2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[10,000 Casts]

Went out last night and fished 5:30pm-11pm. Used bottom bouncer, 4-5 ft leader, red hook, red beads and rainbows. First tried our spot where we caught a bunch of them 2 weeks ago (haven't been out since) and marked fish but couldn't get them to go (18'-30'), then we tried another spot where we caught fish and didn't mark anything. Then I looked at the gps and found a steep drop on a hump going from 22' down to 54' and we marked alot of fish, caught 2 16"ers and missed probably 4 because the bite was very light. They would just slowly grab on and we would set the hook feel a couple head shakes and off. All in all, a eve trip the weather was awesome but is was 39 degrees when we got off the lake.

[Captain Acorn]

what tactic is usaully most productive during the bug hatch

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Pike Bay was coated with may flies this morning!

Very tentative bite all over Big Bay the past couple of days and mostly small fish!

Cliff

[MarkB]

Chaunceye:

There's far more qualified people on here that can answer that question but, here's my take on it and what I do to catch walleyes during the "hatch"(which won't happen in Big Bay for at least a couple weeks yet). When the walleyes are actively feeding on the emerging mayflies, the bugs are, obviously, coming up from the bottom. My standard method of bottom bouncing is double deadly during that time since it keeps the bait "up" anyway. The three things that I do to increase my hits are: switch completely to 1/2 crawlers(it must look like the emerging adult mayfly); add a small float to the line(it keeps the bait up further); increase my trolling speed to .7-.9mph(they don't get as long to look at it). This simple change has worked for me in the past and I'll definitely be using it when the hatch is in full bloom. You're not going to fill the boat with fish, mind you, because they are stuffed with mayflies, but I have always managed a decent days fishing using this method.

Yesterday, my wife and I went out early and froze our rear until we got used to the cold. When we got home at 1:30 it was 52 degrees ! Water temps were 57.4 and the wind blew 5-10mph out of the North, then the East, then the NE, pretty much every direction but South. It did lull from time to time which made things bearable for my wife. We tried a couple spots with no hits and then moved to a reef and found the walleyes in 23'-27' adjacent to it. These fish were right on the gravel/mud tansition and were easily seen on the sonar .We managed to boat 12 walleyes and one jumbo.19.5" was the biggest, and we caught an 18", 2- 16", 4-15"+, etc. The hits were either really good solid walleye type hits, or grab it and let it go. Between my wife and myself we missed at least 15 hits! We are still using minnows and since rainbows aren't available, chubs are the ticket.

I haven't seen a mayfly anywhere on Daisy Bay or in any of my travels around Big Bay.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Casey Sunsdahl]

If anyone needs crawlers I have them available in any quantity you can dream up,(dozens, pounds, flats, tens of thousands) Give me a call and we can get you squared away.. If you are a resorter or retailer I can and will deliver!

218 750 4510

Capt.

[MarkB]

<------------------<<<<<< needs them and will call in a couple weeks

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Sounds good I should have about 30,000 by then!!

[Silver Scale]

That big check sure can buy alot of crawlers.... :-)

Will you be able to get crawlers early next spring say by mid April?

[GSP4ME]

here in a couple of weeks will the ticket be leeches, crawlers or minnows for the eyes and what are you all thinking of depth at that point

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I Could probably do that for you Jim! Thinking sturgeon already??

Crawlers and leaches should out fish minnows in two weeks.. And the fish are where you find them.. Too many people on this forum thinking they need a gps coordinate to catch fish .. The 50 boats on one spot this spring proves my point. Just go fish and you will learn far more about fishing during the search. Where is musky Tom to back me up? I bet with my 900 waypoints I could fish this week without going to one of them and still find fish.. And I know for a fact I can find them in 4ft an 40ft and just about anywhere in between depending on the area of the lake and the structure I fished. Every spot may not be the glory hole but does it need to be?

Capt.

[10,000 Casts]

Quote:

And I know for a fact I can find them in 4ft an 40ft and just about anywhere in between depending on the area of the lake and the structure I fished.

completely agree.

And about that spot with 50 boats, we never went up there because on a lake like V, I would rather be alone and not catch anything than join that circus, were they catching alot of fish? How many tournament guys were up there and did they weigh anything? I'm curious.

Agreed that people shouldn't have to ask for spots before they go out, to me, part of the fun is trying to figure out the bite. I use my gps to do that and not knowing the lake well, if we don't catch fish on our first or second or 3rd spot, we move and use the gps to find our next spot and take what we learned and adapt to what the fish want until we find them. A good gps and sonar goes along way in my boat.

Just reading this forum should give a guy a solid idea of what bait to buy and where to start and what a good back up plan might be.

And MarkB, I'm not a huge crawler guy but I will try that! Thanks

[guideman]

I need crawlers Casey, I'll call ya soon.

"Ace"

[james_walleye]

I cant speak for what happened in the tourney, but I won't complain about taking a couple 6-7 year old kids out and have them have 15 keepers boatsidea nd put back some 18-19" fish to boot in 3 hours last saturday morning. Not have to worry about them snagging and anything they feel is a bite. Ya I would do it next time to if it meant the kids caught a walleye every 10 minutes. Tried 1 pass there monday morning, my daughter lost a giant, but that was it and then we went exploring. Hit one spot with nothing, then hit another spot in 16-19 feet and put a half dozen nice keepers in the boat in an hour. Then my daughter said I like the other spot better because when we don't have one on we can watch other people catch fish. Whatever works. If she is happy in the boat, than that means im in the boat and not on shore.

[MarkB]

I think you will find that it works. In response to your questions regarding the early mud bite, I fished there for ~ 2 weeks and the only time I ever saw close to 50 boats was the day of the tournament. I usually got there early and left mid to late morning and the usual count was 25-30 boats. Actually, ganging up on a spot loaded up with fish is fairly common on the walleye lakes that I've fished. I too like to be alone while fishing a spot but, in my estimation, the mud flat fishing fleet never began to approach "circus" status. Everyone that I fished beside was courteous and respectful of the boats around them. It seemed that everyone was catching fish. I talked with at least 2 different guides there every day I fished. I fished there because I have fished there for more years than I like to remember and I will be back next spring with, hopefully, similar success. I don't blame the guys wanting fishing information one bit and I also don't blame the guys that stop by a spot that has several boats in the area with multiple boats netting fish.

Today, I decided to switch my wife to leeches and she absolutely kicked my rear. We actually each caught the same total number of walleyes but, I didn't catch one fish as big as her smallest! Nothing huge mind you, but she got a 20",18", 17.5", 2-16", and a 15.5". Mine weren't that big ....I didn't switch for a simple reason, I only brought a dozen leeches! The reef that was void of fish yesterday, had them today. They were kind of stacked up around a "point" on the reef. The walleyes were in 26'-29' with deeper water close. These fish were definitely IN the rocks and we had multiple double snags. I broke off 1/2 dozen leaders in the rocks and I can assure you, if you like fishing alone, this type of structure will give you solitude like nowhere else. There will never be a time when 25-30 boats stack up there. I think.............

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Mark I agree fully with you about the Mud Flats crowd! For having that many boats on one spot it was actually a fun time for all of us. Everyone was respectful of the other guys and everyone was catching fish!

Found the walleyes in the rocks today also! They were hungry too!

Caught every one of my fish on 1/2 crawler today! My clients used minnows mostly and caught just as many. Leeches accounted for only 2 fish! Funny how the fish's bait preference changes from one spot to another!

Great day out there today with no wind and warm sunny skies!

Cliff

[10,000 Casts]

Jw- great that you could get some kids in on the great fishing, I cant wait till a few years when I can take my little guy out there and I'm sure I'll be thinking the same thing about snags and his short attention span.

To each their own I guess on fishing in or out of crowds, when I look at a map, I see thousands of good potential spots and durring the last 3 weeks, walleyes could potentialy be caught in all of them doing all different methods and that I assume is a rare thing.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I fished this afternoon and evening..and my crew did very well.. Somewhat Slow but very steady .. Lots of fish on the sonar !! They had me for dinner and made fresh walleye cakes .. Unbelievable.! Fished 3 different rock spots and caught fish at all three.. Could not buy a fish on a crawler or leech.. Minnow only!

Capt.

[Jack Stasney]

Had a great weekend on the Big V. Lots of fish in the 14-18in range. Fish were all over the place depth wise and tons of little fry/minnows as well. Finding submerged trees was key and plenty were there, I am assuming because of all the rain we've had.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Had a great weekend on the Big V. Lots of fish in the 14-18in range. Fish were all over the place depth wise and tons of little fry/minnows as well. Finding submerged trees was key and plenty were there, I am assuming because of all the rain we've had.

"Submerged trees" ????????

Not likely in Vermilion, Unless it happened to be a deadhead or two!

Cliff

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Is a dead head just a hippie Cliff? I thought they were trees, but who knows... there are gillions of trees in the lake laying on shorelines and hippies (dead heads) all over the place! every shallow bay from here to cook and back. A spot like ECHO 10 for exaple is ALL trees.. put your camera down and check if you don't believe me. You need to come up from off the deep end once in a while!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

You could be right Casey!

Never considered a dead head a tree per-say as most trees that I deal with are standing. Anything laying down is a log to me although I guess it is wood.

Cliff

[MarkB]

I have enough trouble getting snagged on rocks, I can't even imagine fishing anywhere close to submerged trees!!!

I'm with Cliff on the dead head debate

Fish are hanging in all the same locations for us. Only 4 today on leeches, but a bunch on rainbows including 20.5", 20", 19".. My Dad got here and at 89, he can still get the job done. One thing, I changed to white bead/white hook and caught more than my wife and Dad combined! They stuck with the red bead/red hook rig. We'll see tomorrow if the color makes the difference.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Thanks for the support Mark! I need all the help that I can get after eating all of those poison mushrooms!

Got all of our fish on minnows today also, used chubs though. Boated 5 slot fish between 18.5 and 22.5.

Using a 3 foot snell with any color hook but a orange and a green soft bead ahead of the hooks. All of the fish were in the rocks again.

Cliff

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I am still curious the connection between the submerged trees and the rain.. what is the theory there? 14-18 inch smallmouth or walleyes? I did catch some eyes by trees last week but please clarify.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I am still curious the connection between the submerged trees and the rain.. what is the theory there? 14-18 inch smallmouth or walleyes? I did catch some eyes by trees last week but please clarify.

That is what I questioned! I know that we did not get enough rain to submerge trees! Although it did seem like that might happen for a while!

You are right about all of the logs in Echo-10! I believe they are from days-of-old when they were floating rafts of logs through that area from the Trout Lake area.

Cliff

[BigJay]

Just got back from a week of fishing Walleye on the West side of the lake. The weather was hit or miss at the beginning of the week but we caught a about 15 21" plus walleye with the biggest being 26". We saw a 29" boated as well. We had a very hard time catching any keepers all too big or too small but hey if i want to eat walleye I can go to the store

[Jack Stasney]

Sorry I always assume walleyes, and by trees I mean different parts of them. Branches and some dead heads. Found some new ones in places I know there wasn't. For me worms worked, but my average size fish was bigger with a leech. Before you ask; by average size being bigger I mean with a worm there were lots 8-12.5in, and I didn't really catch anything under 14in with a leech. Lastly when it rains and gets windy trees near shore tend to fall down into the lake. Also already downed trees can break free and move deeper. These fish/tree parts were not that far off shore, so it wasn't like we were out in the middle of the lake.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Sorry I always assume walleyes, and by trees I mean different parts of them. Branches and some dead heads. Found some new ones in places I know there wasn't. For me worms worked, but my average size fish was bigger with a leech. Before you ask; by average size being bigger I mean with a worm there were lots 8-12.5in, and I didn't really catch anything under 14in with a leech. Lastly when it rains and gets windy trees near shore tend to fall down into the lake. Also already downed trees can break free and move deeper. These fish/tree parts were not that far off shore, so it wasn't like we were out in the middle of the lake.

That really explains it! I should have assumed that you were probably fishing mostly shorelines!

I also find that leeches will usually get the bigger eyes!

Cliff

[GSP4ME]

What are you guys seeing for water temps right now and are the smallies on the beds yet?

[MarkB]

The past couple days, with the exception of a shower or two, have been beautiful! Flat water and sunny skies warm the water pretty quickly. Today, we started out with 65.3 degrees and at noon when we left, it was 69.5 degrees. Leeches are definitely doing as well as minnows for us now and are producing some really nice slot fish. All of our fish are on the rocks and the fish that I cleaned to eat were full of crawfish and perch. We've caught several walleyes from 19"-21.5" the past couple of days and the 15"-18"ers are still making up the bulk of the fish boated. 24'-32' has been the "zone" for us and we tolerate the daily dose of snags that goes with fishing the rocks. All of us are now using white hook/white bead rigs. We still haven't seen any mayflies but I would expect a substantial showing in the shallow bays due to the extremely warm days.

Good Fishing,

MarkB