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2017-2018 Vermilion Ice Conditions and Fishing Reports


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I believe one of them goes out of the fortune bay resort landing. Haven' been out on it this year so not sure how far out it goes.

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Typically the road is plowed barely outside of the bay.  Haven't take the sled there since December so I don't know what it is like this year.

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It surprised me, but Fortune Bay does rent fish houses.  Just check their website out and look under Marina.

 

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Saturday turned out to be pretty interesting. Got an early start and had lines wet at the butt crack of 930. Went to drop the first line, reached into my minnow bucket and found maybe 6 minnows still attempting to swim. First walleye came on my only sucker so had to head back into town for minnows. Final tally: 5 whities or tulibee, still not 100% sure which one they are yet but the biggest was 18", 4 dink walleyes, 3 jumbo perch (biggest was 14), missed a few on both rattle reel and jig. It was slow but down sizing my jig and watching the water column allowed me to find enough fish to keep me entertained.

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I'd like to thank everybody who comments on this forum and helps plow the roads. U guys r a great help!!! even tho we didnt do well. I think it was just 1 of those days 4 us that no matter what we did we weren't gonna have success. A buddy n myself ended up going out of McKinley Sunday. Ended up trying 3 different spots n only caught 3 baby eyes in 16 fow around sunset on a plane hook with a shiner. We ended up getting the truck stuck 3 times (drives fault) n the Coleman stove didn't work. We did eat tho.

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Not the best time of the winter for walleyes on Vermilion. They usually slow way down after January most winters.

All I have been getting the past couple of weeks are mostly small fish, and not very many of them!

Cliff

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We fished Sat/Sun, hole hopping with spoons mostly.  Between us, my buddy caught two mid-20"ers.  Lost another nice one.  I caught exactly zero walleyes, some baby perch, and was red-hot on rock bass.  lol   Had walleyes come up and look, but no bites.  The difference between his getting bites and my not getting bites may have been that the fish were line shy??  My buddy was using all 6lb flouro, while I had 10lb braid with a 2' flouro leader of 10lbs.  I stripped all that off when I got home, so ready for our next trip up in a couple of weeks.  Sunday was cold with that wind!  brrr...

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Heading up to the Big V this weekend and the following weekend...finally! I haven't been able to get up yet this winter. We will definitely be doing some fishing but with the Walleye bite being slow this time of year that will force us to likely try some new lakes! My father in law usually only fishes on Vermilion in the winter and hasn't had a real bang up day before so I'm going to try to get him on a Panfish bite somewhere in St. Louis county so he can, hopefully, have some steady action.

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Hello, First post here. Seems like I'm in the same position as a lot of first time posters - heading to Vermilion and looking for pointers.

My wife and I are staying at a rental cabin between Oak Island and Niles Point. I'm bringing fishing gear to walk out from the cabin. There are some islands not far and some small reefs. Would it be best to hope for a walleye? Any chance for perch or crappies?

Thanks in advance!

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nickeleye, yes, in that area of the lake there is an excellent chance for small perch (4" to 6") just about everywhere you go.  Larger sized ones are hard to find, but they do exist.  Very few crappies in that area, so I would not expect that, particularly if confined to walking out.  You have a chance at a walleye on the island points and small reefs to which you have walking access.  This time of year, your best shot will be early and late in the day.  Have holes drilled in depths between 28 and 20 feet on those island points/reefs prior to dawn and dusk, then hole hop around during the prime bite window.  We have a 4 minute rule per hole.  Usually, half your walleyes will show up within the first minute of your first drop and 80% within your first two minutes.  After about 4 minutes, your just waiting for one to swim around randomly into below your hole and that could take a long time.  Smaller spoons worked better for us than larger spoons last weekend.  Tip with a minnowhead.  Hope this helps!  Good luck, you should have the area to yourself.

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Thanks very much! Your last sentence is the best news and was one of my biggest questions. I figured the area would either be packed or empty... and I like solitude.

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8 hours ago, MN BassFisher said:

Heading up to the Big V this weekend and the following weekend...finally! I haven't been able to get up yet this winter. We will definitely be doing some fishing but with the Walleye bite being slow this time of year that will force us to likely try some new lakes! My father in law usually only fishes on Vermilion in the winter and hasn't had a real bang up day before so I'm going to try to get him on a Panfish bite somewhere in St. Louis county so he can, hopefully, have some steady action.

I fished Myrtle Lake a few days ago with some friends and the crappie and bluegill bite was very good for us.

Crappies averaged 10" to 11" and the gills were also nice.

Waxies and minnows as bait.

Cliff

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Alright guys. Change of plans. My group is concerned about lake travel. After consulting a snowfall map we've decided to stay south of the line that runs from basically Duluth to Lake Winnie area. Were coming from Wisconsin and don't know anything about MN lakes. Rather not do Mille Lacs. Looking for something a little smaller. Not asking for spots. Is there a lake within and hour or two to the north or east of the cities that fishes strong? Looking for panfish mostly with some walleye mixed in. Thanks. 

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I'd concentrate on the buffalo/annandale area just northwest of the metro. There's a ton of good lakes. Clearwater, Pulaski, pleasant. The list is long. 

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Mielkez,

I thought that the area you are now targeting was supposed to get the most snow from the coming storm.

Cliff

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Thinking about bring my wheelhouse up there tomorrow far a day of fishing and spend the night any new reports 

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Pulled my house a couple of days ago, but there are still a few fish biting at some spots. Very slow for me!

Good roads out there yet as we plowed them after the last snow.

Cliff

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Caught 17 walleyes on Friday, but all were dinks except for two 15".  Caught 6 more Saturday, all small again except for one 16".  Also caught a 12 inch perch, 3 eelpout, and 2 tulibee.

Considering the snowstorm prediction for Sunday, I pulled my house off the lake and parked it back in the garage for the season.  LOW next week, then onto lakers the following weekend.

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Cliff - much more than the 4-6" they were predicting.  It was a tired drive back to Blaine late Saturday night, but would have been a much tougher drive back Sunday.

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Figured I should report back...

I fished prime time on Saturday morning and Saturday evening. No action. It didn't help that I forgot to grab the vexilar on the first outing, but it didn't help to have it on the second outing either! ha! Marked a few but couldn't get them to bite. Used a GPS chip to punch some holes over structure, but when I came back with the vexilar, they weren't quite as deep as I hoped.

Thanks for the pointers BrianF

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nickeleye,

Thanks for the report!

Lookers but no biters seems to be the pattern the past couple of weeks. Common for this time of the winter on Vermilion!

Cliff

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Quick report from last weekend: Fished a couple midlake reefs in big bay and the walleye seemed to be non existent aside from a few dinks, although, the action was pretty decent. Jumbo perch, tullibee, and a few crappie kept me busy. From hearing other people’s late season reports along with my experience last weekend it seems like a lot of the walleye have moved to different types of structure, perhaps shallower?? I’m not sure, but had very few marks that appeared to be walleye.  

Edited by Reid Saarela
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Ended up going to Vermilion anyhow. Camped all weekend and did okay. Handful of walleyes each day, many whitefish and a few pout. Went in search of some panfish on Saturday using the 360 off my boat and found an ice school of perch in some flats. Yeh m sure fishings been better but we caught enough to feed ourselves all week. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Is anybody still fishing? Is there still ice? I have been following This Thread all winter living vicariously through you guys. We lost our ice a month ago and Indiana.

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Still tons of ice! Did not see anyone out fishing today when we took the sleds over to trout lake portage to do some fishing. Probably not worth the effort of drilling tons of holes through 30 inches of ice to stay on the elusive crappies.

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Reid,

Find ant trout?

Really have to get lucky and find the right spot for crappies with this much ice that is for sure!

Hope to get out after them in a week or so once this snow drops down!

Cliff

 

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No open water except right below the pike river dam.

I had 30" of ice yesterday when I was out fishing! 6" to 10" of snow/slush on top.

Cliff

 

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With a forecast for below freezing for the next 10 days, not gonna be melting much ice...

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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