2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[PSU]

How has the fishing been the middle of the week? Looks like from what I've read, deeper has been fairly successful in the 22'-30 foot range. Plenty of opportunities for that depth in my neighborhood (Frazer/Smarts Bay). Planning to grab some rainbows on my way in at Northwoods, hopefully that's the ticket.

 

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I have been fishing mostly deep water, 26' to 32', depths in Big Bay.

Plenty of eating sized fish there!

Bigger walleyes are coming out of shallow water, 3' to 12' depths.

I have been using mostly chubs and suckers on lindys.

Cliff

[guideman]

Like Cliffy said, except I have been using jigs most of the time. I have also used a plain lindy at times however I am a jig guy most of the time.  

"Ace"  

"It's just fishing man"   

[Wakemup52]

Stuck out tonight on the west end, was finally able to get the boat in the water and all fired up. I am kicking myself for forgetting my fish finder at home so I’m flying blind. Stuck out tonight jogging for walleyes in Niles and the mouth of wakemup narrows. 

 

Got it off the lake a little bit ago before some of the rain and wind came. Will give it a shot again tomorrow.

Had anyone been fishing smallies or have any reports there?

[BRL]

Ugly Saturday on Norwegian Bay. One Pike off of Windsock Island, nothing else much to speak of. Cold and windy but finished off with a beautiful Evening. There were a couple of good eyes caught near the north end, a 27" and a couple in the slots but most boats didn't see much. I saw 2 caught in front of the beach at Life of Riley in a matter of a couple minutes. 

Sunday morning we met up with some friends and went out of Tower. Dragging bottom bouncers with minnows in 24-32' produced 11 keepers between the 4 of us, largest about 16" and lots of throw backs. Best luck just off of Priest Island. 4 hours of fishing with everyone except me pulling them in the boat until the last 10 minutes I put two in the livewell. I broke off with 10 minutes to go and was going to quit when everyone said "no, keep going!"  Glad I did cause I finished strong and redeemed myself. Never give up!

[redlabguy]

We had two fishing tournaments this weekend. Walleyes on Saturday and bass on Sunday. I met the bass winners today and talked to them about their walleye win Saturday. That’s right, they won both! 

On Saturday, they entered the walleye tournament but just because they were on the lake to pre-fish for bass. They fished with stick baits in shallow water, looking for bass beds. As shallow as 4’. And dang if they didn’t keep catching walleyes. Big ones, including 2 over 26”. 21 lbs. in all.

Apparently, they’re pretty good at finding bass, too. Big $ weekend for them!

[Raven77]

Interesting. So the sows are still in shallow?

We fished 10-24' the past 3 days and have done well with a lot of 14-18" eyes using Lindy rigs and rainbows.  

[CigarGuy]

2 hours ago, Raven77 said:

Interesting. So the sows are still in shallow?

We fished 10-24' the past 3 days and have done well with a lot of 14-18" eyes using Lindy rigs and rainbows.  

Chad, was that on the West end?  My turn to follow you around . I'll be back up Thursday night!!

[Wakemup52]

Very nice! I was kicking myself real hard this weekend for forgetting my fish finder at home. I did manage to bring this smallie in, but they were tough to pattern for me and this was the only noteworthy fish of the weekend.

Hope the water temps come up and I can get back next weekend!

[vermilionfox]

14 hours ago, BRL said:

Ugly Saturday on Norwegian Bay. One Pike off of Windsock Island, nothing else much to speak of. Cold and windy but finished off with a beautiful Evening. There were a couple of good eyes caught near the north end, a 27" and a couple in the slots but most boats didn't see much. I saw 2 caught in front of the beach at Life of Riley in a matter of a couple minutes. 

Sunday morning we met up with some friends and went out of Tower. Dragging bottom bouncers with minnows in 24-32' produced 11 keepers between the 4 of us, largest about 16" and lots of throw backs. Best luck just off of Priest Island. 4 hours of fishing with everyone except me pulling them in the boat until the last 10 minutes I put two in the livewell. I broke off with 10 minutes to go and was going to quit when everyone said "no, keep going!"  Glad I did cause I finished strong and redeemed myself. Never give up!

I recognize where those pictures were taken!

 

[PSU]

Any sense to when the walleye tournament results will be posted? Always enjoy reading the names and weights.

Aside from Saturday morning, we did very well Thursday-Sunday. LOTS of tiny walleyes in the Frazer/Smart's Bay area, but did manage plenty of keeper fish in 22-35 feet with Lindy's/Jigs and rainbows

[Stephen L Johnston Jr.]

I saw the guy who bought our cabin, Ryan Aker, came in 4th. A couple of 7lb fish and i thought i saw a team with a 10lb fish also.

16 hours ago, redlabguy said:

We had two fishing tournaments this weekend. Walleyes on Saturday and bass on Sunday. I met the bass winners today and talked to them about their walleye win Saturday. That’s right, they won both! 

On Saturday, they entered the walleye tournament but just because they were on the lake to pre-fish for bass. They fished with stick baits in shallow water, looking for bass beds. As shallow as 4’. And dang if they didn’t keep catching walleyes. Big ones, including 2 over 26”. 21 lbs. in all.

Apparently, they’re pretty good at finding bass, too. Big $ weekend for them!

Shhhhhh, the shallow is a secret. We fish quite often in 5' or less, Often watching the guides out on the sandy flats from a far

[Wheres_Walter]

We fished Frazer bay Friday and Saturday afternoon-sundown.  Early evening we did best in 30-35 FOW on lindys and chartruese jigs with chubs.  The last 90 min before dark we had more success at 7-12 FOW.  Nothing big but we caught a lot of 10-14" fish, more than enough to fill a skillet for our group of 5, plus put a few in the freezer.  All around great weekend, look forward to hitting it again this weekend.

[PSU]

In case anyone is interested. The link says 2017, but inside the link says 2018

https://www.cityautoglasswalleyeclassic.com/copy-of-2017-winners

 

[JFitz]

On 5/20/2018 at 5:09 PM, redlabguy said:

I met the bass winners today and talked to them about their walleye win Saturday

Nice meeting ya yesterday Redlabguy, wish I would have known you were on this forum too! My dad and I had an awesome weekend on Vermilion, things just came together perfectly. We're both on cloud nine!

[redlabguy]

I hope you and your dad don’t mind passing along the story of your weekend. It’s a great story and defies conventional wisdom. Congratulations! The best fishermen have skill, intuition, and a little luck on their side.

[james_walleye]

Congrats jfitz! I was in boat 85 in the big tiller Lund right behind you guys leaving the harbor. Our nice fish we had going completely disappeared on us. 

[JFitz]

Thanks, James! That weather really put fish on the move.

Our focus for the tournament was to get two big bites and catch a pair over 26". We felt like in order to do that we had to go west. We had a milk run of spots that were taking big wind so we just rotated through them during the day. Our fish came from 3'-13' casting jerkbaits, Rippin Raps and swimbaits. My dad had been catching a lot of walleyes on shallow rocks while pre-fishing for the bass tourney which really tipped us off on some locations and presentations.

We only caught six walleyes during the tournament but they were the right ones. We feel unbelievably fortunate to have had such an awesome experience!

[Stephen L Johnston Jr.]

Thanks for the share Fitz! I noticed you guys had a couple of nice ones on saturdays event, i was curious how thatcame about. Congratulations on the crazy

9 hours ago, JFitz said:

Thanks, James! That weather really put fish on the move.

Our focus for the tournament was to get two big bites and catch a pair over 26". We felt like in order to do that we had to go west. We had a milk run of spots that were taking big wind so we just rotated through them during the day. Our fish came from 3'-13' casting jerkbaits, Rippin Raps and swimbaits. My dad had been catching a lot of walleyes on shallow rocks while pre-fishing for the bass tourney which really tipped us off on some locations and presentations.

We only caught six walleyes during the tournament but they were the right ones. We feel unbelievably fortunate to have had such an awesome experience!

weekend!

[Wheres_Walter]

Headed up tomorrow for Memorial weekend.  Any tips on walleye patterns?  Deep?  Shallow?  Still chubs/rainbows?  Not looking for spots or secrets, just a little info to get started.   Smallies move up yet with the water temp rising?

[Wakemup52]

Any reports from Frazier bay at all? I’m thinking of making a run in my little boat the narrows. I’m itching to catch some walleye for the frying pan and think heading east may be my best bet but want to see if there’s any info out there before I make the 45 minutes trip!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I heard reports that the Fectos Point area has been good. I have not been there though.

Big Bay is still going.

I caught 7 in about an hour right at noon in pouring rain!

Cliff

[PSU]

Fished Frazer / Smarts Bay Thursday - Sunday. Overall the fishing was slow for me with the exception of smaller walleye (8-10 inches). Really different than the prior weekend where we really had tons of success. The water temp jumped dramatically from 55 ish (prior weekend) to 71 when we left yesterday. Tried Rainbows on jigs or lindy rigs at all depths. Did manage to have Sunday fish fry after a decent Sunday morning (35-40 feet). BEAUTIFUL weekend though..... 

[partyonpine]

Coming up today for a week, sounds like big bay fectos point 30-40 fow, are they still on a minnow bite, I will throw everything at them crawlers, minnow, leeches.  Any bass reports or is it still to early and they are holding in deep water?

[mbeyer]

Bass are starting to move up.  See some on beds. Only in spirts are they chasing real hard.  Still have to work a bit.

[chucker1101]

I got bass along Pine Island last weekend, lindy-rigging. They're moving into the spring spots.

Big Bay and North side of Pine Island were slow, for me. Worked 10 different spots without a Walleye. Had one on and lost it - tough feeling when you're not boating many. No partner this weekend, would have been helpful to have two people working different rigs. Ran lindy with northern suckers, did some jigging, and even broke out the crawlers. Didn't try leeches. Probably should have tried throwing the X-Rap into the shallows.

Good news is plenty of fish on the graph. Just seemed to be uninterested - or well fed.

[norwaybay]

Was finally able to get away Saturday for a few hours and the fishing on the west end was fabulous.  Six nice slot walleyes ranging from 21-26 all caught on Lindy rigs drifting.  Six foot Lindy with red or green bead did the trick with a rainbow.  Bass were on there nests off the docks but didn't go after any.  Water was clear and the weather was great.

[partyonpine]

Thanks guys, really appreciate it was not sure if they weld be on the beds already.

[Wheres_Walter]

PSU- I found the same thing on Frazer bay this weekend.  Only time I could catch a walleye was the last hour before dark, then we'd get a flurry of 8-13" fish.   All were caught in 8-12 FOW, nothing deep.  Chartruese Jig with a chub.  We managed to eke out a half dozen for the fry pan, but no quality fish thus far this year.  I switched over to smallies when I spotted a pair under our dock protecting their nest from 8 zillion crayfish.  Absolutely hammered the smallies using senkos rigged wacky casting right up within 8-10 ft. of shore, so that made up for a tough walleye bite.  

 

[chucker1101]

I should add i didn't fish the final two hours of the night. Fished the early shift, 6am-10:30am, and put some hours in from 1-5:30. Spent the evenings with the wife on the shore.