2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[Spearing Machine]

3-4 inches of ice on Pike Bay. Good clear, hard ice. 

[JerkinLips]

SM - good to see that Pike Bay is building up good ice.  Looks like Big Bay is still open so I was way off on that prediction.  May freeze over tonight, but more likely Monday of Tuesday next week.  Won't risk fishing there next week.  May try out Stuntz Bay however if I have luck deer hunting.

[JerkinLips]

Big Bay apparently froze over this weekend, but high winds opened it up today as shown in the first pic (McKinley Park hill) taken at 3pm Sunday.  My friend took the 2nd photo today which shows that someone broke through the shore ice to go out fishing.  Hard core musky anglers I assume.  Big Bay should freeze over for good on Tuesday morning when the winds drop to 3mph.  I will be up next week to check out the ice before hernia surgery on November 27th.

[SkunkedAgain]

I'd be worried about pulling my rig up the icy landing.

[Spearing Machine]

4-6 inches of solid clear ice on Pike Bay. Unfortunately, that will be about it for ice making for now looking at the extended forecast. We've got 1-2 inches snow on the ground and about an inch on the bay with maybe a little more on the way for the weekend. 

[elyfishunter]

3 guys or gals fishing out of mckinley yesterday

[walleyemaster08]

Has anyone been out lately? Just curious how the fishing has been and how much ice is out there? I’ve been out a couple times so far on a smaller lake near by vermilion. I had 5 to 7 inches consistently everywhere I checked. 

[SkunkedAgain]

It looks like a bunch of snow fell overnight. Hopefully this doesn't have a huge impact on ice conditions.

 

[JerkinLips]

My friend in Soudan said they got 9" but the Tower website said the official total was only 3.8".  Don't know what the true snowfall was but it does look like Vermilion is a mess.  I hope to get up there the first week in December if my recovery goes well.

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by JerkinLips
Remove redundant photo.

[Finnish Flash]

I measured 8" of snow as well in Pike Bay area.  Heavy wet snow too. That 3.8 was a measurement taken by a weather observer at around 9 pm on Wednesday night and more obviously fell since that time.  Lost power for 6 hours from 10 pm Wednesday evening until 4 a.m. Thursday. 

[JerkinLips]

Thanks for the confirmation.  The 3.8" report was posted Thursday at 10am so I thought it would have been the storm total.  Makes sense that it was recorded during the storm.  Will be a mess on the lake for quite some time.  Will be interesting to see how bad it is when I go up on December 3.

[JFitz]

Dad n I got out in Niles Bay this AM. We had about 5" of ice with almost no snow. Not really sure why... we had about 6" of fresh stuff in the yard. We felt pretty safe until a big pressure ridge pushed up 1/4 down the bay from us! No walleyes, just some ciscos and this one big whitefish. Glad to be out tho!

[delcecchi]

For future reference, this might be of interest. 

 

http://climateapps.dnr.state.mn.us/HIDradius/HIDENmapMisc.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for 

[Pat McGraw]

Anyone ventured out and checked Ice thicknesses yet?

[Spearing Machine]

See the thread....2019-2020 Lake Vermilion Ice Fishing Reports

[Spearing Machine]

Pike Bay currently has on average 9 inches of ice. Of that 1-3 are refroze slush from the snow that fell last week. Been a few guys fishing off McKinley Park. Also saw a quad out there. Not sure of ice conditions out there. As of right now it's all bare ice and very slick. 

[VermilionGold]

Punched a few holes in front of our place in Daisy Bay yesterday, 7-7.5” of ice.  Didn’t get much snow out of yesterday’s storm, about 1” of snow on the lake.

[Wicheesehead37]

Any update on Ice Conditions?

[jkrash]

drilled a hole yesterday and found 8" of ice in front of our place with about 6" of snow on top. 

[BigVwalters]

Heading out this weekend hopefully be able to investigate the ice conditions.  Any other reports so far as how far people are traveling?

 

[Wicheesehead37]

Cold next week in the forecast so that should help.

[BWpineisland]

Anyone know how ice conditions are or travel on the west and north side of Pine? Thanks!

[JerkinLips]

Finally made it up to Vermilion to ice fish. I saw numerous ATVs and snowmobiles running around out of McKinley Park so I took my snowmobile out. I found 9" of ice just outside the bay. The top 1" was white but the rest was good and dark. There was 3-5" of snow on the ice and there was a lot of slush. There were a couple of fish houses out by Birch Island. Fishing was very good but they were small except for the 20.5" eye in the picture. Couldn't shrink that fish enough to keep it. Taking the permanent out tomorrow for comfort. Good luck fishing and be cautious for ice conditions.

[JerkinLips]

Didn't get out fishing until 11 today due to getting my permanent house out. When I got to the spot that I had cleared the previous day for my permanent I found somebody fishing in the center of my clearing. They must have liked the nice clear spot (slush/water froze overnight).  Not another fisherman within half a mile. I moved 100 feet from my clearing and set it up on a clear area if ice. I found 11" OF ice in this spot, 2" more than I found in my clearing 100 feet away. Maybe this spot never had snow cover so the ice got thicker. Be careful when traveling on the ice especially this year because of the heavy snow early. Many 4 wheelers were running around the lake but where having slow travel due the heavy snow. Somebody attempted to pull out a medium permanent on wheels and got stuck a couple hundred yards out from the landing. Fishing was steady from 11 to 130 when I caught 6 eyes then I caught only 1 more over the next 4 hours. Rainbows outcatching pike suckers by 6 to 1 margin. I fished with a plain red 4 hook. Cajun red line with no swivel seemed to be the best.  The attached pic is Birch Island where most people seem to be going.

[JerkinLips]

Fishing was decent yesterday with a steady but slow bite between 8 and 130. Ended up catching 8 eyes including this 26.25", 7lb-2oz that was healthily released. Rainbows and chub are definitely better than pike suckers now. Lots of 4-wheeler traffic and a lot of slush yet. Hopefully the very cold weather early next week will freeze the slush. Beautiful sunset last night.

[mtheis]

Good job!

[islandmn]

Looking for ice conditions on the west end around Taylor and Schmidt's islands, hoping to get out there around the holidays. Thanks 

[Jplesha]

Is anyone gonna be out plowing this weekend on vermillion outta  McKinley point?? Looking to get my castle out but to much snow 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Jplesha

[Wanderer]

Pulling with a 1 ton?

[Jplesha]

No half ton