2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[delcecchi]

From reading the Timberjay it would sound like you are getting some flack from the neighbors...

[FishinCT]

Well here is my once yearly report. I was up from the 6th to the 16th. Night and day compared to last year! Caught probably 5x the number of walleyes this year with slot fish being caught almost every day..biggest at 24" so no real big ones but those low 20s fish sure put up a good fight. Caught walleyes in almost every spot fished except the big bay reefs I fished. Didn't spend a ton of time out there though with it being windy most days. Same rig all week, bottom bouncer with 3' leader, red hook and green float with crawler. When dad was up he used a jig and crawler and caught the same amount of fish, but with many more snags. Almost all fish were on the mud off structure either 14-18 or 28-35 ft. Which brings me to my big question...

My depth finder is basic, I can find the transition to mud off the reefs and shorelines but that's it. So I keep working around the structure until I catch fish then throw a marker out and I do well. I mark a lot of fish but never catch them. And when I'm catching fish I'm not marking anything. I want something reliable so I can motor around a spot until I find fish, otherwise I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time fishing fishless areas. What are some models I should look into that work well finding fish on the mud?

[MarkB]

Congrats on your recent successful trip.

"My depth finder is basic, I can find the transition to mud off the reefs and shorelines but that's it. So I keep working around the structure until I catch fish then throw a marker out and I do well. I mark a lot of fish but never catch them. And when I'm catching fish I'm not marking anything. I want something reliable so I can motor around a spot until I find fish, otherwise I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time fishing fishless areas. What are some models I should look into that work well finding fish on the mud?"

Working around structure until you locate the biters and then fishing them is walleye 101. I really don't see how you improve on that approach much. If fish are biting, which they obviously were during your visit, and you mark a bunch that won't bite, then, my guess is they aren't walleyes. Walleyes are difficult to see on mud at times and I don't believe there is sonar available that will show them well when they're hugging the bottom. They are easiest to see when on rocks or other hard bottom such as sand, etc. In my estimation, if you "motor around a spot until I find fish", assuming you'll leave if you don't, then, you are going to miss out on quite alot of premium walleye fishing! My advice is, have confidence in the areas that you choose to fish and choose those areas based upon your past experience with bait, time of year, and current weather. Then, fish your spots just like you've been doing. I use a Humminbird 788ci. It has a 5" screen and shows me just about everything I need to see. When I upgrade, I will opt for the biggest screen that Humminbird makes just because I don't see as good as I used too. I am going to wait for the next "new" technology that comes out, and that shouldn't be too long. In sonar units, I am hoping it will be 360 degree imaging.

Lastly, if I had the best sonar known to man, I wouldn't cruise areas and base my fishing time only on what my sonar showed me .

Good Luck,

MarkB

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Excellent advice again from Mark B!

I see way to many people circling a spot and then they leave , I assume, because they saw no fish. I know those spots well and I then move in and begin catching the fish that were NOT THERE!

Do not rely totally on your electronics to find walleyes for you! As Mark said they are very hard to spot when they are in the mud.

I have an older Lowrance X510-C and it works fine for me.

Cliff

[FishinCT]

Mark, I do remember you saying a while back that they are tough to see on mud. Guess I'll have to live with my approach for now, although I probably will upgrade at some point because I don't mark them on sand or rocks either Unfortunately I have about 11 1/2 more months to think about it..good luck the rest of the year to everyone lucky enough to be up there!

And I do want to say thank you to everyone that posts on here, I owe a lot of my success to you guys.

[CaptainMusky]

They are hard to see on mud, but not impossible. If you are familiar enough with the area you are fishing then any imperfection in the bottom should alert you as a potential fish. I am far from an expert on vermilion, but my experience with mud flats elsewhere is they tend to be VERY flat. So if I see a bump on the bottom, that in most cases is a fish.

It also helps if you have a color unit because these "bumps" will often show as different colors than the actual bottom.

Another thing you can do is zoom in on the bottom 5 feet. When the view is at the normal settings it is hard to detect any separation from the bottom.

Also, if you are marking fish, that you know are fish but not catching them its possible your bait is beneath them. You have a very short snell at 3 feet which when trolling the bait is really hugging the bottom. If you had say a 7 or 8 foot snell your bait could be a foot or so off the bottom possibly more with a floater on it.

[khigh37]

Thanks for the report Eric. I have a friend that owns a cabin near Cook so I will be setting up camp there but I might stop by for dinner one night and say hello. Hopefully the weather cooperates... looking to make my way up the second week of October.

[MarkB]

It's been a couple of weeks since I've said much so here goes . Fishing has remained good since my last post. We've continued with our crawlers and have added minnows the past week or so. Both baits are catching fish pretty much equally. For us, the crawlers are still producing the biggest fish, but, on certain days, the minnows produce the quantity. The biggest change for our bait fishing is the movement of the walleyes in the past couple of weeks. Our "go to" mid-lake reefs are getting to be hit and, mostly, miss. We are finding the walleyes a bit deeper than we have most of the summer. I was going to post today that we pulled into an area with a deep hole(37') and found the walleyes scattered from 25'-35'. Therfore, they must have all moved deep, right? Not really. The second spot I tried was a 23' contour along a shallow(10') rock shelf running between 2 islands. We found just as many there as we did earlier in the deeper water . The only conclusion that I drew was, both spots are areas we fish in the fall and spring and the fall movement is surely under way. Really big smallmouth bass are still appearing in large numbers and, now, whenever we find concentrations of walleyes, we catch a few jumbos in the same area.

We have been crankbait fishing, periodically, depending on wind conditions. Our fish/hour count has gone down and we are now finding fish where we struck out late last month. The depths have remained consistent(17'-20') but the areas have changed. Once again, we are now catching fish in the areas we fish in the fall. The walleyes seem to be more selective as to lure color on certain days. Some days it doesn't matter. One day, every time we caught a fish, I changed lure color and caught 7 before I found a loser Generally, we use dark colors on overcast days and brighter colors when the sun is shining. What difference does it make 20' down? Damned if I know but half of fishing success is believing what your doing . I believe the crankbait walleyes are running about the same size as our riggin fish. The average size has been a bit smaller than normal for us this year and the past couple weeks, the average has been ~15".

For those of you who don't live here, the lake is really starting to color up and it won't be long before full fall colors will be here. The mature loons left awhile back but the young ones are still hanging around. The water temp at the dock this morning was 55.3 degrees and it warmed to 58.7 by the time we headed for home.

Fall fishing is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year. I will continue to post until we hang it up for the winter.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[mbeyer]

What a great post. This is why forums are great. better than any magazine can provide information. No need to provide specifics, just the formula to catching fish in real time.

[MNBIGBEAR]

I was fishing the east end on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. We started fishing at about 1:30 on Thursday and began fishing some of our traditonal fall spots in deeper water and were picking up a few fish but not the numbers and size we are used to. The wind was BLOWING so we decided to try more of a summer spot that is typically good with a north/northwest wind. We never left there the rest of the day. We were fishing a windblown cove in 4-7ft of water with crawlers and sucker minnows and caught approximately 25 fish ranging from 14-23 inches with about 10 being in the slot. Didnt matter if we were using a jig or plain hook rig. We even caught a few just casting a shad rap into the shallows. Definitely a great a day. The following day was a little more difficult. The wind died down considerably and we tried in the same area we were in the day before and managed one fish for the hour we were there. We had a tough time finding any active groups fish shallow or deep although we were graphing fish more in the deeper areas. We did catch a few jumbo perch ranging 13-14 inches that were a nice bonus and ended up catching about 6 or 7 walleyes with the biggest being 23". Fall colors are really starting brighten up and you cant beat the crisp fall air. Great time to be on the lake. Good luck!

[Scupper]

Thanks Mark. I needed that...

[MarkB]

Well, I said, on a previous post, that I would update my fall colors pics periodically and, this morning, I was back in that area . I figured that as long as I was posting pictures, I might as well post an updated fishing report as well. The fishing remains quite good for us. We are finding concentrations of fish in "fall-like" areas that we normally fish this time of the year. To me, these areas all have one thing in common, the deepest water available in the immediate and surrounding water that you are going to fish. For instance, if the basin you fish has a maximum depth of ~20'(Daisy Bay) and there are 25'or deeper "holes" in the area, I would try in the vicinity of those deeper holes. Start deep and work shallow until you locate the biters. We are finding lots of biters but, the size is on the small side. The other day we caught 20 walleyes with 6 from 15"-21.5" and 14 from 10"-12". The bite is very light from the small fish and it can become frustrating at times. Today, we had to jump around "spots" to try to find some consistency on a bigger average walleye. We didn't have one of those "banner" days that you call friends and re-live but we found enough action to make it a great day. As I have previously said, we found jumbos right there with the walleyes and more and more often, the odd bluegill is starting to show up in areas where we haven't caught one in 50 years! Nothing has changed as far as bait, I am using minnows exclusively and my wife is still sticking with crawlers. I am catching lots of small fish and missing lots more and she is catching lots of BIG walleyes! I'm too stubborn to admit that those crawlers are still catching all the really big fish that we catch and, only occasionally, am I catching a big one on my minnows . Today we had a visitor on the water that agreed with me. Mark Furdeen(spelling?), game warden from Aurora, checked us and commented on my wife's choice of crawlers when it's supposed to be a jig/minnow bite. He told us that he checked a boated with an 18.5" walleye. They tried to talk him out of a ticket but lost that battle. Their second problem began when he released the fish and it floated back to the surface. The matter of restitution came into play. I'm cloudy on whether he wrote that up but he sure took the time to mention it. Today the water temp was 55 degrees and the day was absolutely beautiful with overcast skies and light and variable wind. I guess these reports now are for those guys who just wish they were here, because, on the way out this morning, we saw ZERO other boats. As the day warmed a bit, a few more boats showed up but negligible compared to even two weeks ago. I will post another report when there's something to say.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

These pictures can be compared with pictures on my early September post.

My wife continues to catch lots of really nice walleyes on her worm/floater rig. I'm too stupid too chaNnge to the same rig.

My thrill came today when I caught this dink and a huge musky mistook it for a whitefish or tulibee or sucker or whatever else the musky experts claim is their "forage of choice" . It was a great fight until she let go. Notice the tooth marks.

I have read on this forum that these guys are showing up on lots of reefs located in the West end of Vermilion and that those same reefs "used to" hold walleyes. I hope there is no correlation involved here. We have caught the odd one of these in different areas of Big Bay and this one came out of 35' of water!

We caught enough jumbos today to make a great meal!

[Klinger]

Mark,

I'm jealous....looks like a great day to be on the lake. Thanks for the nice pics of the fall colors as an added bonus. We are headed up this wknd and can't wait to see the colors and maybe even pick up a couple nice eyes to boot !!

[clKiekhafer]

MarkB,

You need to switch bait and start using those crawlers!

[MarkB]

Joe:

Fishing is really good right now and from what I can remember about where on the lake you live, you shouldn't have to go far .

Chester:

My wife continues to insist on the crawlers for an obvious reason. We have had days where the crawlers have gotten very few hits and the minnows(I'm using chubs)have had fantastic action, albeit lots of small fish. I will continue to offer the choice to the walleyes and whine about it when I get my rear kicked as I did today.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[james_walleye]

Joe beat me to it......I was pushing the jealous button as I read your post Mark.

[Scupper]

Mark, I don't know how it can get any better then that.

Your partner comfortably bundled up and hauling in those beautiful walleye's while casting a wonderful smile of udder delight of the moment...

I absolutely love getting them bull perch. I get funny looks when I display my young boy like excitement when I heave one over the gunnel...

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and pictures.

Scott

[Fish Head]

As usaual, thanks for the great report and pics Mark. I'll be back up there tomorrow morning.

[BayView_Lodge]

Fall Fishing has been red hot up here! We have been trolling perch colored raps in 18-20' and doing really well. Most of the typicall fall spots are producing and fish are really schooling up. Muskies are really surfacing alot too, seems like where ever you find large concentrations of walleyes the Muskies are there too.

Come on up for a stay and wet a line, its just a fabulous time of year up here!

[StillFishin']

We were out in Frazier Bay today and Leaches out fished 'crawlers. We had these left over in the refrig and decided to forgo buying minnows. We where happy catching some 20-22"ers on leaches and a few 17"ers on crawler's.

Fishing was slow but when we got into 30' to 35' off o structure where whoud be a good chance we'd get a hit. Did loose some-hard to say if you should set the hook right a way or give them line.

Anyway on of the most beautiful day on the water in my years up here. Calm warmish and easy to control the boat.

[MarkB]

My wife and I fished on the 27th and did well, but, the story was they absolutely wouldn't hit a crawler! That was the day after she had a super day catching big walleyes on crawlers while I sat back and watched. I managed to convince her to switch to minnows and after she did, she started catching lots of fish. We caught walleyes, bass, perch, and a northern. Everything but the northern came from 18'-20' and the northern came from 35'. Deep water was nearby. I went down and picked up my folks for a weeks visit and the past two days fishing has been fabulous! My 89 yr old Dad has joined us in the boat and we've caught lots of walleyes the past 2 days with most of the fish being 16"-25"+(the first 2 fish my Dad caught were 17.5" and 17"). We've switched to minnows(chubs) exclusively and have found the fish adjacent to deep holes in 17'-19'. The "bite" is better now and we are missing/losing fewer fish. Smaller walleyes(10"-12") are still making up part of the catch, but the bigger walleyes far outnumber them. The water temps are hanging in that 55 degree range and yesterday and today have been Indian Summer at it's finest! I expect the fishing to get nothing but better, if that's even possible.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

I switched my wife to minnows and she continues to catch big walleyes. I thought she was catching all the big fish because she was using crawlers and I was using minnows. Guess not.....

Indian Summer is a fantastic time to be on the lake!

[Scupper]

Great smile, big fish and a lovely back ground. Seems that she has the touch on hauling in the big one's.

Thank you for taking the time to share.

P.S, awfully nice of you to pick up the folks and share the time.

Scott

[Klinger]

Fishing was slow on Saturday, but a couple for the pan. But boy were the leaves in full vivid color. Here is a panoramic of Birch Point. Hopefully it works out....

[soeaster]

Greetings! New to the forum and will be on Pike Bay for a few days starting next Sunday. I've fished the other end of the lake a few times but never the Easter part. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks much!

-Marc

[Jack Stasney]

Had a great weekend on Vermilion. The weather was awesome! The fishing was awesome too. Usual summer spots were vacated. Seems fish are schooling up pretty good. Most all fish were caught at 27-33ft+ in my boat out on the reefs. Then another boat did well fishing 20-26ft+ in areas where that was the deep spot. Clear skies and little wind made trolling easy.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

soeaster,

Welcome to HSO!

The walleye bite on the East end has been very good.

Fish Big Bay in the deeper holes. 27' to 40'.

Jigs or lindys with fatheads have been working great for me!

Cliff

[chucker1101]

Hey Cliff -

Just wanted to thank you for the great time last week, guiding me for the day. Always nice to catch limit, and i really appreciated listening to your observations about Walleye fishing on the lake.

One thing i really appreciated was the conversation all day long. It was great to discuss walleye fishing technique and tendencies with someone who has been doing it on Lake Vermilion for such a long time. I asked a lot of questions, and i appreciate your patience to answer all 6 hours of them!

thanks again...chuck

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Chuck,

My pleasure!

Thanks again!

See you on the water!

Cliff

[soeaster]

Cliff, thanks for the tips!

-Marc

[MarkB]

My Dad had a pretty good day!

Good Fishing ,

MarkB