Lake Vermilion Jumbos!

[MN BassFisher]

On the last day to target predator species during this Ice Fishing season I went out on Lake Vermilion. I setup for the morning on a break where I usually catch Walleye's with a few Yellow Perch mixed in but on this outing I caught mainly Jumbo Perch! Plus one bonus fish that took me over 4 minutes to get up the hole...

 

[BrianF]

Great vid. Thx for posting. Those were some impressve perch...and released too!  Nice pike as well. 

We were on the lake that day but didn’t do as well as you over on the West end.  Odd that we rarely ever catch jumbos like that over on that side.  Four to six inchers all day though and in just about every depth and hole. Maddening actually. 

[Cliff Wagenbach]

When the rusties get established on the West end you will start to see a lot of jumbos there! Never saw many on the East end either until the rusties showed up!

Cliff

[BrianF]

Cliff, interesting. Any theories on why that is?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Has to be the fact that the perch are eating the rusties! Every jumbo that I clean is full of the baby rusties and mayfly larvae.

Cliff

[MN BassFisher]

We have really seen the size and presence of the Perch on the East Side take off the last 3 years, I'd say. When we catch them they are usually big which has been a fun change of pace! Everything is eating those Rusties now!

[jkrash]

Great Video! We had the same result on the last weekend, a few jumbos up to 14" and a couple gators,

 

20180224_151110.mp4

[MN BassFisher]

2 hours ago, jkrash said:

Great Video! We had the same result on the last weekend, a few jumbos up to 14" and a couple gators,

 

Awesome! That's a heck of Pike! 

[Reid Saarela]

Great video as always Mitch! I also ran into quite a few jumbos late season this year! Kept me busy when the walleyes slowed down.

[OhioVike]

On the same weekend, we fished the West end near our bay and caught perch like crazy.  I probably punched 25 holes looking for a mark. Dropped a line and pulled perch pretty much all day long caught a mix of sizes with plenty of jumbos. Kept a meals worth and released the rest.   Not sure that I ever had so much fun catching perch.  

[MN BassFisher]

On 3/14/2018 at 9:59 PM, Reid Saarela said:

Great video as always Mitch! I also ran into quite a few jumbos late season this year! Kept me busy when the walleyes slowed down.

Definitely! It used to be just the Tullibee's that would keep me entertained during the slow periods. Happy to search the Perch growing big and fat.

On 3/15/2018 at 7:29 AM, OhioVike said:

On the same weekend, we fished the West end near our bay and caught perch like crazy.  I probably punched 25 holes looking for a mark. Dropped a line and pulled perch pretty much all day long caught a mix of sizes with plenty of jumbos. Kept a meals worth and released the rest.   Not sure that I ever had so much fun catching perch.  

They are great table fare too! I haven't ice fished on the West End yet. One of these years I'll have to try but we spend more time in general on the East side so I have more knowledge of that side of the lake. So much structure to investigate!

[OhioVike]

I love fishing the west end on soft water but the hard stuff is work!!!  We are constantly looking for new spots to get walleye, but generally go back to the perch holes and catch a few walleye mixed in.  Generally enough for a meal but not what I would call great action. The  usual haunts do not produce walleye in the winter.  I think they are roaming the mud. Hard to cover a lot of water on the ice!!

Edited March 16, 2018 by OhioVike