2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[chucker1101]

Okay, then its not close to a record  My sunfish species identification skills are a little sketchy.

 

Pat, it was on a mid-bay hump, about 8' at top, in the middle of a sunny day. fish hugging sides of the hump. We threw worms, tube jigs, spinners. They hit everything. Biggest fish were caught with lindy/worm at the very bottom. Smaller fish with bobbers and jigs higher up.

[james_walleye]

Haha I wasn't trying to be rude.... hoped you wouldn't take it that way. I'd love to run across those myself. 

[redlabguy]

Frazer Bay has a great future class of fish coming up. Lots of 12” walleyes lately! I’m using chubs and pike suckers these days and those little guys even go after a pike sucker half their size. Once in a while you get a keeper but they’re rare.

RLG

[DLD24]

Any word on the bite in Big Bay? Debating on coming up for the day.

[redlabguy]

It seemed like we hit the fall bite today. Fish were hungry and hitting the minnows hard. I fish Frazer but similar to Big Bay. Near structure, 17-24 fow. I use chubs on a lindy rig.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

We caught lots of walleyes today (40) but no quality fish. Only kept 7 that were 13.5" to 16".

Crawlers and minnows on lindys. 16' to 21' depth.

Cliff

[Stephen L Johnston Jr.]

On 9/15/2018 at 3:44 PM, redlabguy said:

Frazer Bay has a great future class of fish coming up. Lots of 12” walleyes lately! I’m using chubs and pike suckers these days and those little guys even go after a pike sucker half their size. Once in a while you get a keeper but they’re rare.

RLG

 

We have caught a ton of 12” Waldo’s in big bay and east. Good to hear it reaches to Frazier.

[DLD24]

Tough day of fishing for this guy today, ended up with about dozen eyes kept a limit of 13.75"-18"ers... I must have drove around for 2 hours before I even wet a line...Pretty sure I zippered every rock reef in big bay and to the east... I finally found some fish in a 30+ foot hole next to a sand hump... I found my best spot a couple hours before I planned on taking off (of course it was .5 mile from the access) 21-24ft sand/rock transition right by an island. I was surprised with how many people were out for a weekday in the fall.

[partyonpine]

You guys catching them on pike suckers or chubs?  Hopefully the wind dies down this afternoon.  Coming up with a big group to help me do the docks and 2 of the hoists.  I have the requisite adult beverages need to get them some fish for the frying pan.

Edited September 21, 2018 by partyonpine

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Both types of minnows are working. Crawlers are still getting most of our fish in some locations.

Cliff

[partyonpine]

Any smallmouth reports?

[Carp30]

Cliff, my family and I will be making a weekend trip next weekend to try for some walleye's for the first time at lake vermilion. Any tips as to what technique to use? I hope we are coming up at a decent time. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much we shall will report back.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Carp30,

Vermilion is starting into the fall transition period now that the water is cooling down. The bite can be either great or tough during this period.

Yesterday we caught walleyes as deep as 44' and as shallow as 10'! Location and time of day is the key!

We caught walleyes deep using short snell Lindy rigs,( 2 ft.), with minnows, The shallow walleyes hit best on the same rigs using 1/2 crawler.

Sand and rock mix or transitions are the key areas right now.

Necked down areas that have deep water and adjacent sand flats are almost always good now.

Cliff

[sheephead2]

We have been up since Saturday and all we got are small walleyes. 

Very windy today. 

Hope wind goes down

 

[mbeyer]

Just got back from five days on the lake. We were fishing for walleye in the end fun with limits already taken. We are on an island and the dock bite was very good. Slip bobbers with either rainbows or chubs. Also, walking the island and casting tubes was also productive for larger walleye. Off the point of the island, under dock, near rocks. I guess that means we caught most of our fish shallow. Wind was our friend, to a point. Didn't like some of the gusts but wind blown shore and points were key. Follow the wind.

 

Smallmouth were not shallow. We did work some shoreline but did not find those fish up shallow. We did run into some smallmouth on the points, etc deeper while fishing for walleye.

[Carp30]

Any recent reports? We have been catching a few but the walleye's are making us work. Are you all Lindy rigging or vertical? FOW? we are getting most of ours jigging. Thanks

[Cliff Wagenbach]

We caught a lot of walleyes yesterday rigging with minnows in 22' to 32' depths.

Nothing big but limits of walleyes in the 13" to 16" range.

Fished a deeper hole close to a rocky shoreline.

Started at 9:00am and quit at 1:00pm.

Boated 37 walleyes.

Cliff

[delcecchi]

On 9/28/2018 at 2:13 AM, Carp30 said:

Any recent reports? We have been catching a few but the walleye's are making us work. Are you all Lindy rigging or vertical? FOW? we are getting most of ours jigging. Thanks

Mark posted a good detailed report in another thread of this forum, if you missed it.

[outdoor1]

Is anyone still catching any fish on lead core on the east end?  I had been doing well with #5 raps in 15 to 25 ft on gravel, sand, mud transitions for over a month and one day last week the bite quit.  It did not slow down, it just quit completely.  Have caught some fish lately rigging but was curious if anyone was still trolling or had a similar experience.  Fall colors are awesome right now and the lake is beautiful!!!!!!!!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Lead core is still working in 26' to 30' depths over mud from the reports that I have had this week.

Cliff

[JerkinLips]

Fished a few hours morning and evening Friday-Sunday with decent success.  Caught quite a few small walleyes, plenty of 14-19", and Saturday morning I caught these 24" walleyes which is all I caught that morning.  All caught on pike suckers on a plain hook in 15 FOW.  Tried night crawlers after I caught my limit on suckers and couldn't get a bite.

[FishinCT]

JL- what kind of structure was that 15 FOW? I think we fish the same kind of areas, just different parts of the lake. Hopefully it would work near me

[JerkinLips]

FCT - rocky bottom narrows between two islands.  Very slow at times.  Just had to be there when they were biting.

[PSU]

Great fishing today friends. Chilly, but LOTS of fish to be had, mostly 10-12" (unfortunately) in 35 feet jig and minnow..

 

Probably a very dumb question, but when I jig, I never have a challenge with the rainbow minnow coming off the hook unless there is a bite. I always hook the minnow starting under the "neck/mouth" and through the forehead. This being said, when I slip bobber fish off the dock with an identical jig and minnow, I cant seem to keep the minnow from coming off nearly every time without even a bite....

 

Any suggestions/rationale, oh truly brilliant panel of experts?

 

 

[FishinCT]

Thanks for the report. We used lindys and pike suckers today. Little slow but did get a few nice fish in 23-30ft. Will switch to jigs tomorrow. Fish seemed to be very concentrated when we got on them and jigs will work much better for that with my boat control style

[EyeWannabee]

PSU 

I have used a tiny piece of plastic worm to hold minnows on in the past. Hook minnow as u stated up through mouth then bite a small piece of rubber worm and push it just past barb to hold bait from working it’s way back off

[Sushilicious]

Another way i hook minnows when they r soft or I'm getting a weak bit. Is 2 put the hook through the mouth n have the tip of the hook come out after the gill plate. Then spin the hook 180° n put the hook through the side of minnow.

[PSU]

Good tips, much appreciated!

[fishingdad]

FishinCT  I sent you a PM

[kaparzo]

Fished Frazer, Daisy and Big Bay in 16-40’ this past Friday and Saturday. Only managed 4 eyes and a decent smallie. All fish were caught on a jiggin rap. Couldn’t buy a fish with any live bait presentations.