2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[MarkB]

2021 - Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports - Click Here.

Click Above for 2021 Fishing Reports↑↑↑↑

Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports from 2011 to 2021 are below ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

I thought it was about time to post how the first 10 days of the season have gone for my wife and myself. Things started out pretty slow for us. We found the fish virtually everywhere we expected them with sonar but only a scattered "biter" here and there. The bite has really picked up for us since about last Thursday. We are finding a more consistent bite in specific areas(as opposed to here and there) and the depths have been 23'-32'. All of our fish the last couple of days including today came from steep shoreline breaks with the optimum depth being 27'. Bottom varies from mud to gravel to rock. With the exception of one "leech" fish, we have caught everything on rainbows. Backtrolling and controlled drift has been our presentation. The biggest walleye we have caught so far has been a 24". We have caught very few slot fish so far this spring. 14"-15" fish have been far and away the most numerous and we have caught a sprinkling of 16" and over fish. I have stayed with my bottom bouncer rig and my wife has used the traditional Lindy rig with a no-snag sinker. By the way, they're just kidding when they call those things "no-snag". The dock bite has really picked up also. We go down for an hour or so in the evening and have a ball watching the bobbers go down. Most of our bite is before we even turn on the bobber lights! Water temperatures today were 52.3 degrees in the far east end of Big Bay, 56.6 degrees at Moose Island, and 58.9 degrees at Banana Island. It appears fishing will keep getting better, but then again, what do I know? I'm retired! 

 

Don't think for a second that this is all fun ! 

Good Fishing,

MarkB 

 

[Steve Foss]

Great report, Mark!

[PSU]

Nice hat and great report! I still have my Philadelphia Eagles hat from when I was 6 that I wear during winter with a nice tassle on top!

[KidMoe]

Thanks for the report Mark! Coming up this Saturday on the west end and it's good to hear the bite (and water temp) has picked up!

[Bamboozler]

Excellent report, Mark!

[cb north]

Mark, Now i learned your secret. If you post a nice detailed fishing report, you will catch a monster walleye soon after!!! hahaahahahahahahahahaha Congrats again and i'm now even more inspired to hit the lake this weekend.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Lake Vermilion, 5/28/11

The walleye bite on the East end has been getting better as the season progresses.

The walleye bite has been a lot more aggressive once you locate them and they are starting to bunch up a little more.

The fish that I have been targeting have all been in deeper water close to the transitions points between rock/sand, sand/mud and also at time strictly in the mud flats.

The depths can vary every day but if you start at 26 feet and keep working out as deep as 42 feet you will encounter them somewhere within that range.

Plain hook bait rigs with a 3ft to 6ft 8# test fluorocarbon leader and a #4 bait hook baited with either a rainbow or a fathead chub is still my most productive presentation.

Good Fishing!

Cliff

[iceranger792]

Sweet report Cliff you should start up your own magazine

[delcecchi]

Cliff, isn't that deep bite especially along the edge of the mud and transitions pretty much your bread and butter pattern? Not to imply that that is all you do, but it seems like you post about that often.

Just curious.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Del,

You are very correct in that statement!

Walleyes are almost always catchable in those areas year around!

Cliff

[redlabguy]

Thanks for the help, Cliff. I need it today!

RLG

[Cliff Wagenbach]

RLG,

I fished the mud today with clients from 8:00am to 11:00am and we boated 24 walleyes.

Cliff

[MarkB]

The bite has really picked up for us!. My 87 year old Dad is visiting and my wife and I have been showing him some "spots" that have been producing really well the past few days in spite of extremely windy conditions. We have been finding good numbers of fish on a shoreline shelf that holds 20' pretty consistently and falls rapidly off to 30' on the deep side. The walleyes have been congregating fairly close to the 20' breakline. The bottom is mostly mud and bouncers have done extremely well. There are lots of slot fish showing up in this area and we caught a 20" and 19.5" along with lots of 14"-17" walleyes. The last batch of rainbows I bought contained mostly really BIG minnows and that is what they seem to prefer. Water temps in this area have remained in the mid 50's.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Friend of mine reported 25 walleyes most of them in the slot in a couple hours yesterday with his neighbor... he said it was one of the better fishing days in the last couple years.. must be starting to pick up...

havent been out myself.. between waiting for baby and weather issues.. and a host of other things this has been day 7 off the water... I am having withdrawls! tomorrow and thursday I am out for sure maybe will have time to post a report..

Thanks Mark for all the great updates.. you make it look too easy though!

[Steve Foss]

Another good report, Mark. I really appreciate the effort you put into these reports, and I know many, many others do as well. And good job to all who supply reports. Keep em coming!

[Uncle Boney]

Am I reading it right that the water temps are a bit behind normal?

So even though Ice Out was about average, spring is a bit behind the curve?

So walleye are just starting to group together and move out to warmer weather spots, smallmouth are just starting to protect nests and week growth is still behind the curve?

Coming up in 10 days!

[SkunkedAgain]

That's a relatively good summary. I haven't seen the smallies nesting along their usual shoreline haunts yet, but maybe they moved and didn't leave me a forwarding address

[Freddie_Narrows]

Any word of the mayflies and an approximate time they will be wreaking havoc on the catch? Coming up towards the middle of the month and was curious.

Thanks

[MarkB]

Last spring was anything but "normal", BUT....., in my Journal, I have the surface temp on May 21, 2010 listed as 71.5 degrees! I fished the same area yesterday, and the surface temp was 55.7 degrees! Spring weather, since ice out, has been much cooler than normal. Last week, we had freeze warnings! three nights! Yesterday and today, the wind blew 30-40mph steady with 50mph gusts yesterday! The weather for Memorial Day week-end couldn't have been much worse , with the exception of Sunday. which was beautiful. As has been previously stated, the fishing continues to improve every day and if the mayflies will hold off until late June or early July, it will be some premo-fishing during the entire month of June..

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Almost every year the Mayflies hatch very close to the last week of June through the first week of July.

Cliff

[guideman]

Pre hatch is one of the best times of the season to catch lots of Walleyes. They are typically on a good bite and all you have to do is find them to get bit. Maybe the weather will moderate soon however I guess we can't count on that. The Muskie season opens this Saturday, they are much more fun to catch than Walleyes, see ya out there.

"Ace"

[FishinAddiction]

Congrats on the new addition. My wife and I are trying ourselves. We're heading up Thursday night to finish off the master suit in the cabin and finally do some fishing. I got into them on Mille Lacs last week but haven't been out since.

I'm only able to get up there on the weekends now so keep me posted if you or the other guys have openings during the week. I'll throw some customers your way.

Jason

[Freddie_Narrows]

Thanks for the insight.

[tbetts1000]

Today was the best day since the opener, Tried a few "regular" spots and then very deep and very shallow. In the deep you could see them but the bite was far and few between. Shallow nothing. Found them in 16'-18' of water, hard bottom with random rocks/boulders off a shoreline break. Big Rainbows on a Lindy w/ 3' snell, plain red hook. The fish bit very light. 4 fish 15-16", with a few dinks as well as 4 slot fish all around 21". Also caught a 38" northern, thought I had the big one. They bit where you saw them on the sonar....go figure!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I was also out with clients this afternoon.

Best bite that I have had all season! They were absolutely smacking any minnow that we put down there! Used rainbows,chubs, and pike suckers and caught fish on all of them! Used a bait rig also with a 3' snell. Hook color did not matter today.

We started fishing at 2:30 pm and by 4:30 pm we had boated 26 walleyes and one jumbo. Kept our limit of 16 plus the jumbo. Released 4 slot fish between 17" and 18-1/2 inches.

All fish were caught in the mud at depths between 31' and 40'.

Cliff

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I hear my little spot has been producing ever since opener! I even heard ace was out there fishing in my hole! that's good the fish are biting.. To bad I am missing out for a few more days! Nice to hear the fish are coming around

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Casey,

We got a few nice one on your shoreline a couple of days ago!

I think that the walleyes are just starting to move into there.

Cliff

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Oh yea that spot too! I was talking about out in the middle.. rumor has it there were 30 boats out there one or more days..

[Netman]

So it's all about minnows right now? Anybody trying leeches or crawlers?

[Casey Sunsdahl]

People are getting some fish on leeches now havent heard much about crawlers