2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[Wheres_Walter]

On 7/12/2021 at 10:51 AM, PSU said:

Any walleye updates in the Frazer/Smarts Bay area? Depth and bait ?

Been catching good numbers of small walleye.  10-13 inch on frazer.  16 fow.  Jig or lindy with half a crawler.  Nothing big but good activity.  6-7 am or dusk. 

[CigarGuy]

Finally caught a few walleyes tonight. Got 3 in the slot from 21-24". Also, missed a few. Went out at 7:30 till dark.  22-25 f.o.w. bottom bouncers with leaches, Wakemup Bay. Nice to have some wind, got them on wind blown shore lines.

[Muskyhunter73]

On 7/13/2021 at 12:24 PM, fishingMN4eyes said:

Question for Vermillion regulars/locals: Potentially looking to stay at a place down in the elbow near the Pike River Dam. Looks like skinny water back there but it looks like there are plenty of docks too. Is it safe to assume you can safely navigate out to Pike Bay (and then the main lake from there)?

The one and only time I was back

there the lake was higher than it currently is now. It’s a prop killer back

there. Definitely need a spotter up front to guide you. Once out of the river the bay is fine.  

[james_walleye]

It's been a fun few days on V. This morning I caught ~25 walleyes. A little lacking in size a lot of 12-13". My son wanted to target largemouth and my daughter wanted a musky and she caught a 42" off the dock. Both boxes checked! 

[fishingMN4eyes]

8 hours ago, Muskyhunter73 said:

The one and only time I was back

there the lake was higher than it currently is now. It’s a prop killer back

there. Definitely need a spotter up front to guide you. Once out of the river the bay is fine.  

Thanks for the response, we ended up going a different route.

[SkunkedAgain]

Great fish james_walleye.

 

I finally walleye fished for the first time since opener. I went to a new spot in Wakemup and worked around some humps. I primarily fished crawlers or leaches (sometimes both) with an orange jig. Initially I just found small perch so kept moving around the structure and watching the sonar. I stopped anywhere I saw fishing hugging the bottom. I eventually pulled in a nice 16" walleye on a crawler/leach combo. Moving around more, I got into a mess of smallies that loved the leaches. The skeeters chased me out as the sun fell off the end of the Earth.

 

Fun times. I'll get back out there again this weekend.

Edited July 16, 2021 by SkunkedAgain

[CigarGuy]

I was out last night in Wakemup and only caught 1 slot fish. Can believe the fishing traffic out there. Was in a spot all by myself, before long, I had boats trolling right up next to me. Other fisherman pulling right in my trolling path cutting me off. A couple were literally within 20' of me. I had to stop my troll so one idiot who was trolling up right along side me could get by so, I could circle back before running into a boat that was anchored. If you were that guy and saw the look I gave you, you know what I thought . Wish I would have said what I wanted to!! Seems like this year this crap has been happening more often. I try to fish areas without other fishermen in the spot, I must be a dying breed. If I go to a spot I want to fish and someone is already fishing it, providing it's not some large area, I move on. 40,000 acres, no need to fish on top of each other. Done with my rant!! 

Edited July 16, 2021 by CigarGuy

[CigarGuy]

I was out last night in Wakemup and only caught 1 slot fish. Can believe the fishing traffic out there. Was in a spot all by myself, before long, I had boats trolling right up next to me. Other fisherman pulling right in my trolling path cutting me off. A couple were literally within 20' of me. I had to stop my troll so one idiot who was trolling up right along side me could get by so, I could circle back before running into a boat that was anchored. If you were that guy and saw the look I gave you, you know what I thought . Wish I would have said what I wanted to!! Seems like this year this crap has been happening more often. I try to fish areas without other fishermen in the spot, I must be a dying breed. If I go to a spot I want to fish and someone is already fishing it, providing it's not some large area, I move on. 40,000 acres, no need to fish on top of each other. This was Thursday night, Wednesday night guy comes motoring in, pulls several boat lengths right in front of me, trolls the same break line I've been fishing by myself for an hour, basically, cuts me off. Done with my rant!! 

[SkunkedAgain]

Funny that you mention all that. When I went out Thursday night in Wakemup, there were boats where I wanted to go so I went to a new spot and found these humps. Last night, I was reading the south wind and thought about fishing Woody's on the northern shore but there were already several boats there. I went to my spot from the previous night and had it all to myself. No walleye but enough perch and smallies to keep things interesting. 

 

Fishing and boating etiquette have been in short supply for a long time. I think that I scare some people when I come off plane in tight channels so that I don't throw a big wake at folks that are fishing. They probably think that I'm stopping to fish their spot or talk. Once I am past, I get back on plane. IDK - I don't expect everyone to be saints. I just live by the do-unto-others mantra and still enjoy the lake.

 

Good luck fishing the rest of this weekend CigarGuy. Maybe karma will reward you with a few eaters.

[CigarGuy]

7 minutes ago, SkunkedAgain said:

 

Fishing and boating etiquette have been in short supply for a long time. I think that I scare some people when I come off plane in tight channels so that I don't throw a big wake at folks that are fishing. They probably think that I'm stopping to fish their spot or talk. Once I am past, I get back on plane. IDK - I don't expect everyone to be saints. I just live by the do-unto-others mantra and still enjoy the lake.   

 

I do the same thing in channels!!  Don't understand how fellow fishermen will buzz boats that are fishing tight areas. See that all the time in the narrows going into Black Bay. 

 

[Austin12345]

Stayed one night here on my camping trip on the north central part of the lake closer to the trout portage. Caught one 17 inch walleye I threw back and a bunch of smallies. I agree with cigar guy about boating problems some people are respectful but it gets annoying when ski boats and others roar through tight inlets with canoes passing through or fishing.  

[Austin12345]

All my fish were on a ned rig with a z-man trd hogz great little technique that crushed them all week. Always good to give them something they probably haven't seen before.

[Muskyhunter73]

Just got home from our annual family trip. In a week our group boated 130+ walleyes ranging from 8 inchers to 22 inches. Caught lindy rigging and bobber fishing schools of fish. 
 

Related to boating etiquette last night on our way in we came across a boat floating in the middle of the entrance to Daisy Bay between isle of pines and birch point. It was almost dark out and the boat was not lit up. I circled the boat and did not see anyone on first glance. My heart immediately sank thinking did the person fall in. We got closer and noticed a single person laying on the front platform. We yelled several times and there was no response. My heart sank again thinking I was going to be doing CPR on this guys boat or he was dead. Finally we got him woke up and we told him he was literally in the middle of the bay. He was a complete A-hole about it…. 

[james_walleye]

2 hours ago, Austin12345 said:

All my fish were on a ned rig with a z-man trd hogz great little technique that crushed them all week. Always good to give them something they probably haven't seen before.

Hey Austin how deep were you finding the smallies? 

[Austin12345]

On Vermilion I found them on a pretty steep drop off to about 20 feet off of an island point. I did also catch a fair amount from our site which was on a point and dropped off to about 12. The best fishing of the week was on trout I was very surprised about how many boats were on the trout considering they all have to go through the portage. The Portage guy must have some pretty good business. I will also note we did not see a single canoe the whole week very quite. I am guessing it might have something to do with the fire ban right now.  

[Reid Saarela]

Haven’t posted in a while so thought I’d give an update. Fished Friday through Sunday this past weekend and had fair results. Graphed piles of walleyes all over the place (10-22ft). Getting them to bite was a different story. Best results were pulling spinners with a crawler through these pods. Kept a handful of nice 14-17 inchers and threw the rest back. Sand had the most numbers but the biggest fish came on a rocky reef. All around great weekend! 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Reid Saarela

[JerkinLips]

On 7/16/2021 at 11:07 AM, CigarGuy said:

Can believe the fishing traffic out there. Was in a spot all by myself, before long, I had boats trolling right up next to me.

Was a ton of boat traffic outside of Stuntz Bay on Thursday evening also.  Probably the entire lake was like that.  Friday and Saturday were not quite as bad.  Fortunately other boaters/anglers were more considerate where I was last weekend.

 

Fishing for me was extremely tough.  Fished 3 hours each AM and PM and only caught 4 walleyes total (14, 15, 21, and 22 pictured).  Caught lots of small perch (one was 13 inches) and 5 bass (largest being 16 inches).  Had a hard time keeping the crayfish off the crawlers.  At least the lake was beautiful and the smoke-filtered sunsets were nice.

 

While cleaning a walleye I found worms on 3 of its fins.  What are these worms, and is the fish okay to eat?

 

 

[Muskyhunter73]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:10 PM, JerkinLips said:

Was a ton of boat traffic outside of Stuntz Bay on Thursday evening also.  Probably the entire lake was like that.  Friday and Saturday were not quite as bad.  Fortunately other boaters/anglers were more considerate where I was last weekend.

 

Fishing for me was extremely tough.  Fished 3 hours each AM and PM and only caught 4 walleyes total (14, 15, 21, and 22 pictured).  Caught lots of small perch (one was 13 inches) and 5 bass (largest being 16 inches).  Had a hard time keeping the crayfish off the crawlers.  At least the lake was beautiful and the smoke-filtered sunsets were nice.

 

While cleaning a walleye I found worms on 3 of its fins.  What are these worms, and is the fish okay to eat?

 

 

It almost looks like some type of leech or leech larve.

[Austin12345]

Interesting note when I was up there we went swimming in a water fall at the end of the creek going in to the trout lake portage and we all got covered in leeches that looked just like that they were very small but were not much of a problem because they came off real easy.

[delcecchi]

55 minutes ago, Austin12345 said:

Interesting note when I was up there we went swimming in a water fall at the end of the creek going in to the trout lake portage and we all got covered in leeches that looked just like that they were very small but were not much of a problem because they came off real easy.

Those appear to be bloodsuckers.   Species of Leech, kids used to get them at the beach.    shaker of salt takes them right off if they have had time to get attached.  

[SkunkedAgain]

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by SkunkedAgain

[BigVTim]

Walleyes eat leaches.... Leaches eat Walleyes! Plot twist!

[JerkinLips]

On 7/22/2021 at 3:24 PM, BigVTim said:

Walleyes eat leaches.... Leaches eat Walleyes! Plot twist!

And I ate the walleye 2 days ago and still am alive.  End of the chain of life.

[CigarGuy]

4 hours ago, JerkinLips said:

And I ate the walleye 2 days ago and still am alive.  End of the chain of life.

We enjoyed a walleye dinner tonight..no leeches/blood suckers.

[JerkinLips]

Fished 3 hours AM and PM Thursday-Saturday again.  Walleye fishing was much better than last time but not great.  Was able to catch enough quality eaters for a meal for my wife and me.  Had a hard time keeping the crayfish off of the crawlers again.  Also the small perch were a persistent problem.  Caught 6 perch for every walleye and most were quite small (5-9").  The Y-store and Fuel&Food only had small leeches, and they were quite small.  Caught a couple of fish on them, but not as good as half a crawler.

 

Thursday was a busy day on the lake again, and Saturday evening was busy (no surprise).  Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful on the lake.  Practically no traffic before 10am when I quit.

[redlabguy]

Jerkin, that mirrors my experience lately. I’m fishing shallow- 12-20’. 
Later this PM, I’m going to pull a little lead. Haven’t tried that this year. Anyone having luck with lead core?

RLG

[muskie-mike]

40 minutes ago, redlabguy said:

Jerkin, that mirrors my experience lately. I’m fishing shallow- 12-20’. 
Later this PM, I’m going to pull a little lead. Haven’t tried that this year. Anyone having luck with lead core?

RLG

One on lead last week...15 ft water...

[PSU]

Yes, fishing has picked up quite a bit for me as well. Caught all of my keepers on a Lindy and 1/2 crawler in 12' of water

[Raven77]

Quote

Later this PM, I’m going to pull a little lead. Haven’t tried that this year. Anyone having luck with lead core?

Leadcore bite is picking up.  Three of us boated 30+ walleyes on Saturday in 5 hours of midday fishing and 20+ walleyes on Sunday in about 4 hours of midday fishing.  Most in the 18-24' depth range on #5 Shad Raps and Flicker Shads.  Nothing big, but several 14-18" eaters.

[Muskyhunter73]

14 hours ago, Raven77 said:

Leadcore bite is picking up.  Three of us boated 30+ walleyes on Saturday in 5 hours of midday fishing and 20+ walleyes on Sunday in about 4 hours of midday fishing.  Most in the 18-24' depth range on #5 Shad Raps and Flicker Shads.  Nothing big, but several 14-18" eaters.

My dad and mom did about the same 28 walleyes on Saturday and 31 on Sunday .   All on lindy rigs though. 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Muskyhunter73