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Mark: Great report as always. Sounds like your wife is easier to convince to change baits than you are from your previous posts....lol. Sure glad to see your pop pulling some fish. Lifetime of memories...Thanks again.

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Thanks. I was hoping it was a little lower, but the forecasted temps over the next week should drive those temps down a bit.

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Get out the Carhartt's and let the fishing continue !!! Going to brave the elements this wknd for a little wally fishing... crazy

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48.7 degree water temp this morning and a stiff 15mph wind out of the west/SW. BIG minnows are the ticket(for us at least). The biggest problem we had this AM was speed control due to the wind. All of our fish this AM were 20" and over! Still fishing structure and flats adjacent to deep holes. Decided not to bore you with more pics.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Good report, Mark. Wind has been tough lately and calm water looks nice today. I was waiting for 40 degrees but I may have to get out there. My minnows must be too small because my fish have been 13-14... a good future class. We're getting one here, one there and not finding large groups. Figured the fronts scattered them.

RLG

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RLG

Yesterday, we were fishing a "hole" and the surrounding flats within 100 yards. We found the fish on the flats, perhaps, because of the stiff wind that was blowing. There is nothing like waves to bring the walleyes shallow wink. Funny thing was, no small fish, all slot fish and all on BIG minnows up to 4"! Today, we tried a "hole" we fished last week. The walleyes were both on the flats and right in the deepest water(28')of the hole. The first 5 fish we caught were 16.5", 17", 18.5", 21.75", 21.75"! Then, I ran out of the BIG minnows and started using the small chubs that I had left. We continued to catch fish, BUT, the vast majority were smaller 10"-14" with a bigger one every now and then. My minnows were so small, I was using 2 of them!

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Sometimes 2 minnows is just the ticket. All I have left is small minnows and caught small fish this morning. Thanks for the tips. I enjoy working at it. Going to dry out now, my wife has a chore for me, and then I'll hit it again later.

RLG

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Sunday Morning I was out Fishing. The first 3 spots I tried, I didn't get a fish. Between the last 2 spots, I had about a dozen netted fish including a limit of keepers, 2 over 20 and several too small. Every fish I caught was hooked on a stinger hook! I saw water temps from 47 to 51.

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Thanks for sharing the pictures of your Dad hauling in some beautiful fish on what appears to be a gorgeous day.

It summons my own personal memory's...

Please continue to "bore" me/us with your pictures. wink A picture is worth a thousand words and or thoughts... Keep em coming.

Scott

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Scott

I always appreciate your thoughtful replies to my posts grin. I am never without my camera while fishing and I have taken hundreds of pictures in the process. Mostly, I take pictures of my favorite subject: my wife holding a big walleye. I do, however, take pictures of loons, eagles, and countless other subjects that allow me to wind back the clock during those cold northern winters. My wife tells me that repeated postings of upper range slot walleyes(some over)might get a bit boring to some readers. Hence, the reasoning behind not posting pictures with all reports. Personally, if I were viewing Lake Vermilion posts from an office or home computer in another state wishing I were here, I would relish every single picture anyone would take the time to share. And so, for you Scott and those like you who enjoy seeing Lake Vermilion as some of us who are lucky enough to live here do, fish pictures will continue to accompany my posts. I was going to wait until we caught another 30" or better before posting more pictures, but since the best of the season so far has been 29.5", that might take awhile eek. Thanks again for the nice replies to my posts.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Mark, I really enjoy reading your posts, and appreciate the information you share with us all here. The same goes for everyone else! A friend and myself were up fishing this past weekend, with mixed results. I love Vermilion in the fall, that being the time when I have the most success. I didn't find the fish quite stacked into my favorite fall spots yet. We did manage our limit of nice keepers over the weekend, along with a couple bonus slot fish. I'll be up again the weekend of the 20th to try again, hopefully with some greater success! The comments on minnow size rang true for us. Our biggest fish came on 5 inch pike suckers.

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Personally Mark I've never found any of your posts/reports boring. I very much look forward to every report that guys like you, Casey, Cliff.....anyone for that matter....puts on the site. It has all helped the learning curve. It's also been fun networking with Joe K. Hopefully we can get on the ice together this winter Joe.

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You can always count on getting true and accurate fishing reports from Mark, Casey and I. Be they good or bad news!

Cliff

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Too bad they are for the wrong end. frown

It would be a lot easier if you were bird dogging my end.

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Del,

I am surprised that there are not a few fishermen that will post results from the West end! Plenty of viewers on this forum from the West end of the lake.

Cliff

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I have been reading this forum for a few months now. Starting on the 21st I will begin my first week of fishing on Vermilion after going to Canada for the last 10 years. We are staying on the west end north of Oak Narrows. We are fishing primarily Muskie but I like to spend some time each day catching some walleye and Smallmouth. Any tips on putting some walleye in the pan and stick a few football sized smallies would be apprecaited.

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Janofish,

Welcome to HSO!

In the fall I like to fish water that is 30+ feet deep for walleyes with lindy or jigs baited with minnows. I use fathead minnows a lot but big rainbows or pike suckers work very well also, especially on the lindys.

Look for the deepest holes in the area that you will be fishing that has a lot of rocky shoreline or reefs close by.

Small mouths will be stacked on the rocky reefs that are in deep water and have steep drop offs into that water. They will readily hit 6" to 10" sucker minnows fished on a short bait rig or jigs. A slip bobber also works well with the suckers.

Cliff

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Thanks Cliff and Del, So the East side is better than the West for walleye? Note I am using the "matchline" on the fishing hot spots map as the West/East seperator. Do I need to go East of Daisy Bay? Is there a narrows, points vs reefs pattern for walleye?

For smallies West or East? Am I looking for reefs that top out in the 10'-15' range? The biggest contour changes seem to be on the West end. I have bouy C75, C80 and the The Wash areas identified as my first smallie spots.

Is there much of a Pike bite?

What are you seeing water temps at?

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Brrrrrrrrrrrr eek!When we finally made it out at ~11:30, it was still only 36 degrees with a good "breeze" from the SW. The "warmest" water we found today was 45.3 degrees and that was upon returning home this afternoon. The water has reached the "turnover" temperature(45 degrees), so, if it's going to turn over, it already has. Although we had really good fishing, I just couldn't find the big fish we left 5 or 6 days ago before this latest cold spell hit. Our "best" fish of the day was pushing 18" and we caught numerous other walleyes from 13"-16". On our last outing, the fish were really taking the minnow. Today, the bite was very tentative and we missed or lost as many as we caught. I believe a "stinger" would have really been the ticket today. We fished 3 different spots and found fish in all 3 locations. Some of our best hits came as we drifted over constant depth flats. Although the walleyes were still right down in the "holes", we found the biggest concentration on flats adjacent to some shallow water reefs. If I were coming here to fish right now and didn't know the lake, I would get a good contour map and mark deep water holes with adjacent flats or rocks. There's really no trick to catching them this time of the year if your not particular about size. The big fish are what I like to look for and today I bombed cry. I'm gonna blame it on the cold front and see what happens over the next few days with nicer weather in the forecast.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Finially made it out today around 10 a.m., after not being out for a week. It was cold early on, snow and ice in the boat, but at least the sun helped a bit. Managed to catch 10 walleyes and kept only two that were keepers. One was to big, 19 inches and the other throw backs were to small. I was using a jig tipped with suckers and rainbow chubs, did not seem to matter what I put on the jig. Missed a lot of fish in the first hour of fishing, must have been rusty or cold smilesmile. and decided to put on a stinger hook and that helped land a few more fish, but still missed a few, but not as many, as they seemed to be biting really, really light. Was fishing in 30-35 feet of water near the shoreline and somewhat out of the wind. Headed for home around 1 p.m. to warm up. Sounds like it should be warmer this weekend.

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I think frazier bay is generally considered to be "east" as is everything east of there.

Sorry to say it has been a while for me, and I can't provide any guidance. I think what Cliff said, you can take to the bank.

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We woke up to 41 degrees this morning and got out at ~9AM. I decided to try an entirely different part of the lake from where we have been fishing the past few outings. Actually, it was near where the CO checked us a couple of weeks a go. Water temps this morning in Big Bay were running 46.7 when we left our docks and the wind was a steady 5mph out of the SE. We haven't seen a gull or a comorant in several days now but the young loons are still around in, what seems like, good numbers. We have seen eagles in good numbers all summer and even more now since activity has calmed down. The musky boys were out in fairly good numbers this morning and we saw quite a few of them trolling open water areas. I could identify only one other walleye boat and he was fishing the fall areas around Birch Point. After we arrived at our chosen "spot", I dropped a marker in 43' of water and then began the elimination process. There is a hump near where I dropped my marker and it tops out at ~7'. It's not as terribly snaggy as you might suspect and I've caught some really nice big walleyes right on top in times past. Today, the shallowest walleye we caught came from 17' and the deepest came from 39'. I would say the optimum depth was 34'-37' and we caught fish in all depths between the 2 extremes. Our biggest fish today came from 17' and we got no hits in the hole itself. The bite is still a bit soft and I was able to boat 13 walleyes for 20 hits. My wife had similar results. One thing we are noticing is the lack of jumbos, smallmouth, and other species in the areas we've been fishing. For us, it's all walleyes now, and that's just fine, except, we enjoy eating jumbos this time of year so I guess I'll just have to keep looking smirk. The weather never really warmed much today and that and the overcast skies kinda makes aging joints and muscles seem more sore than usual. If my wife can put up with my whining we still plan to fish until ice up, so you haven't begun to hear the end of me yet wink.

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

Our biggest of the day. The cold water warts on this walleye were comparible to our goosebumps yesterday eek.

full-32496-25364-002.jpg

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Mark,

I'm envious. My last day was Thursday. We're on Black Duck Island and had to get out so our dock folks can do their work. It's peaceful on an island, but it does have it's drawbacks. We had a tough week last week with the cold front and wind, but we found fish near deep water, too, and big minnows worked best- bottom bouncer or gold jig. I did get one nice last fish the day we left- a 26 incheer, built like a football. Did a quick surgery to remove a snarl of line he was dragging and sent him back to the lake in better shape than before I caught him. We are down south now so keep posting. It's a long winter away from the action so it's nice to read about what's going on. Keep fishing as long as you can. See you in May.

RLG

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Had a good morning this morning with my 2 clients.

We fished only 2 spots and boated 23 walleyes in 4 hours.

All of our fish were caught on jigs baited with fathead chubs. The depth was 16' to 28'. Pink or yellow jigs were the preferred colors today.

Most of the bites were very aggressive as compared to yesterday's light tentative bites.

We kept 12 nice eyes and one jumbo. All keepers were between 15" and 17-1/2 inches. No slot fish caught the last 3 trips out.

Cliff

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RLG

Black Duck Island is a great location with some really awsome fishing very very close by wink. It seems these cold fronts really turn on the 10"-14"ers and turn off the bigger fish. We've been sticking with a bouncer, plain hook, red bead, and short leader. Kinda hard to believe that this season is quickly winding down now. Take care until spring and don't forget to vote! shocked

Good Fishing,

MarkB smile

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Fished on Saturday afternoon for two hours with my parents in the boat. Stayed on same spot the entire time. Caught six fish, all slot. Biggest was 23" (see photo). All caught on jig and rainbow minnows. Everything caught between 28-35 feet, adjacent to deep holes. They were hitting the jigs hard.

Great day to fish - lake was so calm, made it easy for my 80 year old dad. Plus, he caught some nice fish as well.

Cliff - those fire-ball jigs were the go-to bait. Switched everyone to the yellow/red color combo, and the fish started smacking 'em.

-chuck

full-31052-25428-walleye_oct2012.jpg

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Hey Chucker, sounds like a great day on the lake for you and your parents. I fished muskies on Saturday with my 2 sons from 7:00am to 7:30pm. That's 12 1/2 hours without taking a break. We had 3 follows, 1 fish lost, 0 fish boated. Oh well... that's how muskie fishing goes sometimes.

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