2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[Wanderer]

There was a hint of sarcasm with the 1 ton comment.  If you actually read reports from around the state and particularly @JerkinLips detailed info above, you might gather that hardly any lakes in the state are ready for plowed roads and wheelhouses.  Red might the exception.

 

I could be wrong about the big V but less than a foot of ice with slush on it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready by this weekend even with this cold snap.

 

Be safe out there.

[Tlund]

30 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

There was a hint of sarcasm with the 1 ton comment.  If you actually read reports from around the state and particularly @JerkinLips detailed info above, you might gather that hardly any lakes in the state are ready for plowed roads and wheelhouses.  Red might the exception.

 

I could be wrong about the big V but less than a foot of ice with slush on it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready by this weekend even with this cold snap.

 

Be safe out there.

-32 degree weather will freeze all the slush out there. There is 11-13” of ice. The only problem with getting a wheel house out right now is the snow. There is enough ice for a half ton and 16’  ice castle. I’ve put mine out several times on 10” of ice with my half ton with no problems at all. 

[tinker]

Minus 18 in Cook this A.M. Minus 32 wind chill.

[Wanderer]

2 hours ago, Tlund said:

-32 degree weather will freeze all the slush out there. There is 11-13” of ice. The only problem with getting a wheel house out right now is the snow. There is enough ice for a half ton and 16’  ice castle. I’ve put mine out several times on 10” of ice with my half ton with no problems at all. 

Just trying to help.  This year is NOT starting well for wheelhouses.  You can obviously make your own decisions but after decades of personal experience I would pass.  Leave the wheelhouse on land and travel by sled or ATV with a portable if need the shelter.  You’ll enjoy your trip more.

 

I also recommend some you guys get your own plows.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Wanderer

[Tlund]

I will be going to check ice and conditions tomorrow. Maybe they will have the road plowed out of Mckinely by the weekend. There is plenty of ice to do it. 

[Tlund]

Here is a 32” eye I pulled out of vermilion last Monday. The bite has been good. Just waiting to get my ice castle out there.

[Wanderer]

NICE!

[IceHawk]

Congrats ! Awesome fish bet that was a fun fight.

[Ron05]

Wow! What a fish Tlund. Do you mind sharing what depths and structure you’ve been finding fish on?

[Joshua Knapp]

Will someone please post if the do plow a road, or if any trucks are on the ice. Thanks, have a day!

 

[Fish Head]

Only 4 1/2 months until open water... I can't wait. 

 

[Bigfatbert]

10 hours ago, Joshua Knapp said:

Will someone please post if the do plow a road, or if any trucks are on the ice. Thanks, have a day!

 

As of today no plowed roads going straight out at McKinley ! No trucks either . 4 wheeler , side by side , snowmobiles have some paths that are being used to get out to both sides of Birch island ..

[Bigfatbert]

That’s a nice Big “V” eye you got yourself TLund .. 

[JerkinLips]

As Bigfatbert stated there are no plowed roads going out from McKinley Park as of Thursday evening. The snow is quite heavy on the lake and they forecasted another snowstorm today so it may get worse. Travel is good on snowmobile but when I looked back on my tracks once yesterday I saw I had gone through a large patch of slush. Some 4 wheelers appear to be struggling to get around but none are getting stuck. They finally removed the stuck fish house from just off the landing yesterday. I had 12" of ice yesterday so at least there appears to be a good base but thinner spots I am sure are around. Fishing was slow yesterday. I caught 5 little walleyes all on rainbows and 2 eelpout. Good luck fishing and be careful traveling on the lake.

[Ron05]

4 hours ago, JerkinLips said:

As Bigfatbert stated there are no plowed roads going out from McKinley Park as of Thursday evening. The snow is quite heavy on the lake and they forecasted another snowstorm today so it may get worse. Travel is good on snowmobile but when I looked back on my tracks once yesterday I saw I had gone through a large patch of slush. Some 4 wheelers appear to be struggling to get around but none are getting stuck. They finally removed the stuck fish house from just off the landing yesterday. I had 12" of ice yesterday so at least there appears to be a good base but thinner spots I am sure are around. Fishing was slow yesterday. I caught 5 little walleyes all on rainbows and 2 eelpout. Good luck fishing and be careful traveling on the lake.

 

JL - do you mind sharing what depth and structure-type you are finding fish on? Hoping to head up to LV over the Holidays. Thanks!

[JerkinLips]

Fishing was very good today. Caught 15 eyes but most were small except for the 22" pictures. Rainbows on a plain hook were definitely better than suckers and chubs. 28 fow over mud flat. The best bite this winter has been 11-1. Somebody plowed a road out from McKinley with sidebysides and ATV to tow their house out. Had a tough time plowing. Don't know how good the road is and it will likely drift over tonight with a few inches of snow and some wind. If you use a plowed road tip the plow man to help him out. I have heard that plow people are tempted to plow the road closed for intruders. Good luck and as always be careful traveling on the lake.

[delcecchi]

17 hours ago, JerkinLips said:

plow people are tempted to plow the road closed for intruders.

Intruders?   They have a gate up or something?   

 

If someone plows a road on a public lake from a public landing they really can't expect to exclude the public.   On the other hand if there is a convenient way to express one's appreciation it ought  to be done.   But plowing someone in is approaching unlawful in my book.   

 

Like I could put up a donation box next to my sidewalk to defer my expense in shoveling but pushing snow in front of someone  who didn't contribute might be over the top.

Edited December 14, 2019 by delcecchi

[HunterFisher11]

Ok so let me start off with I don’t have a big truck with a V-plow, but did make one for my wheeler so I could get on and off with no help from any one else, and I can not tell you how many times I have helped people to get there stuff off the lake.. So long story short many years ago I spent 8-10 hours plowing a road (at that time just had a straight blade plow) and then set down the fishhouse and did not even drill a hole just to tired!!!!! Yep you guess it.... woke up and had a village around me, well that is the way it goes??? So a couple days later decided to move, well got my truck and fish house stuck and had to unhook my fishhouse and hand shovel to get my truck unstuck hook up a chain to get my fishhouse turned so I could hook up again, while there was two guys drinking coffee not more then 15-20 yds away that did not lift a finger to help, so went home got the wheeler and as I was coming back out they stopped me and asked if I could help them out!!!!!! Yep really!!!!!! So second story have a uncle that had his kid that has a plow to punch a road to his fishhouse so he did well one day he is coming off the lake and some one decided to put his wheel house right on the road!!!!! So he knots on the door and the guy told him well sucks to be you!!!!!!!! So you wonder why these guys get a bit upset????? Not to mention going out to my house and having holes drilled I don’t no inches around my house!!!!!!!!! Yep it is not you doing it but yep kind of really makes a person upset!!!!!! Man they need to realize that the guy that made that road is your life line to get off also!!!!!! So like JerkinLips said if you happen to see a person keeping the road open toss him some money or in my case some beer, will make your life a lot easier when you want to get off...

[JerkinLips]

9 hours ago, delcecchi said:

 But plowing someone in is approaching unlawful in my book. 

It may be unkind but I don't know how putting the snow back that you removed would be unlawful.  Don't shoot the messenger; I am just passing along what I have heard.  I travel by snowmobile so I couldn't care less about plowed roads.  To me they are just a hazard for sledding.

That being said, the people that used the plowed road today were very considerate.  They pulled well off of the road and kept a fair distance from others.

I took a sled ride from McKinley Park to Fortune Bay and encountered at least 6 patches of slush.  I saw a couple of spots were 4 wheelers drove through slush; looks like they had a hard time.  I saw several 4 wheelers getting stuck in the deep snow today.  They would back up and take another run to keep going.  Traveling is very difficult for most wheelers.  I did see one Jeep on the lake just outside of McKinley Park bay.

Good luck fishing and traveling on Lake Vermilion.

[Wanderer]

It can be a surprisingly touchy situation.  Plow or no plow.  I’ve been on both sides and have heard many stories like @HunterFisher11 stated.

 

Like Jerkinlips, I used to only travel by snowmobile and drag a portable around; back when fishing trips were always with “the guys”.   The plow berms were hazards; you can’t see a lot of them until you’re on em.  And I never understood why guys up north plowed 1/4 acre lots around their houses when they set them down.  I did always appreciate the guys who marked their berms with pine boughs so they could be seen but it also looked like they were staking claim to a pretty large space on the ice.

 

Fast forward to buying a wheel house so my wife would go ice fishing and we could maybe have some family with the grandkids out.  Plowing almost becomes necessary.  And it isn’t easy or cheap.  Plus I figured out the extra plowing around the house is to fight slush from forming.  There becomes a game you have to play to keep everyone who drives off that access from coming to your fish house door.  And they will.  And even if you plow past your house, you just put in a new road and suddenly have traffic and create problems if it just dead ends.  It’s best to make a loop so people can turn around to get out.  Suddenly you feel responsible like a resort operator for all the people who just wanna fish “somewhere”. 
 

I try plow the minimum needed and don’t drop my blade until I get a ways off the access hoping the two rut road will deter most from following.  When I do put the blade down I don’t scrape the ice either and keep a single-wide width.  That helps lessen the berm.  Usually that’s enough to stay semi private.  Don’t forget the loop though.

Don’t plow right to your final spot.

Drill out the area enough to fine tune the location of the house, Then plow your house spot out.  Put it down.  Then consider if you need to block the spur you’re fishing on.  Either with the truck or a snow pile. It’s more work than dragging a portable out by snowmobile, that I’m sure of.
 

Is there a wrong or right way to plow?  I think it’s only there are safe and unsafe ways to plow.  And there’s just differences in how people use the lakes these days.

 

Help a brother out on the ice.  Sooner or later you’ll need it if you spend enough time ice fishing.

[JerkinLips]

Well stated Wanderer.  My mistake was calling them intruders, which is what the plow guys would likely call them.  I would call them visitors, and as such they should be considerate to the one who invested a lot of time and money in creating the road.  Don't use the road then park your house right next to the house at the end of the road.

[delcecchi]

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of jerks out there.  Equine Inequality ... More horse's arses than horses.  But to deliberately plow someone in regardless sort of puts the plower in the same category.  

 

Seems like it is "no good deed goes unpunished"

[SkunkedAgain]

I don't own a plow, but certainly have used a plowed road or two in my life. I don't like when others fish on top of me, so I don't do it to others. If my truck can't get off of the plowed road then I don't use my truck.

 

If I had a plow and were plowing out of a public access, I would do as Wanderer pointed out and "block the spur" so that I could fish in solitude while still making a path that others can follow to their own spots. Then again, I get a jazz out of helping other people so it wouldn't bug me if people used it, as long as I could find a way to fish relatively on my own.

[JFitz]

Quick wknd report. Dad n I fished the Niles Bay area. Had a bit of slush but really no problem getting around by snowmobile. The bite was a bit goofy - we caught pike, bass, ciscos, perch whitefish and a handful of walleyes. Caught fish from 12'-35' so I can't really say we were on a pattern! Anyone else catch that sunset last night? Just awesome...

[Wicheesehead37]

How thick was the ice JFitz?

[JFitz]

We didn't get the measuring stick out but the thinnest we found was around 9" and the thickest around 14".

[Wicheesehead37]

Sounds good,  I will be out around Timbuktu the later part of next week.

[Wicheesehead37]

Any Ice,  slush trail updates?  How is fishing?

[CPTMidnight]

Anyone ever ice fish up in the northeast corner up for walleye (by rice bay)?  Have a shack up there and would like to try to get out of Glenwood Lodge.  Last year we went out on our sleds to see where people were fishing and other than a single house 40 yards out from the launch there was nothing on that entire side of the lake.  Thoughts?  Perhaps there is a reason nobody is up there?

[JerkinLips]

14" of ice out of McKinley Park. Lots of trucks running around. Found a lot of slush going to Stunts Bay. Fishing was slow today. 8 walleyes including one meal 13-19".  Rainbows and chubs on plain hook about equal. Didn't try suckers.

Edited December 20, 2019 by JerkinLips