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Braved the heavy winds and cool temps over the weekend and was rewarded with some of the best Walleye fishing of the soft water season. The fish had the feedbag on and couldn't resist the jig and Dave Sorensons (Food&Fuel) miracle minnows. Looking forward to this coming weekend when I'll be on the water again.

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You were risking your life if you were out on Sunday. We had a Monday morning real estate closing, or we would have stayed on the island on Sunday and never ventured off.

Coming through the Comet Island-Moose Island-Birch Point-Isle of Pines intersection was pretty scary. 4-5ft waves coming from three different directions. Even in a 20ft deep-Vee boat, rogue waves scare the [PoorWordUsage] out of me. Took us 50 minutes to get 5 miles, and there weren't any safe havens. Not behind Comet Island, not near the shoreline, not behind Daisy Island.

Hands down the worst conditions i've ever boated on Vermilion, in my 10 years on the lake.

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You were risking your life if you were out on Sunday. We had a Monday morning real estate closing, or we would have stayed on the island on Sunday and never ventured off.

The only thing I risked was frozen finger tips. I did not venture out to Big Bay on Sunday, plenty of feeding Walleye in other spots. I'll be the 1st one to say, no fish is worth risking your life.

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I absolutely agree that big waves/wind spell disaster in the making. Really, it's about proximity. If my dock is somewhat sheltered from that day's wind, and my route is sheltered as well, it's not a dumb decision to go fishing.

If 4-foot rollers are crashing in along my dock, it's time to make sure the boat and dock are secure and be a landlubber. smile

I came off one guide trip from the North Arm of Burntside this summer in full dark with wind and rain and big waves. En route to an unlit public landing at Van Vac. I'll say one thing. You definitely know you're alive!

We missed out on the hot fall Vermilion bite this year, sorry to say. It ain't over, I know, but we're all committed with other stuff. Hope you all have a safe and productive late fall on the big V!

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Well, the wind finally let up long enough to let my wife and I get out for a couple hours this afternoon. Actually, once the sun broke through, it was quite nice in spite of a slight breeze and 42 degree temps. Water temps ran 48.6 degrees. I don't know how much baby loons know about upcoming inclimate weather, but, there's plenty of them still around and they look plumb happy to be here wink. Fishing was fantastic! We never left sight of our docks and ended up with 7 boated, and we kept 3 jumbos for supper. All of the walleyes were slot fish except one which was 16.999". The rest ranged from 19"-22.5". 20' of water, rainbow chubs, plain hook, green bead, 1oz bouncer. One thing we really enjoyed was the enthusiasm the walleyes showed when hitting the chub. Prior to the "big blow", our hits had been a bit tentative. That certainly was not the case today. They grabbed the chub and swapped ends whistle Even I didn't miss any.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Hello All Knowing Board!

MarkB, thanks for information. Anyone in the Frazer Bay/Smart's Bay confluence (island property) feel free to grab a cold one if you see me (or us) on the dock with a greenish 20 ft. Lund Tyee LE.

2 quick questions for the Vermilion experts.....looks like Rainbows are the ticket, correct? Also, leaving a mower, chainsaw, and weed eater in our screened in porch for the winter. I plan on putting some Stabil in the gas tanks (almost empty) and a bit in the machines as I use up the rest of the gas, is this the correct thing to do for the winter, mind you they will be covered by tarps in a screened in porch.

Thanks for any insight!

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PSU

Not an expert, but I can comment on your questions. I use rainbows almost exclusively if they are available. I like them because they are so lively and they keep extremely well. Cliff actually prefers suckers or chubs. When the fish are biting well, as they are now, it really doesn't make any difference which one you use. They will all catch fish.

Right or wrong, I add gas additives(Sea Foam)to my gas tanks, mower, boat motor gas tanks, and everything else that needs gas to run before I put them away for the winter. I generally fill my tanks and run them a short time after adding the Sea Foam.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Any minnow from 4-5 inches is fine right now. Suckers are great, believe it or not, as are chubs and shiners. Whatever you can get in that size that's lively.

As for the motors, you are better off draining the gas tanks on all of them and then running them until they die from lack of fuel. You can drain them into a gas can and put that in your car/truck tank, even the 50:1 mix gas, so you don't have to pour the gas on the ground.

I do this with all my chainsaws, my weed wacker, both my mowers, and my shredder/chipper each fall. All the chainsaws/weedwacker are 2-stroke motors, of course, and the mowers and shredder/chipper are 4-strokes.

Fuel stabilizer or not, leaving that gas in your carbs over winter makes gumming up more likely as time goes on. An empty carb does not gum. You can use fogging oil or not, as you wish. I do not, and have never had a problem.

I do keep a couple chainsaws on the truck all winter in case of downed trees, along with some 50:1 premium mix. Simple matter to fill an empty tank and crank it over until it fires back up.

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Psu,

I also made it out this afternoon with 2 clients.

We fished 3 hours and boated 20 walleyes. Kept 12 very nice ones between 14-1/2" and 16-3/4". Released one small one and 7 slots between 17-1/4 and 20-1/2.

All except one were caught on lindys with pike suckers or rainbows, both worked about the same.

As Mark B said they were really hammering the minnows today! True fall bite finally!

22' to 32' of water.

Cliff

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Any minnow from 4-5 inches is fine right now. Suckers are great, believe it or not, as are chubs and shiners. Whatever you can get in that size that's lively.

If you happen to get smaller minnows fish with 2. I always put 2 smaller minnows on a jig and it's been deadly. Also, as stated earlier, minnows of any kind will produce alot of bites right now.

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I think they will start pulling them the 24 or 25th. DNR starting pulling public access docks though.

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Per Shamrock two years ago:

The new contract said that they had to stay in the lake until October 25th or if the weather got cold early, they could be pulled when the surface temp reached 35 degrees
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I heard tonight that they were starting to pull them in the Black Duck Bay area today.

Cliff

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Cliff, I cooked up a couple of those fresh walleye fillets and the jumbo perch tonight, as usual they were very tasty!

Thanks again for the afternoon on the water.

Darin

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Buoys were still in Sat. in Frazier, and behind Pine Island. Didn't go any further. Walleye fishing wasn't fast, but we had limits of 16 inchers at the end of the day. Did best on jigs and minnow. Nothing on cranks. Saw a guy land a nice musky on Frazier.

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[Note from admin: edited; please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

My wife and I left the dock yesterday at 9:30 and came home at 1:30. A light east wind was chilly and my wife finally opted for the fire. The bite was very light. We missed several fish and had a few get off halfway to the boat. No slot fish today and everything we boated went back. Optimum depth ranged from 36'-41'. Water temps were 45.7 degrees at noon. We only saw 3 other boats and only one of them was fishing. It's kinda like fishing on a private lake wink.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Who cares about a fishing report the last day of October confused Right? Well, just in case the 2 other boats that I saw out today, had a tough bite, and they read this forum, here goes.. My wife and I have had simply phenomenal fishing this past month!! Today was no different than the past week to 10 days. 34'-40' and super slow backtroll. Water temps today were 46.7 degrees at 2:00PM when we left for home. In addition to lots of walleyes(including some really big ones!), we have been catching some mega jumbo perch, a few crappies, and a 36" Northern(no pic, I was by myself).

Pictured is my wife with her best for the day:

full-32496-13552-002.jpg

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Mark B. Thanks for all your reports throughout this open water season. I would like

to nominate you and your wife for Anglers of the year on the Big V.

Regards

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The wind finally went down and what a beautiful day it was! My wife and I got out for a few hours this afternoon(after it warmed up)and enjoyed a beautiful fall day fishing. I would guess we saw ~30+ boats musky fishing between Birch Point and eastern Big Bay. I guess others also liked the mild weather. Water temps in Big Bay at 2:00 were 43.7 degrees, air temp was 43 degrees with light and variable winds. Since the lake turns over at 45 degrees(if it happens at all)I assume the lake has turned over. I tried my "go to" late spot and Nadda..The second spot I tried was spot on! The walleyes were 29'-39' with the majority caught at ~37'. The fish were hitting the bait hard and we caught several walleyes to 22.5"(this fish was the fattest walleye we have caught all year!)We have been using a plain #4 wide gap Gamakatsu walleye hook with a green bead. Today, they wanted a red bead and red hook crazy. I was amazed to see several young loons still hanging around in various locations. I came to the realization today that these young musky fishermen are simply tougher than us "older" folks. We will take these days now one at a time but, with the upcoming forecast, this may very well be the final trip for the season for my wife and myself. If so, see you next spring..........

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Fabulous day for fishing!!Air temperatures reached 50 degrees this afternoon with light winds out of the SE. Water temps have dropped to 41.9 degrees during the warmest part of the day. It appears that even the young loons have decided that freeze-up is just around the corner because we didn't see any anywhere today. There were lots of boats all over BIG Bay with several fishing for walleyes. A friend joined me and my wife today and we had super fishing! Nothing much has changed: 36'-42', slow backtroll or drift. The walleyes are hitting the minnows fairly hard and we caught several up to 20". It seemed we were in reasonably close proximity to where hunters were hunting deer because, when the guns went off, the impulse was to duck(please don't explain to me that by that time it would be too late wink ). The 10 day forecast calls for some fairly chilly nights and cool daytime highs so ice should be coming shortly.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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It hit 54 degrees here in Ely, and as I was wandering a nearby gravel pit doing some rock hunting, I wondered if you'd be out there taking advantage of the great weather. Thanks for the report! smile

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Speaking of rocks are there any agates in the area. I have never found any near my cabin on mid lake Vermilion......

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Muskie-mike, good question!

Very unlikely (though not impossible) to find one near your cabin.

Vermilion is out of the range of Lake Superior agates, which were spread out from L.S. via glaciers. The farther east you go toward the lake, the more likely you are to find them. Also south. Glacial action moved them somewhat west and east from the lake, but much more to the south. The swath of agate distribution runs down into Iowa. You're far more likely to find a L.S. agate in some landscape rock, gravel roads, construction sites or gravel pits near Ham Lake than along Lake Vermilion.

There's lots of talk about agates here on HSO in the "Rock & Edibles-Agates-Fossils-Artifacts-Mushrooms-Ginseng-Gems-etc." forum. It's in the Outdoor Activities Forum group, between "Photography and Photo Sharing" and "Rod Building and Lure Making."

Sorry for the off-topic, fellas! Now, back to our regularly scheduled fishing reports! smile

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So what kind of rocks were you looking for?

Sorry for the continued off-topic.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled fishing reports! smile

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  • The title was changed to 2020-21 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports
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