2023 Lake Vermilion Fishing Reports

[delcecchi]

On 6/14/2023 at 8:38 AM, SkunkedAgain said:

Remember how easy it used to be to find leeches?

 

-from Stand By Me

And that's why we kept a salt shaker in the beach bag when the kids were little. 

[oatmeal]

We fished 06/12 to 06/15.

 

We caught dozens of smallmouth in Oak Narrows, Birch Narrows, all around and near Hindsdale Island, and Wolf Bay. Pretty much anywhere that had reeds nearby. East side produced very few fish in comparison, the water was colder which may explain why. All fish were caught on a finesse jig, ned rig, or fluke. Several were 2lbs+. Also had a few largemouth here and there.

 

Pike were everywhere in Greenwood Bay hitting flukes, a few were 20" or larger. 

 

Walleye were caught around 12ft of water but the bite was slow for most people that we talked to.

 

Mayflies are hatching.

 

Best of luck to all.

Edited June 17 by oatmeal

[Badgervet]

Just got back from the West side, water temp was 70 degrees.  Was targeting walleyes and caught our daily limit a few days in 10-18 feet of water using jig and leeches and jig and crawlers.   A few in our group caught some 26 inchers, a bunch in the slot and some good eaters at 16-18 inches.  Area around Turtle Island and south of Center were best for us but caught some around the different rock piles.  Best bite time was 7-10 am with fish being marked later in the day but they would not bite.  Could hardly keep the small mouth bass off, easily caught over 20 bass per day , most being 8-12 inches., with some rock bass, bull gills, and perch as well.  Not a single northern was seen.   Trolled with some crank baits and only got a few rock bass.  Didn't see any major evidence of mayflies hatches but the walleyes we cut into had bellyful of mayflies.  All in all a good week with good weather.  

[SkunkedAgain]

I had a few mayflies land on me this weekend but never saw a hatch in the water.

[Brianf.]

Definitely some mayflys hatching on the west side.  Lots of them on the surface this morning where the wind was pushing them in.  Sure gets the food chain cranking.  The bite was amazing, which is typical during the hatch.   

[Muskyhunter73]

Brother in law caught a 30 incher Saturday at 11am on a shallow hump on the first cast. His new personal best. Officially ranks second in our group for vermilion walleyes behind my 31 incher from 1999. I’ll be up Wednesday through Friday but they did well in the evenings on a shallow rock/sand transition. Caught 37 walleyes on Sunday night with a mixture of big perch, smallmouth, and pike mixed in. 

[SkunkedAgain]

Those are beautiful walleye.

[JerkinLips]

Fished Monday to Wednesday morning this week.  Had a hard time catching walleyes.  Tried shiners, chubs, leeches, and crawlers with little success.  I did see a few mayflies on the surface and a few clouds of them in the water column so I don't know if that was the issue.  Did catch two 27" northerns, and surprisingly didn't catch a single perch or bass.  Beautiful out on the lake and was entertained by mother mallard and her brood one morning.  I avoided mid-day when the temperature was in the upper 80's.

[MarkB]

My cousin, a good friend, and myself returned home yesterday afternoon after spending 4 wonderful days on beautiful Lake Vermilion. We found wall to wall mayflies in the water column in the east end of Big Bay, Armstrong Bay, north side of Pine Island, and the entire Portage Bay area. We found very few mayflies in Daisy Bay and the east end of Fraser Bay and, so, we concentrated on those 2 areas. Incidentally, we saw ZERO mayflies that were flying, hatching, or in slicks. The fishing was actually kind of weird. We had lots and lots of hits, BUT, catching them was a whole different matter. While we caught walleyes, smallmouth, and jumbos,  the catch/miss ratio was definitely in favor of the fish. The best fishing was from about 5:00PM until dark and a leach or piece of crawler produced fairly evenly. We caught no slot fish and had our best luck in the 10'-12' range. Terminal tackle made no difference and we used Lindy rigs, jigs, bottom bouncers. The daily temperatures were smoltering and the water temperatures ranged from 69 degrees when we arrived to 73 degrees when we left. We ate fish while we were there and brought home limits for our families to enjoy. There are lots of ways to enjoy Lake Vermilion besides catching fish and this trip did not disappoint. We have 2 more trips planned for later in the fall.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

Edited June 23 by MarkB
wrong word

[PSU]

Thanks Mark, always enjoy reading your posts. 

[SkunkedAgain]

Agreed about reading Mark's posts. Always good to have you around.

 

I took some nephews out fishing over the weekend. The rain and winds produced some big LM bass and northerns. We also went out for walleye Sunday morning and instead got into a smallmouth bite. They loved it, so why not? Enjoy what is working when it's working.

 

My apologies to anyone who saw my daughter and nephew taking turns driving the boat. All they want to do is "loopty loops" - ie fast circles. I kept them away from anyone fishing!

[leech~~]

9 hours ago, SkunkedAgain said:

My apologies to anyone who saw my daughter and nephew taking turns driving the boat. All they want to do is "loopty loops" - ie fast circles. I kept them away from anyone fishing!

That's the way I troll, it keeps the Jet ski's away!  

[Mark1973]

We are coming up the end of July and was wondering what its like with the Fires.  Is there a lot of smoke coming down.  

[Raven77]

Depends on wind direction.  Some days are hazy, some days are clear. Looks like it is worse in IN today than in MN.  There have only been a couple of days in which you could smell smoke.  It should not be a trip breaker for you unless you have some breathing issues.

Edited June 28 by Raven77

[PSU]

Off topic, but anyone know how to contact Joe from Northwoods Bait? Got a flat tire (1/2 " gash on sidewall) just pulling into Cook, but made it to Zups where Joe and his lovely bride helped me (well, they really did most of it) in the parking lot. What a class act they are. Hadn't been in the parking lot for 30 seconds and an RV pulls up with Joe offering his help. Really appreciate Gary from the tire shop as well. 

[SkunkedAgain]

Something tells me that he's all over Facebook. I bet that if you call the new owners of Northwoods, they will give you his contact info.

[gimruis]

On 6/28/2023 at 6:17 AM, Mark1973 said:

We are coming up the end of July and was wondering what its like with the Fires.  Is there a lot of smoke coming down.  

Might not seem appealing, but you could always wear an N95 mask.  It was so bad here a couple weeks ago that they cancelled youth sports that day, but I still had to mow the lawn.  I put on a mask and went to work.  I probably looked like an idiot out there, but it kept smoke particulates from entering my lungs.  Just a suggestion.

Edited June 29 by gimruis

[jim curlee]

The wife got lucky last night, 29"er, just a dandy walleye in anybody's book.

Leech under a slip bobber.

NO, I'm not going to tell you where we were. LOL

Edited July 1 by jim curlee

[StateofHockey]

Spotted this 29" but he seemed more interested in trees then any of my lures

[SkunkedAgain]

On 7/1/2023 at 7:22 AM, jim curlee said:

The wife got lucky last night, 29"er, just a dandy walleye in anybody's book.

Leech under a slip bobber.

NO, I'm not going to tell you where we were. LOL

Congrats to her. That beats my personal best. That's why you fish even when the time and conditions aren't perfect.

[mbeyer]

Guess no one is fishing.....no posts since July 3??

 

Gotta be someone catching fish. Is mayfly situation done and gone? 

[CFD200]

5 hours ago, mbeyer said:

Guess no one is fishing.....no posts since July 3??

 

Gotta be someone catching fish. Is mayfly situation done and gone? 

I fished with a couple of friends last weekend.  I think the mayfly hatch was coming to an end.  Had some success with nightcrawlers on sand/rock reefs.  Marked alot of fish but they either bit real light or not at all.  We caught four large suckers which I have never caught before.  Odd and disappointing when you think it is a nice size walleye.  It should be improving with the mayflies coming to the end. 

[JerkinLips]

Fished Tuesday to Thursday this week and had difficulty catching walleyes.  I did catch enough to bring a meal home for the wife, including the small bug-eyed one pictured.  Had a hard time keeping the small 6-10" perch off the hook.  One 9" perch was so hungry that he still grabbed my chub minnow even though he had 2 crayfish claws stuck in his throat.  I was able to safely release him after removing my hook and the claws.  Some small perch did not survive the release even though I was setting the hook quickly.  One that didn't survive was picked up by one seagull, who then dropped the perch when a 2nd seagull attacked it in midair.  Then an eagle swooped down and ended up with the perch, even while being pursued by the seagulls.  interesting show.

 

Crawlers provided the best action, followed closely by chubs.  The jumbo leeches I tried had very little action.  After I finished my old batch of crawlers, I opened up the new container that I purchased the day before and found that they were all dead.  I returned them in the afternoon and found that even the next container had some dead ones in it.  Check the bait containers before purchasing.

 

Was very quiet and beautiful on the lake.  Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Brianf.]

Jeff and I went up this past weekend on a short multi-species trip.  Water temp had dropped 7 degrees from the time we were last there.  When we started grinding for one species we switched to another.   Fun way to fish! 

 

Edited July 17 by Brianf.

[redlabguy]

Nice fish all! You two make a pretty good team.

I finally got out yesterday after a week with no trolling motor and found nice walleyes on a rocky hump in 16-18’. Crawlers. 
 

l usually troll rigs and these days I’m using tungsten sinkers. They are not cheap but there are advantages.  They’re denser than lead so they’re about 2/3 the size. I can’t find the classic lindy shape, but use a bullet shape and get far fewer snags. And no harm to waterfowl. Highly recommend them. 
 

 

Edited July 17 by leech~~

[MarkB]

Hey Dick, do I know where that rocky 16-18' hump is??? I'll bet on it..

 

Good Fishing everyone...

 

MarkB

[PBR117]

On 6/15/2023 at 2:06 PM, delcecchi said:

And that's why we kept a salt shaker in the beach bag when the kids were little. 

We did the same thing in Vietnam. There were many types of leeches, the worst were the ground leeches. They didn't live in the water,they lived in the damp leaves most soil, but you would find them just about anywhere. 

[Raven77]

Fishing crawlers on worm harness spinners on bottom bouncers.  We have picked up some walleyes but the small perch have absolutely tormented us.  Thinking it might be time to pull out the lead core.

[JerkinLips]

To avoid the hot weather I fished Friday-Sunday this week.  I used only crawlers on a plain hook and had a hard time keeping the perch and crayfish off the hook.  I was able to catch enough decent walleyes to bring a meal home to the wife, a requirement for going home.

 

The lake was quite quiet for a weekend, but did get busy Saturday afternoon.  I was still fishing 50 feet from shore when a tri-hull pontoon at cruising speed drove between me and the shore.  All I could do was glare at the 6-8 people in the boat.  One lady in the boat even gave me the thumbs-up.  Guess my glare irritated them because they came back 10 minutes later and did the same pass in the other direction.  Another boat fishing by me couldn't believe what they did.  Next time I will have my cell ready to take their picture and post it on the internet.  Maybe I will even report them to the authorities.  Other that that it was a beautiful weekend on Vermilion.

[SkunkedAgain]

I got the thumbs up for the opposite move this weekend. On my way out of Black Bay late Sunday, a boat was fishing in the channel at the outlet of Black Bay. I did my customary slowdown to low-wake speed and got a thumbs up from the guy fishing. Then I saw his wife trying to deal with two little ones in the back. They definitely seemed to appreciate not having someone rocket past at close range. 

 

Sometimes I don't want to slow down in tight areas, but I always think of how I would feel if it was my boat about to get rocked. I can't say that I'm perfect, but I try to be.

 

It reminds me of a fishing buddy. When I see floating trash, I always come off plane to net it. Fishing on the Minnnesota River last week, he loudly proclaimed "There you go stopping for every bit of trash" sarcastically. We had a nice conversation about how the world is generally full of people who pollute without doing much of anything to balance things out. I take pride in being someone who makes positive contributions where I can, no matter how small. My buddy pulled out the floating bottle and then handed me another cold beer. All was right in the world. A few minutes later, karma worked and we went from zero action all morning to a bonanza of hard-fighting flathead catfish.