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First Trip Back Since Moving....


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Looking forward to a short return to Lake Vermilion the week after next. I actually prefer October but schedules dictated the end of September. My wife and I have had some excellent fishing during that time period over the years and I hope this year is no exception. My wife is staying home this trip, so my good luck charm will be absent. After checking my journal entries from the last several years, it appears that 55-58 degrees is pretty normal for that time period and crawlers and BIG sucker minnows have been the baits of choice. If anything outstanding happens, I'll post a report after our return home.

Good Fishing,

MarkB☺️

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Thanks for the info Cliff. Temps for the next 10 days starting Monday is daytime highs mid to upper 50's and nighttime lows mostly low 40' s with a couple in the upper 30's. Hopefully, that will lower those water temps into that mid to upper 50's range. Since we are limited on time, water temps will dictate where we concentrate our efforts.

Thanks again.

MarkB☺️

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Good to have you back even if it is just briefly. Always enjoy your reports and you have put me on fish numerous times! Will be particularly interested in how your trip goes as I will be there immediately following you ?

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I was just telling my wife how I used to look forward to your detailed reports on here from my dads account on the way to the cabin years back, then I switched over to YouTube to enjoy Casey Sunsdahls updates. If I have time before we come up on our spring trips I will even go deep diving years back that have the same ice out dates to try to gain more insight on new locations to try. Sure miss your reports and hope you and yours find some luck. I will report Monday with our findings as we are also forced to come earlier than we would like, hope we can help narrow the search for Waldo!

PikeMaster

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Great to see you post again Mark!  Really miss your great detailed reports!  Good luck on your trip back. Looking forward to seeing how your trip goes. 

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Good to hear from you, Mark. And it’ll be good to have one of best anglers back on the lake. If I learn anything over few days, I’ll post it. Good luck out there.

Dick

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  • 2 weeks later...

Glad you had a great trip! I was hoping you might still be here. Frazer has been slow for nice fish most of this week but now that I’m not keeping any (closing up Tuesday), they really turned on today. A dozen from 14-20” in two hours this afternoon and it was just me and Ole, the red lab. He didn’t catch a thing. Same sort of structure below and on a drop off from 20 to 30 fow. Pike suckers and rainbows (big rainbows at the Y) with a red bead. 

Give Linda my regards and let us know when you come back.

Dick

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Thanks for the great report! Coming up in a few days and have been scouring the navionics app for similar areas. I usually hit that same area around banana at least once a trip too, so it's good to know there's fish there. I didn't realize there was a hole that deep just west of banana. Always thought it was just a flat 20-21, unless I've been thinking banana island is a completely different place all these years ?

 

Also, I didn't know you used such small hooks with crawlers, but it makes sense to be able to have a more natural presentation 

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FishinCT

Well, actually the spots I referred to are not west of Banana. The small island north of Banana is not named on my map. I have always called it No Name Island. There is a buoy just a little south and west of that island. The buoy is sitting on a fairly large reef that extends west 100 yards or so. There is a hole that drops off into 27' at the west end of that reef. I have caught 100's of walleyes in that hole and in the surrounding 20'-27' water.

The other spot is located in the channel north of the easternmost small island in the Banana chain. The reefs I am referring to are north of that island topping at 13'-15' out of ~26' of water. There's a reddish colored boathouse on the mainland. Line up the opening between the 2 small Banana islands and that boathouse and you should find it easily. Remember, the reef is snaggy so expect to get hung up.

I always use a size 8 hook while fishing either crawlers or leeches. I generally use a size 6 while fishing big minnows.

Lastly, I call the travel corridor between Banana and No Name the "channel".

Good Fishing,

MarkB☺️

 

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Now I got ya. Appreciate you clearing that up for me. Either way I always try that area. Years back in the fall I had an afternoon of nothing but slot fish on one of those reefs. It was the first year I tried really big minnows (thanks to you actually). No luck replicating that since but a couple hours of nothing but 20-26" fish sticks with a guy. 

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Been pounding the Walleyes on jig and minnow presentations for about two weeks now.  Deep holes off of main lake points have been very hot. I'm also doing well trolling shad raps over deep flats in Big bay.

Not much time left. ;) 

"Ace"

"It's just fishing man"  ;) 

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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