2024-2025 Vermilion Ice Fishing

[SkunkedAgain]

On 1/28/2025 at 10:40 AM, leech~~ said:

Wow, I never thought about that?  

They must have to change their auger blades a lot more too?  

Not if they use Cobalt auger blades! Great for drilling through iron.

 

The drifting is starting to get bad on the lake, making for bumpy rides.

Edited January 29 by SkunkedAgain

[JerkinLips]

Went up a day early to take advantage of the nicer weather.  Thursday was a beautiful day on Vermilion; mostly sunny, very light breeze an 41ºF.  Glad I went up that day because the skid house was sitting in 3-8" of water.  Guess I shouldn't have left the house in water and bank snow around it on Monday.  None of the water under the house froze at all.  Decided it would be better to move the house to "new" ice toward the hole I drilled outside on Monday.  When I drilled holes in the new location I had about 1" of water on top of 4" of new ice, then 4" of water, and finally 25" of original ice; 33" total.  I would recommend bringing your auger extension since my Ion auger went past the base auger (32") up to the extension in this location, and you never know what you may find on clear ice (I would stay away from heavy drifts and tall banks because you will probably have lots of water come up on the ice in those locations.  With the house on 4x4 blocks, I switched to the extended bobber to easily see the far hole.  Works great.

 

The lake looked to be in very good condition if you avoid the drifts and snow banks.  Several pickups were driving on the open ice away from plowed roads and seemed to be moving fine.  I did see several wheel houses being pulled off the lake on Thursday.  Don't know if it was due to ice conditions, poor fishing, or both.  Today (Friday) looks very good to be on the lake (no new snow and all the loose snow has found a permanent home on shorelines or hard drifts/banks.  This weekend is another story.  4-8" of fresh snow on Saturday with 13mph winds.  Drifting is only going to get worse.  Next week looks good with no more snow and cold temperatures to freeze any water/slush that is on top.  The cold temperatures won't freeze the slush under the tall drifts/banks, so be careful.

 

Fishing was average.  caught a few early morning, a couple around noon, then went 5 hours without catching a thing.  Finally had a fair evening bite when I caught 4 between 4:45 and 6:00.  Finally gave up at 7:10.  Unfortunately all of the fish were quite small (9-14").  I may not find another decent walleye this winter.

 

Good luck fishing (only 23 days left for walleyes) and be careful around snow drifts and banks.  (Note: I removed all of my blocks and anchors from my original location, and plan to clean up blocks from other people's locations when all the snow melts).

 

[SkunkedAgain]

3 hours ago, JerkinLips said:

(Note: I removed all of my blocks and anchors from my original location, and plan to clean up blocks from other people's locations when all the snow melts).

You're a great steward of the lake. Thank you

[JerkinLips]

Same story, different day (Monday).  Caught several small walleyes (biggest were 14 and 15 inches) with the best bite from 2-5pm.  Caught my record walleye this winter at 6½ (inches, not pounds).  Was wondering why the bobber kept going down a couple inches for several minutes until I finally reeled it up.  Fortunately it was just hooked in the lips.  Having a lively minnow definitely improved the action.  I put down a pike sucker for the first time this winter and got an immediate hard bite.  When I went to set the hook, the line broke just above the hook.  Don't know if it was a northern bite-off or just weak line by the hook.  May try some pike suckers next trip.

 

Ice conditions were very good except for heavy drifting (even with very little fresh snow).  Didn't see any vehicles traveling off road except for snowmobiles and a tracked SxS, although there weren't many people out on the lake.  Water came up around my house about 1½ inches but froze very quickly with the cold weather and no snow on top.  Will probably have to block it up again next time up.

 

Good luck fishing and be careful of severe drifting of snow, especially with the 3-5 inches they are predicting for Wednesday night.

 

[Hookmaster]

That snow and the 15-25 mph winds on Thursday with higher gusts will be nasty drifting. I didn't go to LOW (can I say that in the this thread?) this week because of it.

[JerkinLips]

Friday was a beautiful day on Vermilion.  The fresh snow and high winds made pretty drifts on the lake, as long as you weren't trying to travel off plowed roads.  Watched a large 4x4 truck travel off road and it hit some very large drifts, but didn't get stuck.  Not too many houses were left but many new ones were being pulled out onto the lake for the weekend.  Was a nice view at dark seeing all the lights on the lake.

 

Fishing was average.  I had to shovel snow off of our mobile home roof so I didn't get out until 10am.  Was a decent bite at 11am, and then from 330-415pm, but other than that it was very quiet for me.  Vermilion Fuel and Food finally had shiners so I tried those and caught most of my fish on them.

 

Good luck fishing, be very courteous if you use plowed roads, and be careful if you travel off road.

 

[Dash 1]

Nice looking pictures. Makes me want to jump on the snowmobile. 

[JerkinLips]

Monday was my worst day of winter fishing on Vermilion in the last 4 years.  Caught only one 14" walleye in nearly 8 hours of fishing.  Missed two other bites and was marking very few fish.  Maybe the fish were taking Monday off after a big weekend.

 

No more water came up on the ice under my house.  Think it was because I haven't banked snow around it for a couple of weeks so the bare ice around the house is getting very thick.  I measured 38" of ice under my house and the Ion barely made it through even with the extension installed.  Needless to say I banked around the house this time.  Another lesson I learned today is don't drill holes if ice is frozen on your blades.  I did that on one hole and it didn't center properly and drilled at an angle on the edge of the opening.  Hope I can correct the location and angle on my next trip up.

 

Not much change in the surface lake surface conditions.  The drifts may be a little higher and are definitely harder.  There are still a few bare ice spots on the lake.  Very little activity on the lake today.  There are about 3 dozen houses from McKinley Park out to Birch Island.  Another person pulled there house off today, and I am sure many more will pull theirs off this coming weekend.  Only 13 days left of walleye season.

 

 

[leech~~]

9 hours ago, JerkinLips said:

Monday was my worst day of winter fishing on Vermilion in the last 4 years.  Caught only one 14" walleye in nearly 8 hours of fishing.  Missed two other bites and was marking very few fish.  Maybe the fish were taking Monday off after a big weekend.

Maybe you should put rattle wheels down, if your going to sleep for 6hrs!  

[SkunkedAgain]

18 hours ago, JerkinLips said:

Monday was my worst day of winter fishing on Vermilion in the last 4 years.  Caught only one 14" walleye in nearly 8 hours of fishing.  Missed two other bites and was marking very few fish. 

If you fished with me more often, you'd never have to make this statement...

 

38" of ice - love it. I'm really going to have to dig around for my auger extension. I don't think that I've needed it in over a decade.

 

Too bad nobody has a locomotive chugging across the ice to do some logging, like the good old days.

[Kettle]

On 2/10/2025 at 10:27 PM, JerkinLips said:

Monday was my worst day of winter fishing on Vermilion in the last 4 years.  Caught only one 14" walleye in nearly 8 hours of fishing.  Missed two other bites and was marking very few fish.  Maybe the fish were taking Monday off after a big weekend.

 

 

It wasn't just you, I was fishing west of you about an hour on Monday. Fished 8am-4pm, no fish, two keeper walleye and one small one from 4pm-630pm. Marked a lot of fish, they would come up to a jig and swim away. They were skittish to the dead stick too

[JerkinLips]

Went back up Thursday to avoid the weekend rush.  Cold start at -22°F with a good wind.  Happy to be inside a permanent house.  No fresh snow so no more drifting.  Ice was very noisy with the cold weather.  Saw a big pickup truck drive off of plowed roads from McKinley Park to Ely Island without getting stuck, but the truck had very wide tires and a good size lift.  A light snow is predicted Friday night with a 5mph wind so there could be more drifting this weekend.  Temperatures this weekend look a little cool, but not cold.

 

Fishing was much better 3 days later.  Caught my biggest yet this winter at 26 inches.  She bit very light and didn't resist much until she saw the hole.  Then she peeled out a lot of line before I could bring her in and conduct CPR (catch, picture, release).  Fished from 7:15am-6:00pm and had good bites from 8:00-8:40am and 1:30-2:10pm.  Outside of those windows I had very little action.  Chubs were much more productive than shiners this time.  Marked many suspended fish but couldn't get them to bite.  Had better action when I would lower my minnow to the bottom and lift it up slowly.

 

Found a good way to reheat Zup's polish delites on my buddy heater.  Tasted great after my one-week low-fiber diet.  I counted 40 permanent houses from McKinley Park to Ely Island and Birch Island.  I assume more houses will go out this weekend, but I bet a lot more will be pulled off the ice before the last week of the season.  Beautiful sunset to end a great day on the ice.

 

Good luck fishing, be courteous, and please pick up your trash.  Just 9 days left of the season.

 

[leech~~]

I was headed down 371 from Pine River yesterday and must have saw a 100 houses headed north.  She's going to be a busy one on all the big lakes this weekend!  

[smurfy]

1 hour ago, leech~~ said:

I was headed down 371 from Pine River yesterday and must have saw a 100 houses headed north.  She's going to be a busy one on all the big lakes this weekend!  

coming back from Moreys???

 

sorry.......Mike was afraid to ask!!!!!!!!!!

[Wanderer]

1 hour ago, leech~~ said:

I was headed down 371 from Pine River yesterday and must have saw a 100 houses headed north.  She's going to be a busy one on all the big lakes this weekend!  

Everyone I know with a (fishable) house went somewhere this weekend.  HWK is having their 5th Annual GTG on Winnie with 200 pre registered participants.

[Mike89]

1 hour ago, Wanderer said:

Everyone I know with a (fishable) house went somewhere this weekend.  HWK is having their 5th Annual GTG on Winnie with 200 pre registered participants.

everyone but you?  

[Wanderer]

37 minutes ago, Mike89 said:

everyone but you?  

Yep.  

[leech~~]

9 hours ago, smurfy said:

coming back from Moreys???

 

sorry.......Mike was afraid to ask!!!!!!!!!!

Moreys is in Motley numb nuts!  

[Wanderer]

And Baxter  

[smurfy]

10 hours ago, leech~~ said:

Moreys is in Motley numb nuts!  

 well.....ive never.................

[CigarGuy]

So my son and buddies were out this morning fishing between Wakemup and H.O.L. Bays (probably between Metza's pt and Schmidt Island), so they had to cross the snowmobile trail to The Landing. Well,  MY Strikemaster 24 volt auger fell off the back of my sled.  They didn't realize it until they got back. If anyone found it, would be nice to get back...please and thank you. Good news is they had the battery in their pocket.....

Dip $hits