2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[PSU]

Really cool pictures, thanks for sharing

 

[SkunkedAgain]

Lynx holding tropies:

 

 

[CFD200]

On 2/6/2021 at 4:51 PM, CigarGuy said:

Great pics!  What part of lake were these pictures taken from?

West end of Pine Island.  Right in front of the cabin.

[Fishing DA Range and nort]

Spent a chilly night Friday on the lake.   We had some good action.   Lots of little fish were suprisingly aggressive.   Caught about 10.   Left by 9am on Sat. morning.

[Fishing DA Range and nort]

Spent another chilly night Friday night and all day saturday.  Caught 1 eater.   Pulled my house out, think I swithing gears to go for lake trout if i can find a place to park.

 

[SkunkedAgain]

I'm heading up next week and will probably spend half of my days out on the ice. Are people finding a better morning or evening walleye bite these days?

[CigarGuy]

I've haven't been outside for more than 30 minutes at a time the last 2 weeks with this cold weather. Going to be nice this weekend, I'll be out for sure. Springbay Resort has a ice road that it looks like goes out to Hibbing Point, anyone know if they let people drive out for a fee?

Edited February 16, 2021 by CigarGuy

[JerkinLips]

1 hour ago, SkunkedAgain said:

Are people finding a better morning or evening walleye bite these days?

I haven't been up in 17 days, and wasn't catching many fish after December, but the bite I found was quite scattered.  Typically I caught fish from 10am-3pm.  Don't recall catching a fish before 9am, and only 1 after sunset.  Will be up Wednesday-Friday this week and report how the bite is.

[Fishing DA Range and nort]

our bite a few weekends ago was 7am to 9am then scattered.   We did manage to get a few in the dark 6-9pm.   

[Pat McGraw]

Has anyone been targeting eelpout? I'm not asking for specific spots. I would like to know if anyone finds there are actually enough to be worth targeting. I've stumbled across two or three over thirty years. This leads me to believe there are not Leech Lake or Lake of the Woods numbers but I'm hoping I'm wrong. Assuming some of you have pursued them on Vermillion, any general insight would be appreciated. 

 

Is there a targetable population? I'll look at the DNR surveys too. 

Day or Night? I've heard that as we get later into the winter or closer to spring a good daytime bite can happen.

Deep or shallow? I've heard it can be both but is there a starting point.

On steep breaks? I've heard that 20-30' on steep break to deeper water.

Deep water humps? I've heard that humps/reefs can produce but not as well as steep breaks. Perhaps you've experienced otherwise. 

Roaming flats?

Hard bottom or soft? 

Bait: Large hair jigs or spoons tipped with minnow heads?

 

Other thoughts?

 

The coming week looks like it will be a fantastic time out on the ice. 

 

Thank you and take care.

[JFitz]

Pat - good question about the pout population. I caught one 4 years ago in March. About 30' on a super steep break near deep water. Would love to find more of these!

[Pat McGraw]

Nice one JFitz! I'm going to try some of the steeper, deeper breaks in Frazer Bay (home turf). I'll keep you posted. Thx

[JerkinLips]

Walleye fishing has been very strange this week. Yesterday I didn't start fishing until 9am and caught 8 eyes scattered throughout the day. About one every hour but they were all 10.5 inches except the last 2 were 13".

Today I started at 7am and didn't catch an eye until 4pm. Then I caught 6 eyes in 90 minutes. The last 4 were nice eaters so my day  was done that quick. I was ready to move the house tomorrow but now I will finish the season in the same spot.

Y-store and Fuel and Food only had chubs so that is was I had to use. Would have liked to try rainbows. Maybe next week.

32 inches of ice and water came up about half an inch on the ice. Saw just a few slush spots and they were frozen hard. Good luck and be courteous.

[JerkinLips]

Fished from 630am to 730pm and caught just 5 little walleyes and five 14-15" tulibees  I did catch my winter's record walleye today (smallest yet at 9").  Hold it out far enough and it looks much bigger.  Beautiful day on the lake today.  Started to get quite busy this afternoon, and will probably be busier this weekend.  Good luck.

[Wanderer]

I’ll take your word for it on the busy part but it looks nice and open compared to other big lakes to the south!  
 

Thanks for keeping us tuned in. 

[JerkinLips]

3 hours ago, Wanderer said:

I’ll take your word for it on the busy part but it looks nice and open compared to other big lakes to the south!

It was extremely quiet on Wednesday and Thursday, and there were only about half as many houses out compared to 3 weeks ago.  Just a lot more people out on Friday and I'm sure there are many more on this nice weather weekend.

[SkunkedAgain]

I'll be out on the west end Monday-Wednesday in my pop up Otter. Hopefully I will have some luck but I'm mostly hoping to relax. Thanks for the reports 

[Influenza]

JL, I think I caught his brother.  Barely got his color.  What a great weekend for a bonfire and tipups!  I was thinking there were going to be Ice Castles in droves, but not many came.  It was nice to see the lake open again.  I guess it was too cold and too close to the end of the season for folks to head back out.  We’ll see again next weekend.  The VC was packed.  No sitting room, not even in the back.  I’m glad to see that again. 

[JerkinLips]

Have fished 15 hours the last yesterday and today without catching a walleye. Y store only had crappie minnows and Fuel and Food had no minnows Thursday morning when I came up so I had to fish with the crappie minnows. My fish house neighbor caught 3 walleyess yesterday morning on pike suckers so I went back into town to get some after bait was delivered. Didn't help. I have only caught four 15" tulibee and a 12" perch. Switching to lake trout the rest of the weekend. 34" of ice. Gas sugar barely made it through. McKinley Park landing has a lot of water on the plowed road as you enter the lake. The Ice Castles may have a hard time getting off the lake this weekend. Good luck if you venture out and be careful.

[JV Ham Lake]

We walked to our Daisy Island cabin last Saturday.  Beautiful day with the sun and little wind.  Only caught 1 small walleye.  I measured 21-22" of ice in 20' of water.  Did I see somebody's post saying the ice was 32"?  With the next couple weeks forecasting to be at 40 degrees or above that would seem to raise the possibility of open water in April.  Thoughts?

[TomWehler]

Anything possible.....every year different, makes it more fun.

Been hang'n round lake since 1974 n owned island since 1994....fun junk x 100000. Very Special place to me n mine. 

One year was in the bay boating March 29th...lake clear on April 2......Couple time lake clear 2nd week April...fun  stuff, but cool doing traditional Dock Dip.  Major Shrinkage!!!   

 

Here some dates since own island...huge mix.  One thing for sure, ICE WILL MELT......but Ya never can tell what goes on down below, as this lake can be more spooky than you or I know..  : )

Big Smiles n Keep on rocken!

 

T

 

 

1994
May 2

1995
May 3

1996
May 14

1997
April 30

1998
April 14

1999
April 26

2000
April 20

2001
May 2

2002
April 25

2003
May 1

2004
April 29

2005
April 19

2006
April 18

2007
April 29

2008
May 13

2009
April 30

2010
April 6

2011
May 1

2012
April 2

2013
May 17

2014
May 13

2015
April 18

2016
April 25

2017
April 15

2018
May 8

2019
April 30

2020
May 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by TomWehler

[SkunkedAgain]

When I drilled last Tuesday it was about 23" of ice near Hibbing Point in HOL bay

[JerkinLips]

On 3/2/2021 at 4:53 PM, JV Ham Lake said:

I measured 21-22" of ice in 20' of water.  Did I see somebody's post saying the ice was 32"?  With the next couple weeks forecasting to be at 40 degrees or above that would seem to raise the possibility of open water in April.  Thoughts?

I have measured the ice thickness in the same area 10 feet south of my fish house and found the following: 1/30 - 23", 2/18 - 32", 2/26 - 34".  This area has been bare of snow, probably due to the wind direction.  In areas of snow cover the ice thickness will be much less.  Just for comparison I found 26" of ice on Burntside last week.

 

With the light snow cover and long, very cold stretch we had in February, I think Vermilion will have ice throughout April.  Of course warm weather, heavy rain, and wind could significantly change that.  After March (and the end of lake trout fishing), I don't care how soon the ice goes off.

[Fishing DA Range and nort]

slow ice melt, better May fishing in my experience.   The year vermillion was froze on opening weekend we caught the most walleyes on other lakes early in the year, spawning seemed to collide with opening weekend.   Last year was the first time I fished vermillion in may, not opener however.

 

 

 

 

[BrianF]

Whelp, stick a fork in it, our ice season is done. Jeff and I took to the ice one last time in search of jumbos and/or whitefish.  Mission accomplished on the latter.  The jumbos we just couldn’t seem to find.  The smallies were starting to move up onto the shallower reefs and we caught a few incidentally, along with a decent pike.  The ice was probably 2’ thick, but there wasn’t much snow left on top when we headed back home this evening.  Decided to use the scratchers on the sled.  Next stop...open water.  

[Hookmaster]

Nice fish, especially the smallie!!

[SkunkedAgain]

All of those are nice catches through the ice. Congrats!

 

I think that I'll toss some bolts in my skis (homemade scratchers) this weekend.

[BigVTim]

Anyone else getting the itch for open water Crappies? Looks like the ice is going quickly.

[BigVTim]

Looks like the ice is off Vermilion! Start your engines....

 

[SkunkedAgain]

Engine already started and tested....just need to get my boat and motor in the water! Bring it on