2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[JerkinLips]

Fished Wednesday-Friday this week and the walleye fishing was much better.  Perch to walleye ratio dropped to 3:2 and the crayfish were less of a problem.  The walleyes however were on the small side.  I did catch one 23" eye, then the next biggest was only 15".  I did end up accidentally catching three 17-18" smallmouth that were fun pulling in.

 

Two eyes I kept for a meal had defects I had never seen before.  One was missing a fin behind the gill, and another had a lump in front of its tail as shown in the pics.  Are these maladies common?  Causes?

 

The wildfire smoke on Thursday was very bad.  The attached picture was taken at 10am, and it got twice as bad over the next hour.  My clothes still stink from the smoke.  Hope they get some substantial rain soon the help the firefighting effort.

[Hookmaster]

I you think about how many walleye are hatched there are bound to be a few abnormalities. I have never seen a bump under the skin but I have seen a missing fin like that. Oh by the way, his name was "Lefty".

Last year I caught a walleye on Mille Lacs that had an extra fin in that location.

[SkunkedAgain]

The lump I can't explain, but then again we get lumps too!

 

The fin most likely was bit off, unless that walleye was a machinist who had a workplace accident.

[BigVTim]

Any updates on the lake level with the rain last weekend? I know there was less on the arrowhead than in the cities, but hoping even a little bit will help. Looks like a few 1/2 inch soakers this week.

[Pat McGraw]

BigVTim, I saw a post Monday that Head-O-Lakes had received ~1.25" since Friday. It appeared Frazer Bay was up something close to an inch. At least enough to temporarily stop the freefall. 

[deanbaron1990]

One thing to keep in mind is that even with a decent rainfall, the soils are so dry that a lot of what would normally run off into the lake will be soaked up before it gets to the lake right now. An inch of rain is good but it probably won't have the same effect as an inch during a non-drought year.

[Bbobber]

I will be coming up Thursday with my brother and nephew and they want to fish for smallies.Where would be some good places to look for them? weeds rocks deep shallow I usually don't  fish for them. Any advice would be appreciated.

[CigarGuy]

51 minutes ago, Bbobber said:

I will be coming up Thursday with my brother and nephew and they want to fish for smallies.Where would be some good places to look for them? weeds rocks deep shallow I usually don't  fish for them. Any advice would be appreciated.

In front of my dock

[chucker1101]

15 hours ago, Bbobber said:

I will be coming up Thursday with my brother and nephew and they want to fish for smallies.Where would be some good places to look for them? weeds rocks deep shallow I usually don't  fish for them. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

We picked up a fair number of smallies using jigging raps in 27-32 feet of water last weekend. They were deep, right off big drops.

[BigVTim]

Find the wind, find the fish. Fished this last weekend and hung out mostly on wind-blown shorelines or pulling spinners in ~20 FOW off shore a few hundred yards. Did good on walleyes. Fished for about an hour for Musky on a rocky wind-blown point and had three follows. One bit and jumped on a figure 8 but lost it. Things seem to be heating up! Get out there and enjoy the beautiful weather.

[redlabguy]

I don’t chase the muskelunge but that’s my experience with walleyes, too. I’m going a little shallower- 14-16’- but hey, maybe I’ll troll down to 20’.

 Spinners help eliminate the crawdads. I get a lot of small walleyes but usually find some keepers, too.

RLG

[PSU]

Live bait recommendations for walleye? Still half crawler or are some using rainbows now?

[BigVTim]

1 hour ago, PSU said:

Live bait recommendations for walleye? Still half crawler or are some using rainbows now?

I only used crawlers last weekend so I can't speak for minnows, but was getting good action still on crawlers. Water is cooling fast, so it doesn't hurt to start trying minnows. I believe leaches are done for the year at most bait shops.

[Badgervet]

Hi all,

I'm coming up to the west end of the lake this weekend for a last minute trip and was wondering specifically how the fishing in Head of the Lakes bay and Wakeup Bay has been.  We are going to target walleyes and may try for muskies one night.  Tried to hire a guide but being last minute, no availability.  Been reading up on all the posts over the years and my general plan is to fish the wind blown shore with Lindys with crawlers and scatter raps in 14-20 feet of water. I do have side imaging to try and find structure/drops/transitions areas.  I'm gonna try the east side of Taylor's island, Center island, the southern humps, and around merry-go-round reef. Only the third time on Vermillion (all on the west side and still trying to figure out the lake).  I'm not asking for anyone's honey hole but any general guidelines would be much appreciated. 

[deanbaron1990]

14 minutes ago, Badgervet said:

Hi all,

I'm coming up to the west end of the lake this weekend for a last minute trip and was wondering specifically how the fishing in Head of the Lakes bay and Wakeup Bay has been.  We are going to target walleyes and may try for muskies one night.  Tried to hire a guide but being last minute, no availability.  Been reading up on all the posts over the years and my general plan is to fish the wind blown shore with Lindys with crawlers and scatter raps in 14-20 feet of water. I do have side imaging to try and find structure/drops/transitions areas.  I'm gonna try the east side of Taylor's island, Center island, the southern humps, and around merry-go-round reef. Only the third time on Vermillion (all on the west side and still trying to figure out the lake).  I'm not asking for anyone's honey hole but any general guidelines would be much appreciated. 

 I was on Vermillion for the first time a couple weeks ago and the rental place told us Potato Island was where some walleyes and bass were getting caught. We didn't try it out because it was super windy and 1-2' waves kept us in the protected bays on the south end of the lake but if the conditions are decent that may be a good area to try.

[BigVTim]

3 hours ago, Badgervet said:

Hi all,

I'm coming up to the west end of the lake this weekend for a last minute trip and was wondering specifically how the fishing in Head of the Lakes bay and Wakeup Bay has been.  We are going to target walleyes and may try for muskies one night.  Tried to hire a guide but being last minute, no availability.  Been reading up on all the posts over the years and my general plan is to fish the wind blown shore with Lindys with crawlers and scatter raps in 14-20 feet of water. I do have side imaging to try and find structure/drops/transitions areas.  I'm gonna try the east side of Taylor's island, Center island, the southern humps, and around merry-go-round reef. Only the third time on Vermillion (all on the west side and still trying to figure out the lake).  I'm not asking for anyone's honey hole but any general guidelines would be much appreciated. 

Badger- I haven't heard much for those two bays in particular, but have trolled leadcore deeper in Wake-M-Up west of center island and bagged a few. If you are willing to go a little further east, I'd recommend Wolf bay basin or the south and south east shoreline drops in Niles bay with spinners. Good luck

[delcecchi]

By the way, I just saw the new state record musky C&R came out of Vermilion in July, 57 inches.   Way to go... Beat the old record also from Vermilion...

[DLD24]

13 hours ago, PSU said:

Live bait recommendations for walleye? Still half crawler or are some using rainbows now?

I went up for the day today, jig and minnow (fatheads) was hot for the morning bite. I stuck a dozen or so right on a mud/big rock transition in a couple hours. I left to try and find a leadcore bite. Well I don't think I wetted a line for at least 2 hours, could not find anything on the graph that was worth dropping a line. I finally ended up throwing in the towel ran back to my 1st spot and stuck a couple more eater size fish, but the majority of the fish had vacated that spot as well. I was on the east side.

[muskie-mike]

Got 11 walleyes on leadcore,all under 12 inches...

 

[FSRslug]

Had no problem catching 12" and smaller walleyes the last few days on a jig and minnow. 

 

Looking to change it up and look for musky. Any tips on where to start if you only have 1 day? I planned to start deep, but heard they might have started to move up a bit recently.

[tarpon6]

Smallie fishing has been nothing short of incredible (East side). Numerous 3 to high 3's and two over 4# (pics).  Deeper rocks and shallow both have been good. 

 

Pike have been tough with the warmer water. Not finding 30" plus fish in the usual weedy spots.  Not sure where to find consistent fish.

[delcecchi]

18 hours ago, tarpon6 said:

Smallie fishing has been nothing short of incredible (East side). Numerous 3 to high 3's and two over 4# (pics).  Deeper rocks and shallow both have been good. 

 

Pike have been tough with the warmer water. Not finding 30" plus fish in the usual weedy spots.  Not sure where to find consistent fish.

 

 

I could tell you but then.......

[tarpon6]

4 hours ago, delcecchi said:

I could tell you but then.......

How about some tips on what I'm looking for? I did luck into a 36.5" today fishing for muskie.  No muskies though. She's back out there growing to 40+.

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by tarpon6

[Badgervet]

Update: water temp was 67 degrees, the bite was quiet on the west side of the lake.  Got one 16 inch walleye in about 15 feet of water around Center island.  Tried a few reefs, drop offs, transitions, didn't mark much and only got a few decent smallies, rock bass and perch.  Tried main basin, Norwegian, Niles, Wolf with crawler, rainbows, rapalas. Even made the trip into Frazier bay though it was a little choppier than my boat liked and did not get a single bite.  No muskies though I only tried for a few hours over the past few days.  Hopefully who ever is fishing has better luck than we did. Not too many people at the resort we were at were getting any walleyes or northern though the boats/guides that went all the way east did decently.  Color is changing and at least the view was great.  

[BigVTim]

Only got one this weekend, but it was a dandy. 41” pike. I’m sure the west enders recognize the background 

[fishingMN4eyes]

Heading up this weekend, staying near the casino. Targeting walleye but wouldn't mind getting into some crappies. Reports sound kinda tough right now, but any tips or reports would be appreciated.

[PSU]

Just got back from a Thursday-Monday trip and best walleye fishing all year for me. Was in the Fectos, Smart's and Frazer Bay area and caught most of my fish on crawlers and Lindy Rig in 12-14 feet of water. 

[delcecchi]

I am a west ender and it doesn't look that different from a bunch of places.   As for Nords, I have gotten them trolling big raps over rock reefs in the fall at like 4 mph or even more.   

[redlabguy]

I’m getting good walleyes, too, (15-16” after you sort out the 12-13s) at 14-16’ trolling spinners with crawlers. Trolling eliminates the crawdads. Frazer is my home ground. We have to be getting into minnow season any day now. Worth a try. I’ve been hearing some good fish on pike suckers but I like rainbows early. I usually only fish an hour or two a day but a friend is coming tomorrow and we’ll fish hard. I’ll try to report.

RLG

[Brianf.]

12 hours ago, BigVTim said:

Only got one this weekend, but it was a dandy. 41” pike. I’m sure the west enders recognize the background 

Beautiful fish BVT!  
 

As for recognizing the background, if you just panned the camera a little bit to the left you’d see my cabin.  That is my next door neighbor’s dock in the back ground.  It’s a good spot!