2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[FishinCT]

If you cast a 3/8 oz white spinnerbait you will get a bunch of bass and more than likely pick up a musky or two

[10point]

I'm coming up tomorrow to Vermilion Dam Lodge for the first time. Are leeches a good bet now? Might get a pound on the way up. 

[CigarGuy]

That's all the neighbors and I have been using and catching some walleyes. If you're in the cities stop in Harris and get yourself some. Last time I was up I bought a 1/4 lb of Jumbo's and only got 19 leeches. Tonight on the way up I bought a 1/2 lb of large and got more than I wanted to count. Plus, they're good size. $18 and change.

[FishinCT]

Just got back from fishing a 3 day weekend. Friday was tough. Fought wind for a while but couldn’t hang on the spots very well so gave up and fished bass for a while. Didn’t do well with them either, lots of short bites and missed hooksets. 

 

Saturday and Sunday were much better. Kept enough fish over 14” to eat and take home. Only 1 slot fish for the weekend. Threw back a bunch of 13-13.5” fish. By late summer and fall there is going to be a huge crop of really nice eaters. 

 

Jig and minnow were by far the best presentation for us. I used a lindy and jigs with crawler or leech all of Saturday and got outfished bad before giving in to jig and minnow on Sunday and doing much better. 20-28’ was best for us and 25 seemed to be the magic depth. Deeper reefs and shoreline shelves held a lot of fish. Frazer and big bay were identical for us in depth and presentation. Tried slip bobbers up shallow at night and that was the only time I got bit on a leech. Very few fish on bobbers though. 

[BigVwalters]

Was up over the last weekend and did okay on Saturday night  catching 5 eyes on the west side in niles bay area.  2 nice 18" eaters and the rest were all slot fish. lindys and crawlers worked best in shallower breaks 11'- 19'  Went out the next morning and saw all of the mayfly slicks floating.  Didn't get any Sunday.  Be up in a couple weeks.  Walleyes might be tight lipped on the west side for a week or so.  the 2 i cut up saturday did have mayflies in them.

[arctic_scrap1]

Spent 2 12hr days fishing the west side for skis. I fished every rockpile I saw on gps and every weedbed I could see. Not even one follow. Next time I'll head to the east side.

[SkunkedAgain]

Last weekend there were a TON of boats musky fishing in HeadOLakes bay. There were so many that I actually had to come off plane and snake my way through the boats since they were packed in so close together. Still quite a few boats that were out chasing musky on Sunday.

[Bob Schultz]

Definitely if your coming up to Musky fish the above report of 2 twelve hours days on West end and not even a follow has been my experience as well……through many humbling trips.   In addition lots of boats trolling on west end as well … early season ……

 

Try East of Oak Narrows …… you will immediately become a much better Musky fisherman … 

[arctic_scrap1]

2 hours ago, Bob Schultz said:

Definitely if your coming up to Musky fish the above report of 2 twelve hours days on West end and not even a follow has been my experience as well……through many humbling trips.   In addition lots of boats trolling on west end as well … early season ……

 

Try East of Oak Narrows …… you will immediately become a much better Musky fisherman … 

Like Frazer Bay/Gold island area? Or the main east basin?

[Bob Schultz]

Exactly …… you will see guys casting proven spots …… in those areas … in addition to spots that simply look good on the map … and visually … I think numbers of fish are greater east end  - very similar to walleye numbers …

[delcecchi]

Absolutely.  Anyone interested in Muskies should only fish east of oak narrows....   Please...   preferably even further east..

[buttcy01]

Anybody been doing any good? We’ve been staying at timbuktu and have been struggling a ton! Doesn’t seem like there’s any fish especially walleyes!

[Muskyhunter73]

We fished walleyes last night. Caught a couple but not like we had been. They were in 12 feet on a sand/rock transition. Tons of mayflies hatching right now

[buttcy01]

5 hours ago, Muskyhunter73 said:

We fished walleyes last night. Caught a couple but not like we had been. They were in 12 feet on a sand/rock transition. Tons of mayflies hatching right now

We’re going to try it tonight, spent most of the day fishing for muskies with only one follow 

[Muskyhunter73]

4 hours ago, buttcy01 said:

We’re going to try it tonight, spent most of the day fishing for muskies with only one follow 

I mostly fished muskies today. Had two hit this morning. Finally saw a fish on the rocks tonight. Heard of one 51 incher caught tonight. 

[Muskyhunter73]

Found the walleyes during the afternoon today. Wind blown rock reef. 8 feet of water. Bobber and leech. All the walleyes had perch minnows in their bellies. We caught 11 and kept our 8. The one pictured was 23 inches.

[BigVTim]

Nice! Good bag of fish. Surprised they are still so shallow mid-day.

[MarkB]

I just returned home from a sweltering 4 day trip on Vermilion. In all of the years that I have fished Lake Vermilion, I don't ever remember it being so hot for so long. We had no top on our boat and once that sun got overhead, it was game over for us. The heat was just too unbearable. We heard that a couple of people were hauled off in ambulances due to heat stroke. But now, for the fishing report. During the 4 days that we fished, 2 were great and 2 were not so great. We fished the same spots basically, all 4 days. Nothing changed weather wise and, except for the heat, conditions seemed ideal. We saw only very sparse mayflies with no slicks anywhere. We found the walleyes in 18'-32' of water. When we were right on top of the reef in the rocks, we caught some real nice smallmouth and jumbos right along with the walleyes. Our best smallmouth was 18.5", our best jumbo was 11.5", and our best walleye was 26". We used both crawlers and leeches and I could not define a preference for one over the other. We ate walleyes while there and brought home our limit for 3 fishermen. None of the walleyes that we kept had mayflies. Surprisingly, the jumbos that came from the same reefs were full of mayflies. The areas that we fished were snaggy and I found that a 1oz bottom bouncer and a teardrop floating jig(blue and white) with a 3'-4' leader greatly reduced snags and satisfied the fish. We generally fished till about 1:00 when the heat became unbearable. We fished Big Bay, Portage Bay, and Fraser Bay. Big Bay and Fraser Bay produced all of our fish. We tried slip bobbers on top of reefs at varying depths and basically struck out. On Wednesday, we were fishing Fraser Bay when a smaller boat with a man and a woman came trolling by us next to an island(Alepo, if you must know). She hooked up and proceeded to fight what appeared to be a big fish. The fight continued and we finally decided it was a muskie. It was a joke watching these very nice people trying to land this fish because, they had no net and were completely unprepared to land this fish. She brought the fish up beside the boat and the man cradled his arms under the fish and lifted it up. That fish slapped him in the side of the head 5 or 6 times on the way into the boat. It was difficult to keep from laughing. We congratulated them and moved away only to see the man pick the fish up and heave it over the back of the boat. I went back and, sure enough, the big fish was on it's back and was belly up. We asked if they wanted us to revive it and, so, we did. She was mishandled and it took 10 minutes or better to get her to where she kicking pretty good so we could let her go. She swam away and disappeared. The fish was 45" long by their measurement and it was caught on a small spinner with a sucker minnow for bait. They said they were fast trolling this set-up for northerns.

All in all, it's always great to be at the lake in spite of the weather. We have a second trip planned and reserved for late September. I'm pretty sure the weather will have cooled by then.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

                                                                                                              My best walleye of the trip

[StillFishin']

Good to hear from you Mark.  Always liked your reports and glad your still posting when you get back to LV.

 

jim

[Muskyhunter73]

On 7/2/2020 at 11:24 AM, BigVTim said:

Nice! Good bag of fish. Surprised they are still so shallow mid-day.

Yeah, I was shocked. I figured we would catch some nice smallies and that would be worth it. 

[delcecchi]

Finally got back out in the boat.  Water temp had gone to 84 degrees from 73 a week ago..

[delcecchi]

Water was a little cooler today.   Still to hot to fish, and had grandkids here.    Finally some rain.  Looks like over an inch...  Maybe I won't need that extra dock section after all.  

[SkunkedAgain]

I stayed up there for a week and a half....the hottest week and a half of my life. I need to move to Alaska!

 

I bought $40 worth of bait and used none of it. Quite the shame. I did have nieces and nephews up that loved being in the "bath water" of Vermilion. Water temps were consistently 80 degrees and above. I'll save my hard core fishing for later this summer and fall I guess. A lot of memories were made and I added three youngsters to the stable of first-time waterskiiers on the lake. 

 

MarkB - your reports are always great to read. I'm glad to hear that you had some success.

[james_walleye]

Ive been up since Friday. Until today ive been out in short stints hour here or there each day. Sometimes just graphing areas looking for pods of fish. I caught a few fish each time but considering the thick pods I fished it was tough to get them to go. This morning I finally got out and hit it a bit harder. Ive had zero luck dragging lindys through these fish. Ive gone to camping on them with slip bobbers and leeches. 15-18 feet. The bite definitely hinges on getting some wave action from the wind and that's been tough to come by. There was a window this morning where it was an alright chop and I was able to get 4 in that 14.5-16" range. I tossed back a couple that were about 19 3/4. I'd rather eat a 15" personally. But again I was on carpets of fish and it was pick one off here and there. I fished 4 different reefs for those fish. Lots of Fish flies. So annoying. I did not see substantial evidence of any may flies. I'll be up most of the next 10 days. I'd think there bite would pick up soon. 

[BirchPtMike]

I would agree with James about tough bite. The last few days have been tough. You wont see those mayflies in Big Bay, because they all hatched last week. We have had high heat no wind to go with mayflies,then fish flies so I think that explains the problem. It will get better soon as minnows become primary food source for eyes. Wont see you out there for a while as I have to leave for a week. Good Luck !!

[delcecchi]

Finally cooled off a little, so off to hit it for an hour or two..  Got grand kids here so have to stick around some.

[Wanderer]

Good luck!

[Toshjhao]

I know it’s a little ways out but will be my first time going to lake vermilion August 7-10 out of Norwegian bay. Just wondering how the bass fishing is and will be around that time if anyone knows 

[Fish Head]

Mark B!!!  Great to hear one of your reports again. I sure miss them.  Take care and I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip in Sept. 

[mbeyer]

Vermilion is a "no brainer" when it comes to smallmouth. You'll be fine in early August. What is your favorite way ti catch bass? Start with that and work from there. One of my favorites is a white/pearl fluke...they eat those things up.