Vermilion Camping Advice?

[herm]

Greetings all! Our group (two boats/five guys) is looking at fishing/camping trip based at Hinsdale Island Campground or Wake 'Em Up Bay Campground in about 3 weeks.  Can anyone advise about Hinsdale, especially the shoreline for landing boats? (Is it sandy or rocky? Mostly protected?) We're also wondering how busy both campgrounds are? We've stayed at Wake Em Up,  but that was 6-8 years ago and it was mostly empty...just the host and 2-3 others. Nowadays, do either or both fill up on June weekends? (We'd probably arrive on a Saturday, stay most of the week.) Of course, we also welcome suggestions for walleye techniques, depths, etc. We tend to fish smallies during the day and chase eyes in the evening.  Thanks in advance for your help! 

Edited May 17, 2022 by herm

[SkunkedAgain]

I don't know about either of them, but welcome to the forum.

[herm]

Thanks "Skunked Again!" I searched old posts and it sounds like my fiberglass boat might not be the best rig for Hinsdale. Still, would appreciate more advice/input. 

[mdogdaddy]

My son camped on Hinsdale with his aluminum runabout. Nice site but walking across the hull parked on uneven ground he separated a couple of the rivets.

[PSU]

Those campsites are right across the water from us. Seem pretty well protected and I haven't heard of challenging over there. Holiday weekends they fill up very fast

[herm]

A post-trip update --- I did not stay at these sites. However, I did fish by them. They look decent from the lake. However, they definitely are on rocky shorelines, which would be bad for any boat you cannot at least partially pull out of the water when the wind blows the wrong way. Hope that helps the next inquiry. Thanks to others for their advice!

[SkunkedAgain]

I've got an uncle who used to own a 40ft sailboat on Lake Michigan. He loved that boat and would baby everything. He once saw my fishing boat with a few Vermilion rock kisses on the hull and scratches in the paint from tying up to other boats over the years. He gave me a hard time, but he didn't understand the nature of fishing on rocky lakes. Boating through a giant lake is much easier to do when you only need to watch your nav charts and make sure that your bumper is out before docking!

 

I wouldn't camp at one of those rocky sites with a nice boat, but an old aluminum with a 15-35hp motor would be perfect.

Edited June 13, 2022 by SkunkedAgain