2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[redlabguy]

Those memories will last a lifetime for your crew! That's good fishing!

RLG

[PSU]

Thanks for the report Mark. We haven't had too much luck this weekend for walleyes, but really haven't fished too hard with the weather and poor fishing times.

[MarkB]

PSU

Depth has been critical at times. Here's an example: a small island within sight of the east end of Black Duck island has a shallow rock reef running west towards Black Duck. The reef shallows to about 5'. We fished it on the south side in 10'-12'. No hits. Someone got a snag and we swung in to about 6'-8', bang! The ONLY depth we got hits in was ~8'. We eventually took 10 walleyes off that reef in a little over 2 hours. Here is my suggestion: if you have trouble finding them, go straight to the rocks, do not pass go and do not collect $200 . If trolling doesn't work, throw out the slip bobbers and keep moving around the reef until you find them.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

PS: Put on the raingear! We've caught some of our biggest fish in the rain!

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Love the bobbers! Now your talking my language

[fishingdad]

Mark; Thank you for another first class report. It's funny how things change in a week, or a couple days, sometimes even a few hours. Last weekend we had zero fish on crank baits ( we tried ) & today my kids did great pulling cranks & out fished my wife & myself in a different boat rigging crawlers & leeches. The score. KIDS - 22. Mom & Dad - 4. Wow did they show us who was in charge I couldn't have been happier to be the loser of the day since a few of their walleyes are going to end up on MY plate anyway

[MNSkin]

Fishing dad what would be a good area to try? We are staying in Big bay just North of Evert bay? What kind of cranks work best up here on Vermilion? Thanks for any help we are up here for the week. Tracey

[fishingdad]

Mn skin- the best luck the kids had was shallow over the tops of the weeds coming up. Shallow running raps. Color didn't seem to matter if it was ticking weeds every so often they did the best

[Fish Head]

Mark- Thanks for the report. As always, it's not only a great detailed report, but a nice story and pictures to go with it. It sounds like a great few days of fishing!

[MarkB]

Thanks for the kind remarks guys! If you're having trouble finding walleyes, it's pretty important to be totally flexible from one day to the next. Today, my wife and I went out for a few hours(4)and we didn't fish one single spot that we fished last week. No particular reason except that I like to keep moving around trying "new" areas. Last week, the coldest water we fished was 65 degrees(75 in one area), today the water was 62 degrees. Last week, leeches produced almost as well as crawlers. Today, we couldn't get a hit on leeches and every fish we landed hit a crawler. Today, bouncers outshined Lindy's even though we were fishing gravel/mud. Here's a suggestion for finding a "new" spot to try: watch the contours on your chart and look for contours that shows you water that deepens quickly close to shore. Now look for any protrusion from the shoreline that interrupts those contour lines. A shallow finger would be worthy of closer inspection and a shallow flat would even be better. Look for the walleyes to be on the breaks surrounding the shallow water. Wind direction and velocity may affect how shallow you find them.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[redlabguy]

Good advice! I'm finding some now in the slightly deeper (12-15') water near the kind of areas you describe. As the water warms, they'll move deeper, I'd guess. Beautiful evening to fish tonight and my wife caught a couple nice ones, just in time to reignite her interest. There are a bunch of big fish in this lake. Our slot to eater ratio is about 10:6 the past two days. Since you convinced me to go shallow, I'm having fun with some nice bass, too. And it's fun to try some new areas.

RLG

[MNSkin]

Mark did blade color seem to matter a lot? Thanks Tracey

[MarkB]

Tracey

I don't use blades. At times color has made a big difference to us but only in the choice of hook/bead color. During the past several days, color hasn't been an issue. Gamakatsu makes a 5 pack of painted hooks in various sizes. Red, white, chartreuse, orange, pink. At times, for us, one seems to work better than the others. I generally try to match a bead color with the hook. One thing though Tracey, once these mayflies start, a blade just might be the ticket. I've found that the increased speed during the hatch can be the trigger.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[MarkB]

RLG

Our fish today were on the smallish side,15" the biggest. We could have kept a bunch of nice eaters but it would have required culling. As I mentioned, gravel/mud bottom in a little deeper water has not been producing the bigger fish for us. I'm thinking that the bigger walleyes will stay with the perch/crawfish in the rocks. And, up to this point, it has been the shallow reefs that have been best. There's a bunch of reefs with 20' tops that I'll start hammering pretty shortly.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[MNSkin]

Thanks for help Mark.

[Korey]

Hi guys. I'm a first timer on here as well as a first timer for fishing Vermilion this year. We are staying at a cabin between Larson's and Indian Bay on the West Vermilion end. We'll be there starting Saturday for a week. I was just looking for some advice, maybe a few good areas to check out on the west end (I'm hoping the west end is good too..). We're looking to catch walleye, crappie, smallies, and some bluegill. Any advice you guys have on some good west end spots would be awesome. Thanks.

[Pherris]

I fish that area a few times a year. I target bass and I can tell you the LM fishing in that area can be phenomenal!

[Steve Foss]

Finally dragged my sorry butt over to Vermilion for the first time this summer. We fished for three hours yesterday afternoon/evening in Big Bay and around some islands on the east end.

An interesting mix of flat calm punctuated by rain.

We marked a lot of fish from 15 to 25 feet associated with humps and shoreline breaks. We rigged leeches and crawlers (air pushed into the crawlers) with slip bottom bounce rigs and 6-foot fluoro snells.

Catching them was tougher. We did put several in the boat ranging from 14 to the 22-incher pictured below. All on crawlers, with not a single hit on leeches. Would have been really great to spend the whole day out there instead of only a few hours, but it was wonderful to be among old and dear friends who were key contributors to the Vermilion fishing book.

[redlabguy]

I am one happy fisherman today. Great bite in that wind just before the rain. Caught about 15 in 2 hours. Only bad part was It was just the red lab and me....my wife wouldn't go out in that weather. Big Bay, 19-24', bottom bouncer and half a fat CC on the windward side of a reef.

RLG

[Fish Head]

I am one happy fisherman today. Great bite in that wind just before the rain. Caught about 15 in 2 hours. Only bad part was It was just the red lab and me....my wife wouldn't go out in that weather. Big Bay, 19-24', bottom bouncer and half a fat CC on the windward side of a reef.

RLG

I saw you out there Sunday. I have a silver 1850 Alumacraft with a 140 Suzuki. You have a PM.

[delcecchi]

To whom it may concern, say I wanted to make a pilgrimage east to catch some walleye. Would Frazier Bay be far enough? Or do I need to go farther east?

Also, general idea as to where to look, depth etc.

[PSU]

We have done fairly well in Frazer this summer. I would look for rock piles and slip bobber on top.

[redlabguy]

Del,

There are others better qualified to advise. I just get lucky once in a while. I'd keep going east. It's been hard for me to find fish in Frazer and I live here. The weather is changing up a little but I'd still fish SW shore or reef drop offs at 20-30'. Go slow with a bottom bouncer and half crawler and hope the fish aren't full of mayflies. Good luck!

RLG

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Dell,

Moving East to catch walleyes may be a futile effort this week!

Very slow to almost non-existent walleye bite because of the large may fly hatches that are in progress at this time!

Wait a week or so for the fish to get hungry again!

Cliff

[delcecchi]

Thanks, Cliff. Got grandkids coming so it would be another week anyway.

[Fish Head]

There's not a lot of fishing discussion on here lately. Anyone catching anything? I only got out for a few hours last weekend, but we had a difficult time trying to find any walleyes willing to bite. It looks like we have another cold front coming.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Fish head,

There are still a few May flies hatching each day but the bite has been fairly decent using lindys and 1/2 crawler this week.

The walleyes are now also starting to eat young-of-the-year perch in many areas and have become a little more aggressive in their feeding.

Small mouth bass are biting well every where that I have tried for them.

Cliff

[BartmanMN]

Landed a couple nice fish before the first storm today. 13 ft of water with slip bobber and leeches.

Lost another nice one due to my uni to uni knot coming apart.

[airnuts]

Heading up for a long overdue vacation on LV. Not many reports lately on how the fishing has been. Primarily a walleye guy and will be fishing Mainly Frazer Bay. Plan on picking up some of Casey's crawlers and leeches when we hit it. I usually slip bobber the bars, how's that been working?

Thanks!

[shamrock7]

Fishing has been pretty consistent for our guests the last 2 weeks even though the weather has been less that consistent. You will probably not see boat loads of fish but enough to keep you interested and stomach satisfied. we still have Casey's Crawlers in the cooler ready to go to work for you. They are running a little smaller than last year but still very nice crawlers.

[delcecchi]

So, and info on depth, technique, locations or at least type of locations?