along, and hope that I can put it together for a successful trip.  Be safe, and again, thank you all for your tips and information.

 

Regards

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james_walleye, great report. I was up just for the weekend and found walleyes on the exact types of spots you described. They weren't IN the rocks (luckily) but rather on the sand off the edge of rocks. If I graphed fish, I caught fish. So if I didn't graph anything on a spot within 10 minutes, I moved.

Caught fish as shallow as 10 ft on jig/minnow, but the vast majority were in 18-24' and caught on jigging raps. Oddly enough I had zero bites on a rig/crawler, but I never took that combo back out after I started catching them with jigging raps. I may have gotten really lucky, but I only tried for walleyes twice - once early morning and once late morning and smacked them each time. A few dinks, a few nice keepers, a few really nice keepers, and a couple in the slot. Nice spread.

Spent way more time chasing muskies though, and that part was pretty much a bust.

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Pretty much the same results as Deet andJW all week for me also.

Got all of our fish on lindy/1/2 crawler rigs in 15' to 23' depths just outside of rocks in the sand.

Only fished mornings from 8:00am to 12:00pm.

Not very many slot fish to report though. Plenty of nicer eaters!

Cliff

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Same report here. Got 19 this morning between 2 1/2 fishermen and kept 5 eyes and 2 jumbos for lunch. Couldn't ask for a more beautiful morning. Anywhere between 19-28. Better fish came on the deep end of that. Great size distribution. 

Cliff do you have a white Lund? If so I finally ran into you this morning. Was in a tightly packed group of 3 at the tip of a reef. Fish were stacked in there. 

If not you're still my white whale!

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CT,

No, I have a green Lund with a 150 Honda.

The white Lund was probably Dave Schaeffer if the motor had a Mohawk on top of it.

Cliff

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  • 2 weeks later...

PSU,

1/2 crawler and minnows on a lindy for me.

Spinners and 1/2 crawler and jigging raps are working well for others.

Cliff

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Cliff, what depth and what brand of minnows?  Rainbows?  Headed up this weekend for my last chance to fish for the season.

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I was using fatheads and pike suckers.

I caught walleyes in depths from 16' to 42'.

Cliff

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Thanks, Cliff. And PSU, I've had little luck in Fraser. I'm not finding schools of fish. I'll have to gas up and head out, probably to Big Bay or north of Pine.

Change of topic: did you see the results from the AIM tournament on Vermilion last weekend? Winners caught (catch and release with photos) 60+ pounds for ten fish in two days including 29s and 30.5" fish. Proves it's a great fishery.... how do those guys find them?

Dick

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I heard that most used Jigging Raps and fished as deep as 48 feet!

Cliff

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Our group will be coming up on the 9th to the West End. With a cool down on the way will it be a minnow bite then and do the fish change depths with cooling water? Thanks in advance.

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I do not fish the West end but the bite is slowly turning into a minnow bite now. Crawlers are still working on most days though.

I have been getting a few more fish in the deeper water each time out but that being said, I am still catching fish as shallow as 16' too.

The later it gets into fall the deeper you will find bunched up walleyes.

Cliff

 

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Labor day weekend is always a bummer because we have no choice but to pull docks and such.  Nonetheless I snuck out this morning with my nephew for a few hours.  We got the leadcore rods out.  It was a successful morning. We caught 15 and kept our 8. We had a 15" and 18" and the others were all right at 16". Beautiful eaters. We were pulling cranks in 24-26'. As others have stated switch up colors bur also switch up sizes. Early on a bigger shad rap was best but later in the morning downsizing to a smaller flickershad was better. What a great fishery. I wish I had more time to fish up here in the fall. I may not be one the water again until next opener.  

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The kids got our lunch today in about an hour.  The action was fast and furious.  Great average size on the fish.  Trolling raps in 15-20'. 

5849F2AE-17C6-4ABD-88D4-E6AD12596F78.JPG

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On 9/4/2017 at 8:37 AM, VermilionGold said:

Great weekend on my favorite lake.  Still pulling shad raps in 17-20', walleyes were on fire and even a few bonus fish made their way to the boat.

IMG_0806.JPG

That's a pig!

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Heading up on Saturday for a couple weeks. Anyone have a report from the weekend? Guessing minnows is probably the ticket by now?

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Minnows- big ones, like pike suckers- and crawlers, too. Water temperature is still low 60s. I'm having a hard time finding fish. This seems like a long transition to the fall pattern. Try here, try there. Keep moving if you don't find them. Some fish are still fairly shallow. I wish I could be more helpful. Maybe some else can be.

RLG

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Minnows and crawlers for live bait, but a tough bite !

Much better bite trolling with lead core and cranks.

Cliff

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