2021 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[BigVTim]

9 hours ago, Brianf. said:

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!

Brian- funny! I knew Nancy and Mel Luloff when they were there. Fond memories… beautiful part of the lake. 

[Brianf.]

Mel and Nancy were good friends of ours. Great folks. Miss them….  While we now have new neighbors and friends, we always will refer to that spot as ‘Luloff Point’. 

[mtheis]

I just got back from staying up at Vermilion for a week, and I made a few notes:

 

The water temp was consistent at 66 degrees Monday through Saturday.  The weather was crazy wet or wildly windy, and I found my biggest walleyes (15-17's) were caught in my standard spots Monday through Wednesday.  Then a switch turned off, and I had to relocate and find new spots as my previous ones were dead for the rest of the week.  Never seen anything like that before.  After the lake calmed, and skies turned blue, I could only catch the 9-14 inchers.  The biggest I saved for fish fries, and I even scrapped up a limit to take home.

 

I used lead core, and I fished in water depths ranging from 20-25 ft.  I saw alot of HUGE balls of bait and tried to keep slightly above them.  I tried many different colors, and silver out produced everything and I couldn't buy a fish on my favorite color, fire tiger.  The lake appears to be less dirty this year for me.  With invasive species this may become the norm. 

 

I found a bay that was absolutely stacked with fish.  I spent two days there, and no one was around to compete with me.  I loved it.  But it was too small for me to let out enough lead core so I tied a three way with a line counter reel and a 2 oz sinker with a 6ft leader.  That worked really well.  It came to me again, you do not need to invest in a lot of pricey equipment to get your lures down deep.  Those fish were again in 20-25 ft of water. 

I hope this helps someone!

[delcecchi]

Ah the old un-named bay trick...  Got an end?   

[delcecchi]

On 9/14/2021 at 8:23 AM, BigVTim said:

Brian- funny! I knew Nancy and Mel Luloff when they were there. Fond memories… beautiful part of the lake. 

Interesting.   Have to give the narrows more respect in the future...

[tarpon6]

Today ended a truely epic Vermilion trip. Best smallmouth fishing I've ever experienced. They are definitely getting bigger, getting fat on all the rustys. 3 lb fish were the norm with several 3.5 - 3.75. I got three over 4 including a 4.56 yesterday. Lost a 5+ right at the boat, what a tank, ran alot of drag and took me for a couple laps around the boat. Thought I hooked a muskie until I saw it.

 

Speaking of muskie I fished more muskie this year and did not even see one (unusual) and only caught the big pike I posted earlier... Until today.   I was throwing a 3/8 spinner bait for bass and watched a good sized muskie come from side and kind of nonchalantly grab it. Fortunately I reflexively set the hook between my jaw drop and eyes .  Taped out at 47".  Don't worry despite not having a net and having to grab it with the boga I never hung the fish. It was fully supported with my other hand under it when I pulled it from the water for a quick measurement and pic. She swam away to grow to 50+ for next years trip.  

 

This was the kind of trip that will be hard to top.  New personal bests in smallmouth 3 times, pike and muskie.  Can't wait to come back though.

[Rivergroup]

 

41 minutes ago, tarpon6 said:

Today ended a truely epic Vermilion trip. Best smallmouth fishing I've ever experienced. They are definitely getting bigger, getting fat on all the rustys. 3 lb fish were the norm with several 3.5 - 3.75. I got three over 4 including a 4.56 yesterday. Lost a 5+ right at the boat, what a tank, ran alot of drag and took me for a couple laps around the boat. Thought I hooked a muskie until I saw it.

 

Speaking of muskie I fished more muskie this year and did not even see one (unusual) and only caught the big pike I posted earlier... Until today.   I was throwing a 3/8 spinner bait for bass and watched a good sized muskie come from side and kind of nonchalantly grab it. Fortunately I reflexively set the hook between my jaw drop and eyes .  Taped out at 47".  Don't worry despite not having a net and having to grab it with the boga I never hung the fish. It was fully supported with my other hand under it when I pulled it from the water for a quick measurement and pic. She swam away to grow to 50+ for next years trip.  

 

This was the kind of trip that will be hard to top.  New personal bests in smallmouth 3 times, pike and muskie.  Can't wait to come back though.

Awesome fish!  I'll be there a week from Saturday.  Can't wait!!!

[gim]

Nice job @tarpon6.  Seems like virtually everyone is after bottom feeders on that lake.  Very refreshing to actually see someone chasing brown bass.  Beautiful muskie too.

[JerkinLips]

Walleye fishing really picked up this weekend.  Had to move around to find the fish but when I did locate them, they were schooled up in a tight cluster.  If I drifted more than 30 feet from the cluster the bite would stop.  Don't know if this is typical of fall fishing but it was sure fun.

 

Biggest eye I caught was the pictured 23", then the next biggest was only 17" (I think others are really targeting the 18-20" fish).  Pike suckers on a plain red hook were the best, but when I ran out of them, they still bit on chubs (although the fish were smaller).  Stopped at Fuel & Food Saturday afternoon and they were out of pike suckers and chubs, so I just used the last of my small chubs the last day.  Never did try the crawlers that I bought because the bite was good enough on minnows.

 

Enjoy the fall fishing and the beauty of the lake, and be courteous to other anglers.

[MikeG3Boat]

I am heading up there tomorrow.  Where do you guys get minnows up in the area?  Tower or Cook or down in Virginia?  I have never heard of pike suckers?  How large are they?  Are you guys fishing the East or West side of the lake?  Let me know.  I am thinking of fishing the East side tomorrow and then headed to the west side from Thursday thru Sunday.  Any help would be appreciated?  I am a newby to the area.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[fishingMN4eyes]

Got up Thursday evening to rain and pretty heavy wind Friday morning had us holding off on putting the boat in the water. Fished briefly Friday evening at sunset and picked up an 18" and a couple smalls. Fishing was decent Saturday morning but no real size, everything was 12-15". I had one that looked to be 17"ish flop off as I was trying to flip it into the boat. All the fish we caught were in 17-22'. We were fishing around about a 6' top but never caught anything on top. They appeared to be relating to the structure but not actually on it. Tried again Saturday evening for a couple hours and continued to pick up small walleye just like the morning. Sunday was windy again but we decided to slug it out for awhile and caught one decent perch and one small walleye. We fished similar depths and spots as Saturday but they weren't there. Marked them out in 35'+ but didn't feel like fighting the wind out in the big water so we called it quits around noon and never went back out(the wind never really did lay down or we may have tried again). Jig/minnow way outfished bottom bouncers/crawlers. Wish bottom bouncers would have worked better because it was tough to keep a jig down as fast as we were drifting and we never found a school to spot lock on.

[delcecchi]

Wind sucks

[JerkinLips]

12 hours ago, MikeG3Boat said:

I have never heard of pike suckers?  How large are they?

Pike suckers are about 3½ inches long.  Walleyes really like them in the fall and early winter.  Caught my fish in 13-15 FOW drifting slowly.  Good solid bites.

[SkunkedAgain]

For those who think that fishing etiquette has gotten worse, I took a snapshot of the tv this morning. My 9yr old daughter loves watching old cartoons. In this one, the guy catches a fish the size of a minnow and then every boat on the lake zooms over to fish his spot. 
 

This has been happening since motor boats were invented!

 

 

[leechlake]

Walleyes and Muskies biting in Head o  Lakes and Wake em Up.  I’ve had best luck finding Muskies in the old favorite cabbage spots that are near rocks. Doesn’t seem to be enough of them though. 

[Rivergroup]

10 hours ago, SkunkedAgain said:

For those who think that fishing etiquette has gotten worse, I took a snapshot of the tv this morning. My 9yr old daughter loves watching old cartoons. In this one, the guy catches a fish the size of a minnow and then every boat on the lake zooms over to fish his spot. 
 

This has been happening since motor boats were invented!

 

 

It's true!  Just got back from the west side today.  Wherever we went and spent some time drifting, trolling, or whatever, in came a bunch of boats!

[mbeyer]

Got to love a Muskie pic…….

 

can almost feel your adrenaline rush. 

[chaffmj]

testing

[leech~~]

On 9/28/2021 at 4:16 PM, leechlake said:

Walleyes and Muskies biting in Head o  Lakes and Wake em Up.  I’ve had best luck finding Muskies in the old favorite cabbage spots that are near rocks. Doesn’t seem to be enough of them though. 

 

Great fish.  

Good to see your still kicking around!

 

[leechlake]

Leech~ it was great to see the old names again. It inspired me to cast a little longer tonight!

[mbeyer]

spent the last five days up here in this super weather. Only complain could be it was a little too calm. Fishing was even better with a bit of walleye chop on a point, shoreline , etc..water temp was between 62-66 degrees. Most of the fish were caught in 18-25 feet of water but some in big bay came out of 40-50 feet. Most fish were just off the strictures out of the rocks.. we tried fishing top of the reef with slip bobbers with no success. Most of time, when we saw fish on electronics, we coughs the fish. Only occcassionally, did we find non biting fish. No fish over the slot, very few in the slot, most fish were good eater size.  Most fish were mid day, didn’t have to get up early or stay past dark.. pretty easy…..

 

dock bite was so, so.  

 

 

[MarkB]

My cousin, good Friend, and myself just returned from a short 4 day visit to my favorite lake. We enjoyed some absolutely spectacular fishing! During the 4 day trip, we boated 190 walleyes and either missed or lost at least 100 more ! About half of our boated fish measured 12"-14". We caught a few of the 10"-12" dinks, but we also caught lots and lots of 15"-17" walleyes with a few 18"-20" and a 22", 28", and 29". We caught them on both minnows and crawlers with all of the bigger fish coming on big minnows. Suckers and shiners accounted for probably 80% of our catch. We found the fish in my traditional fall spots. The walleyes were on mud flats in 20'-27' of water early in the mornings until around 9:30. We then switched to adjacent rock piles and that is where we caught all of our fish over 17". We only caught one jumbo and 3 bass during our trip. All of the bass were ~17" and were caught while fishing for walleyes. The water temperatures varied from 58 degrees when we arrived to 62 degrees when we left. Cloud cover made no difference on this trip and the winds were light and variable throughout our stay. During the Friday monsoon we caught as many fish as any other time.

The bite itself varied at times from very light to jerk the pole out of your hands strong. Saturday was a particularly light bite day and we put on stingers to enable a hook set when we felt the first nudge. This method helped us prevent gut hooked fish and it's also why we missed so many hits. The boat traffic was negligible most of the trip and non-existent on Saturday.

It was very nostalgic watching the baby loons getting in some last minute meals and watching Bald Eagles flying around pestering the gulls. Lake Vermilion is truly a paradise and I pray that it can be preserved for future generations. In the meantime, we reserved our allotted time periods for 2022 and look forward to returning to that wonderful Lake.

Below are a couple pictures of our fishing party holding their best fish of the trip. Top to bottom is my cousin Tim, then me, and lastly our friend Greg.. 

Good fishing,

MarkB

                                                                                                                     

[MarkB]

This wouldn't fit on my previous post and I wanted show my cousin releasing the 29 inch walleye. The 28" was also released..

MarkB

[StillFishin']

Way to go Mark!  You haven’t lost your touch or for got your spots!

[SkunkedAgain]

A MarkB posting...a sight for sore eyes. 

 

It sounds like you had a great time. I enjoy reading your posts as usual.

[partyonpine]

 Didn’t catch 28 or 29 inches but my 4 days were incredible walleye fishing 3 days managed 150 or so fish lot of 15-20

but we concentrated on 16-22 feet.  Did try leadcore in 32 feet and caught our slot fish that way and more than a few.  Caught them north side of pine, big bay, comet.   Everywhere we went there were walleyes.  Sunday night we ran out of minnows!  Spot locked and the fastest walleye fishing in some time.  I used smaller minnows then mark. I am up next weekend and will be sure to get bigger minnows.  Best part my dads birthday and we got to spend it whacking walleyes all night.  Old goat is 74

[redlabguy]

Great post, Mark. Great to hear from you. We had the leave the lake a week ago to get my 96 year old Mom into assisted living and from your post and partyonpine’s it sound like we missed the week of the year. I was doing the same kinds of fishing my last week, but no where near the numbers you found… but then that’s always the case. Glad you could make it up. Hopefully I’ll be around next year. 
It was a strange year with drought, smoke, very low water, but you’re right, Vermilion’s special.

Dick

[JerkinLips]

Fished Monday-Friday this week in between a painting project and duck hunting.  Fishing was both slow and hot for me.  Tuesday evening was the hottest, catching 12 fish in one hour, including two 25" eyes.  Overall I caught 8 slot eyes, three of which were 25" which is my biggest so far this open water season.  All other eyes were 10-15" except for one 18" fish.

 

Started fishing with pike suckers on a plain hook, but was missing several bites so I switched to chubs and had much better hook success.  Pike suckers seemed to produce bigger fish, but I did catch a couple of slot fish on chubs and even crawlers when I ran out of minnows.  They were willing to bite anything when in the mood.  13-16 fow.

 

Didn't have time to remove my camo face paint for the pic of a 23" eye.  Much better pic of a 25" eye.  Beautiful weather this week and great to be on the lake.  This weekend weather looks bad, but enjoy the lake and the fall season.  Good luck and be courteous to other anglers.

[Wanderer]

Any luck with the birds?

[JerkinLips]

7 hours ago, Wanderer said:

Any luck with the birds?

5 woodies and 2 mallards in 3 mornings of hunting.  Haven't done that well since 2012.