2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[Wakemupwalleye]

On 7/18/2020 at 5:58 PM, james_walleye said:

Yes wakemup in east end.... big bay area. This week orange hook small chartreuse bead was clicking. But I've had luck st times with red.... orange.... pink and glow beads to. 

 

Trump I forgot to mention that. I did catch some fish on jigging raps. The one evening in particular the fish were a little tough and I busted one out and caught 6 in about 30 minutes. 

James. Thx for the tips. Just finished up baseball season and got back to the lake. Used your suggestions and caught 12 this morning. Might be a personal best!!

[Dash 1]

East end pike bay area.

[SkunkedAgain]

I fish for sunnies but that's because it is the only thing my wife and daughter have patience for. Besides, it's actually fun with a super light action rod. I would generally suggest fishing near vegetation or fishing by a dock with nearby vegetation (I wouldn't fish a dock where the cabin owner is around though!). The west end supposedly has more vegetation so supposedly more panfish. I never pay too close attention to the weed situation the few times a year that I boat east.

 

As for walleye fishing, I enjoy it but often don't invest the time either (hence my name). I do fine at opener and good in the fall, so essentially when any fool like me should catch them. The rest of the year I seem to enjoy the other things about Vermilion, enjoy my time repairing and fixing things, being in the woods, and swimming in the lake. I'm as happy to spend a weekend cutting and splitting wood, or making improvements, as hooking a limit of walleye. There really is a ton to love about being on such as beautiful lake.

[delcecchi]

Saw on facebook that someone on Wakemup had their green fishing kayak blow away from their island place a couple days ago.   

They couldn't find it, so if any of you have happened to come across it, check the vermilion cabin owners group or let me know.   

 

[Wakemup52]

Managed to pick up a few walleyes on the west end on Saturday night. Got up Sunday morning to find a bug hatch and that shut things off in the area I was targeting. 20-27 FOW, jig and leach is what was working for me.

[StillFishin']

Hey SkunkedAgain, very well put.  Just me and my wife and she doesn't get into eye fishing so we go fur sunnies.  

All we need for a fish fry is 6 or 7 keepers, about 7 inchers.  We have a secret deeper hump where they hang out and are usually there so it's fast fishing with very few small perch.  Actually, this year we also had 5 northerns hit the gills while reeling them in but they always let go,  but still fun.

 

I also enjoy the never ending cabin projects and cutting and splitting wood. 

 

[jtschwinn97]

was in vermilion for 4 days at Pike Bay Lodge last week. Very little action. Too windy to hold boat on reefs on east end. shoreline fishing was poor. Three of us fishing all day...managed a couple of tiny walleye and about six smallmouths per day total. Father caught an 18.5" smallmouth but that was about it. Nobody at the lodge did well either...although most were fishing for musky. Is this lake fished out? Canada closure has increased # of lures in the water? Thought Vermilion was a solid lake....did better off of a neighbor's dock.

[BirchPtMike]

JT You were a victim of the weather. I traveled to Rainy last week while the wind blew for 3 days and didn't do well. When the wind died we caught 40-50 each day with many slot fish. Upon returning to Vermilion we didn't get on the water until 11:00 AM with hot and windless conditions. Three hours later the four of us had 16 in the box while fishing two spots. Vermilion is not fished out. It is getting a lot of pressure this summer,and like everywhere each day is different for walleyes, but still good results when fish are active.

[Pat McGraw]

BirchPtMike, The correct response to jtschwinn97 would have been "yes, totally fished out. spread the word." JK I love the honest supportive feedback this group can be counted on for. Good luck and safe boating from Breezy Point in Frazer Bay.

[Wakemupwalleye]

Any help on the walleyes would be great. Been up here a week and caught my share of 13 and below but just can’t get on anything with size. Quite honestly not marking anything. Feel like I’ve tried everywhere. Have they gone deeper? I’ve been fishing reefs that normally hold fish. I’m on the west end but will fish anywhere 

[BirchPtMike]

I only fish the east end ,but your deeper idea is correct. Fish are running 25-35.  Crank baits are best right now ,but rigs were getting them this AM. Might want to run bottom bouncers and spinners with a crawler. Every day is different lately so keep looking. Good Luck

[james_walleye]

Well I'm up until Wednesday and got out for the first time this afternoon. I went right to one of my favorite lead core spots and it was game on. Alot of 15-16" fish. I was running 26-28 feet. Multiple colors of cranks worked. Shads and flickers both worked. Lots of trollers out. Probably the most I've ever seen on a day. 

[Wakemup52]

On 8/8/2020 at 6:34 PM, james_walleye said:

Well I'm up until Wednesday and got out for the first time this afternoon. I went right to one of my favorite lead core spots and it was game on. Alot of 15-16" fish. I was running 26-28 feet. Multiple colors of cranks worked. Shads and flickers both worked. Lots of trollers out. Probably the most I've ever seen on a day. 

Thanks for the report James! Lead core is the next presentation for me to try... how many colors do you let out when fishing in the 25ft range? 

[james_walleye]

A little over 3 in the water but it depends on the brand lead you use. The suffix i use gets down about 7 feet per color. 

[Raven77]

I've been having good luck with lead core as well.  I use Suffix 832, with line counter reels.  Each color is 30 feet of line.  As a rule of thumb, every 1 foot of depth requires 5 feet of line, so if you are fishing at 30' FOW you would let out 150' of line, or 5 colors.  Trolling speed affects how deep your crank is running as well (slower is deeper).  I usually run between 2.2 and 2.5 mph.  As a check, you can keep letting out line until your crank starts bumping bottom and then reel up 10' of line.  

[muskie-mike]

I use 12 lb suffix 832 and find i use 4 ft of line for every foot of depth with a 30 ft mono leader...

 

[Tsmasher]

Heading up to Vermilion tomorrow. Have gone the last few years to target walleyes, but going to focus most my time on pikes this trip.

 

I have some spots mapped out already that I want to try.

 

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Thanks! 

[james_walleye]

So we checked some of my favorite reefs this morning. Plenty of fish on them.... but smalls for us. Pulled out the leadcore on a 18-19 foot flat with the wind blowing on it and caught some darn nice fish. 3 of us kept 9 in about 90 minutes trolling. The majority 16-17" fish with a couple 14-15". Threw a half dozen little's back. Once the lead bite is on i generally put the rigging rods away for a while. The quality of fish for me has always been much better. 

[TrueNorth]

23 hours ago, TrueNorth said:

Stayed on the west side last week.  Perfect weather for most of the week.  Light winds, cool mornings and 70-80 during the day.  Plenty of sunshine - no rain to speak of.  

 

Of the ~20 Walleye we caught, 60% of them were in the 10" to 14" range.  Everything else was 22" to 26".   Trolled plugs but mostly fished spinners slow w/ Crawler and Leeches. 

 

Fished mostly deep reefs all over the main basins.  Kept moving.  Biggest take away was a large scale bug hatch going on (not mayflies) and the largest small perch population I've ever witnessed.  Both of these lit of the electronics with pure clouds... 4-6" perch literally everywhere.  Pretty amazing to be honest.

 

Every fish was very healthy...stuffed full.  Gonna be fun in a few years.  Also caught several nice Bluegill, Small and Largemouth Bass and a few Pike.  All larger than past years.  1 50" musky stopped by to say high in calm weather middle of the day.  

 

Did make it to the East side a few days with little success but the timing of the day didn't help.  Definitely marked plenty of fish off deep reefs in 16-30 mainly in Big Bag.  No bug hatch there and not near the bait fish population.  

 

If I was there this week, I would fish reefs near deepest water adjacent to defined points.  That's my 2 cents.  

 

[TrueNorth]

6 minutes ago, TrueNorth said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by TrueNorth

[BrianF]

Seven specie day today.  Live bait not required!  Couple of things of note...   I caught eight nice crappies this morning on a deep rock reef, along with a bunch of plump gills. Seems odd, but I’ll take it.  This afternoon, I targeted ciscos and whitefish out over the basin. Success!  Was happy since I now know whitefish can be targeted year round, not just thru the ice.  I also enjoyed the challenge of a different species that not many folks know about.  Was a unique and fun experience.  By the way, everything I caught was immediately released.   

[BigVTim]

Nice work gents! Looks like the back-end of summer bite is heating up. Love this time of year as we head into Sept. How is the water level with all the storms passing through? Has looked rainy lately. Last I was up was early July after that 8" rain storm and the levels were back up to normal after being low in June.

[JBMasterAngler]

Apparently vermilion has a very healthy population of whitefish? How come they never show up in the DNR surveys?

[Wakemup52]

Question for the group, next weekend I will have two young ones in the boat and am looking for some August panfish/crappies.
 

We can always catch some little ones off our dock, but wondering if anyone here has picked up on a pattern they’d be willing to share to keep the kids interested! My goal is to turn them both into lifelong anglers

[Sorgy]

Wakemup - I sent you a private message.

[Jetsky]

There is a huge mufflehead (midge) hatch going on in Frazier Bay the last two days.  Anyone know how that affects the walleye fishing?

[BirchPtMike]

There might be some eyes eating bugs but everything I have cleaned is either full of small perch minnows or empty, so no

[Hockeyboys]

Hey Mike --- how's the leadcore bite going?  We haven't tried too hard in Daisy Bay but landed a few.  Still trying to figure out how depth works with 18# Suffix line.  At 18-19' I'm putting out 120-130' of line.  Thoughts?  Kind of interesting --- One day firetiger works the next day straight perch works better.  Do you have a preference for Storm stick baits or Shad Rap type baits?

[Tlund]

@Hockeyboys I use the same lead and was just fishing some stuff this past weekend in 18-19’ with leadcore and I was getting them only letting out 75’. Was fishing 25-26’ and let out 104’. That’s running at 1.8-2.1 MPH. Running 2.3.2.6 at 25-26’ letting out 116’ seemed to be working. Suffix lead dives deeper. The crawler and spinner bite was good too in 17-23’ on a sand break. Boated 37 walleyes through out the weekend with plenty of eaters to keep. Biggest for the weekend was 23” that came off of deep sand with spinner and bouncer. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Tlund

[james_walleye]

Hockey how much mono do you have for a leader. I run about 12 feet and at that depth with the same leadcore I'm running about 95 feet