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On 2/6/2021 at 4:51 PM, CigarGuy said:

Great pics!  What part of lake were these pictures taken from?

West end of Pine Island.  Right in front of the cabin.

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Spent a chilly night Friday on the lake.   We had some good action.   Lots of little fish were suprisingly aggressive.   Caught about 10.   Left by 9am on Sat. morning.

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Spent another chilly night Friday night and all day saturday.  Caught 1 eater.   Pulled my house out, think I swithing gears to go for lake trout if i can find a place to park.

 

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I'm heading up next week and will probably spend half of my days out on the ice. Are people finding a better morning or evening walleye bite these days?

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I've haven't been outside for more than 30 minutes at a time the last 2 weeks with this cold weather. Going to be nice this weekend, I'll be out for sure. Springbay Resort has a ice road that it looks like goes out to Hibbing Point, anyone know if they let people drive out for a fee?

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1 hour ago, SkunkedAgain said:

Are people finding a better morning or evening walleye bite these days?

I haven't been up in 17 days, and wasn't catching many fish after December, but the bite I found was quite scattered.  Typically I caught fish from 10am-3pm.  Don't recall catching a fish before 9am, and only 1 after sunset.  Will be up Wednesday-Friday this week and report how the bite is.

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our bite a few weekends ago was 7am to 9am then scattered.   We did manage to get a few in the dark 6-9pm.   

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Has anyone been targeting eelpout? I'm not asking for specific spots. I would like to know if anyone finds there are actually enough to be worth targeting. I've stumbled across two or three over thirty years. This leads me to believe there are not Leech Lake or Lake of the Woods numbers but I'm hoping I'm wrong. Assuming some of you have pursued them on Vermillion, any general insight would be appreciated. 

 

Is there a targetable population? I'll look at the DNR surveys too. 

Day or Night? I've heard that as we get later into the winter or closer to spring a good daytime bite can happen.

Deep or shallow? I've heard it can be both but is there a starting point.

On steep breaks? I've heard that 20-30' on steep break to deeper water.

Deep water humps? I've heard that humps/reefs can produce but not as well as steep breaks. Perhaps you've experienced otherwise. 

Roaming flats?

Hard bottom or soft? 

Bait: Large hair jigs or spoons tipped with minnow heads?

 

Other thoughts?

 

The coming week looks like it will be a fantastic time out on the ice. 

 

Thank you and take care.

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Pat - good question about the pout population. I caught one 4 years ago in March. About 30' on a super steep break near deep water. Would love to find more of these!

FB_IMG_1613660549585.jpg

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Nice one JFitz! I'm going to try some of the steeper, deeper breaks in Frazer Bay (home turf). I'll keep you posted. Thx

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I’ll take your word for it on the busy part but it looks nice and open compared to other big lakes to the south!  
 

Thanks for keeping us tuned in. ?

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3 hours ago, Wanderer said:

I’ll take your word for it on the busy part but it looks nice and open compared to other big lakes to the south!

It was extremely quiet on Wednesday and Thursday, and there were only about half as many houses out compared to 3 weeks ago.  Just a lot more people out on Friday and I'm sure there are many more on this nice weather weekend.

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I'll be out on the west end Monday-Wednesday in my pop up Otter. Hopefully I will have some luck but I'm mostly hoping to relax. Thanks for the reports 

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Have fished 15 hours the last yesterday and today without catching a walleye. Y store only had crappie minnows and Fuel and Food had no minnows Thursday morning when I came up so I had to fish with the crappie minnows. My fish house neighbor caught 3 walleyess yesterday morning on pike suckers so I went back into town to get some after bait was delivered. Didn't help. I have only caught four 15" tulibee and a 12" perch. Switching to lake trout the rest of the weekend. 34" of ice. Gas sugar barely made it through. McKinley Park landing has a lot of water on the plowed road as you enter the lake. The Ice Castles may have a hard time getting off the lake this weekend. Good luck if you venture out and be careful.

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We walked to our Daisy Island cabin last Saturday.  Beautiful day with the sun and little wind.  Only caught 1 small walleye.  I measured 21-22" of ice in 20' of water.  Did I see somebody's post saying the ice was 32"?  With the next couple weeks forecasting to be at 40 degrees or above that would seem to raise the possibility of open water in April.  Thoughts?

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When I drilled last Tuesday it was about 23" of ice near Hibbing Point in HOL bay

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On 3/2/2021 at 4:53 PM, JV Ham Lake said:

I measured 21-22" of ice in 20' of water.  Did I see somebody's post saying the ice was 32"?  With the next couple weeks forecasting to be at 40 degrees or above that would seem to raise the possibility of open water in April.  Thoughts?

I have measured the ice thickness in the same area 10 feet south of my fish house and found the following: 1/30 - 23", 2/18 - 32", 2/26 - 34".  This area has been bare of snow, probably due to the wind direction.  In areas of snow cover the ice thickness will be much less.  Just for comparison I found 26" of ice on Burntside last week.

 

With the light snow cover and long, very cold stretch we had in February, I think Vermilion will have ice throughout April.  Of course warm weather, heavy rain, and wind could significantly change that.  After March (and the end of lake trout fishing), I don't care how soon the ice goes off.

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slow ice melt, better May fishing in my experience.   The year vermillion was froze on opening weekend we caught the most walleyes on other lakes early in the year, spawning seemed to collide with opening weekend.   Last year was the first time I fished vermillion in may, not opener however.

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

All of those are nice catches through the ice. Congrats!

 

I think that I'll toss some bolts in my skis (homemade scratchers) this weekend.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • The title was changed to 2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

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