2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[PSU]

Really having some challenges finding fish in the Smarts Bay / Frazer Bay area. Do minnows seem to be the ticket now? What depths are folks finding fish?

 

Thanks in advance as I have two friends coming up today

 

 

[Captain Acorn]

Hi everyone been awhile since I’ve posted on here. Was up in gods country the past 4 days and we caught alot of fish but size was challenging. We fished lead core without much success so switched to minnows and crawlers. Fishing was slow on jjgs and good on rigs for numbers but most were 11- 13 1/2” then late afternoon the stars aligned and got a good one pictured below. 29 1/2”. A single white bead did far better than a plain hook for us. Most fish caught on or right off of rock ledges 12-22 fow 

 

good luck out there everyone 

[StateofHockey]

Fished on and off Thursday to Saturday, from Frazer to Big Bay, caught a few in the 15-19" range. best success was in 28-32' FOW drifting with bottom bouncers and spinners.  Bigger suckers out performed smaller rainbows.  If any one knows where to get some larger rainbows, that would be nice to know.

[muskie-mike]

Slow on leadcore for me,4 small fish a day...Frazer and Big Bay...

[Raven77]

Lead core was on fire for us on Saturday on both the east and west end in 22-30' of water.  Five of us in two boats boated over 70 fish on Saturday.  A lot of 10-12"ers but enough keepers to fill 5 limits.  Biggest was 25".  We did great Sunday and today as well although not as hot as Saturday.  The only live bait fishing we did was with minnows on Lindy's.  Caught a few but honestly did not spend much time live rigging as the lead core bite was so hot.  Stomachs on most fish we cleaned were empty.  The ones with full stomachs had mostly small crayfish and minnows.

[Rivergroup]

My daughter and I will be fishing the west end Saturday afternoon, Sunday, & Monday.  Any tips would be great.  This will be her 3rd time on Vermilion and she's anxious to catch some walleyes!  

[BigVTim]

Rivergroup, I'm not a doctor, but sounds like if you just pay Raven and hop in his boat, that's the ticket.

[TrueNorth]

On 9/21/2020 at 4:31 PM, Raven77 said:

Lead core was on fire for us on Saturday on both the east and west end in 22-30' of water.  Five of us in two boats boated over 70 fish on Saturday.  A lot of 10-12"ers but enough keepers to fill 5 limits.  Biggest was 25".  We did great Sunday and today as well although not as hot as Saturday.  The only live bait fishing we did was with minnows on Lindy's.  Caught a few but honestly did not spend much time live rigging as the lead core bite was so hot.  Stomachs on most fish we cleaned were empty.  The ones with full stomachs had mostly small crayfish and minnows.

That's a phenomenal day on Vermilion.  Particularly this year since the lake has been pounded so much.  Anyone take a photo of the 25"?  

[Rivergroup]

3 hours ago, BigVTim said:

Rivergroup, I'm not a doctor, but sounds like if you just pay Raven and hop in his boat, that's the ticket.

I think you're on to something there!  

[Raven77]

 

Quote

That's a phenomenal day on Vermilion.  Particularly this year since the lake has been pounded so much.  Anyone take a photo of the 25"? 

The most encouraging thing to me is the number of 10-13" fish we caught and released.  Really bodes well for the next few years.

 

Here's a pic of my buddy's fat 25"er. 

[Wishin4Walleyes]

Anybody out over the weekend? Is the lead core bite still holding on? Heading up for next few days so any tips appreciated.

[Skibo]

Out twice last week for a total of about 5 hours on Big Bay and Daisy Bay.  Four people fishing and the bite was pretty good.  Used jigs/minnows and lindy rigs (my wife prefers the lindy ).  Jig/minnow was the hot ticket in the holes on reefs and points.  The Lindys found a few smaller fish and lots of nice bass along the gravel/mud transition at the bottom of the reefs and along the shoreline points.  Biggest walleye was 22" and only two under 13".  Most of the fish were perfect for dinner, between 13" and 18".  Saw a number of boats pulling wooden minnows and they seemed to be getting the net out occasionally.

[Muskyhunter73]

Had an amazing fall fishing day on Saturday. Ended up with 25 total walleyes. 26, 25 3/4, 19 3/4, 18, 16, bunch under 16. Also caught 3 crappies. 13 3/4, 13, and 12.5. In the 21 years I’ve fished Vermilion I had never caught a crappie. Attached are some photos.

[Wanderer]

Does it get any better?!  Looks like my idea of an awesome fall day! 

[mulefarm]

Wow, great day on the water!

[Wishin4Walleyes]

Thanks for the posts all. I've been monitoring this forum for a bit and it had gotten quiet so made me worried the fall bite was off to a slow start.

 

Glad to hear jig and minnow bite is going as that's by far the most fun way to get em!

[Muskyhunter73]

1 minute ago, Wishin4Walleyes said:

Thanks for the posts all. I've been monitoring this forum for a bit and it had gotten quiet so made me worried the fall bite was off to a slow start.

 

Glad to hear jig and minnow bite is going as that's by far the most fun way to get em!

I forgot to add all our fish were on a lindy rig with a medium sized rainbow

[muskie-mike]

Beats my banana sized walleyes on leadcore...

 

[MarkB]

We returned home today from a short 3 day fishing trip on Vermilion. The weather was chilly most of the time and windy during our entire trip. All of the fishing took place on the east end of the lake and we fished from Daisy Bay to Armstrong Bay with many stops in between. The fishing party included myself, my cousin, and a very dear friend. We bought pike suckers and nitecrawlers for bait. We used jig/minnow, bottom bouncer/colored hook and beads, and lindy rigs. We fished water from 15' to 30' and targeted rock reefs and holes. The water temperature varied between 57 and 59 degrees depending on the time of day. During our stay, we caught one fish on a minnow and 80+ on a half crawler. In addition, we caught several jumbos that were incidental to fishing for the walleyes. We found that a bottom bouncer, 4'-5' leader, 2-fluorescent light green beads, and red hook worked best. We found fish at most of the places we stopped at and 20'-26' was the optimum depth. The fish bit lightly and most of the time a hit was indicated by a bump followed by a slight drag on the line. We missed lots of fish by setting the hook fairly quickly after the initial bump in an attempt to avoid gut hooked fish. We found the fish scattered with the larger concentrations on mud bottom. Probably 1/2 of our fish were the 10''-13" up and comers while the rest included lots of 14"-17" eaters and several slot fish from 20"-22" and one 28". We had two fish fries and enjoyed every minute. We reserved the same time slot for next year. I think we hit the fall colors at it's peak and it was spectacular to say the least. 

 Good Fishing

     MarkB

 

This was the largest walleye that we caught during our stay........

[Wishin4Walleyes]

Well, day 1 was a grind. 2 boats, 3 guys we ended up with 3 eaters and 4 smalls. Threw back 1 23". The keepers were good quality (18, 19).

 

Lead core bite was dead. Jig and minnow got our fish. Today gotta try something different as the spots we fished just weren't holding many fish.

 

Gonna burn some fuel today and try to find em.

[StillFishin']

Mark, Nice to see and hear you did good as usual.

[Fish Head]

13 hours ago, MarkB said:

eserved the same time slot for next year. I think we hit the fall colors at it's peak and it was spectacular to say the least. 

 

Great to have you post again Mark. It sounds like a fantastic trip back to Vermilion. Take care!

[SkunkedAgain]

Yup - the fall colors have peaked and will be gone very soon. My maple dropped all of its leaves since Sunday. The birch are still holding on but losing them slowly.

 

I hope to add a fishing report after this weekend. Nice work MarkB

[PSU]

I know this question is tough to answer, but any thoughts to how the walleye fishing is setting up to be the next two weeks starting Sunday? We were almost shut out (except for a few 14"ers" from the 21-23 of September and I have a couple of friends coming up on Sunday (Frazer Bay/Smarts Bay). Usually for me this is the absolute prime of the year, but again the 21-23 was tough, perhaps due to the flat water, sunshine, and 70 degrees.

 

We usually fish many of the common areas in Smarts/Frazer using either a Lindy Rig or jig with a minnow. 

 

Any thoughts would be welcomed!

[Wishin4Walleyes]

Two days of fishing monday and Tuesday were really tough. Day 1 I posted on previously. Day 2 I covered a lot of water checking structure on side imaging for pods of fish. I couldn't find em. Spots I did stop and fish only netted 1 nice crappie, several rock bass, couple small eyes, and a fat smallmouth. I did best trolling lead core in big bay for a couple hrs. Got a couple smalls and a keeper eye doing that. Water temps were 58-60. I never got a pattern figured out.

[StillFishin']

Sorry To hear you guys are having trouble connecting with eyes.  Do you think the guides know better spots or are they just off their feed?

[Raven77]

No expert here but IMO the cold front that came through this week cooled the bite down.  We were hammering them on lead core from 10/19-29.  Most of the fish had empty bellies.  The last few days have been tough.  Yesterday, in one spot I marked more fish than I've marked all year.  We fished it with crawlers and minnows on jigs and rigs for over an hour and caught 2 dinks.  I'm hoping the bite will turn on in a day or so.

[CigarGuy]

Black Bay was slow for crappies tonight, only caught 3 in about 2 hours. A few other boats were out and didn't see any of them landing any fish.

[james_walleye]

Made it out for a couple hours this morning. It wasn't too quick but I kept 4 nice 14-16" and put this 29" back. Jigs and pike suckers 30-35 feet. Fished 5 spots and all fish came in 1 spot. 

[kaparzo]

Fished yesterday afternoon/evening. Caught a dozen 12-13” walleye in a channel in 21’ between big boulders.  Most fish came in a 45 minute flurry. We could only catch them on a jig with a crawler. We used a whole crawler and hooked it 2-3 times so a ~4” tail was hanging out.  We fished a lot of spots this weekend, East and West ends. Tried jigs, jigging raps, lead core and rigs.  We found a few fish with each technique in 15-35’. Of course, the biggest 2 fish our group caught were off the dock near main lake weeds. 22” eye and 32” northern. 
 

There are always several patterns going for Vermillion walleye. Don’t get stuck on one pattern/depth/presentation.