West End Report

[eyepatrol]

First let me take the opportunity to thank Doug at Spring Bay for the wonderful service he provided my wife and I while we were there for our 5yr Anniversary get-away. Doug was always available to help us when needed. And I think he must have some intuition on when people come and go because before we even got out of our vehicle when we arrived the first day, he was already coming to greet us. Great people, great location! And the food at "The Landing" and "Harvest Moon" is second to none!

Whenever I hit a lake, I always put a report up, so here's my official fishing report. It was my first time ever fishing Vermilion, and for me, finding fish was a little bit of an effort (but then it wouldn't be fishing if it wasn't). I didn't hardcore fish, but I did hit between 15 and 20 spots that I wanted to try and found 4 walleyes ranging from 9" up to 17.5" using a 4'-8' snell with red hook and either an orange or chartreuse float. One walleye came in 8' over a rock hump, another in 24' at the base of a rock hump, another in 32' off a rock hump and the biggest one came in 10' of water about 20' from a weedline. All 'eyes were caught in Norwegian Bay. Caught a few medium-sized sunnies, plenty of rock bass, got cut off by probably a pike, and donated about 3doz crawlers to the perch foundation. Man are there lots of pesky perch!!! And snags! Holy smokes are there snags! Can't hardly drop the sinker to the bottom and I'm breaking line. I must have lost over a dozen rigs. I lost enough lindy rigs that I switched to a floating rig which at least helped keep the hooks out of the rocks.

Very scenic lake though and we wish we could have stayed longer. Don't get me wrong, we love our kids (3yr old and 1yr old), but it was nice to have just a little bit of time to ourselves. Great sleeping weather/temps too!

Thanks Doug!

[delcecchi]

As I have said, more than once, I ought to just throw my tackle box in the lake at the beginning of the trip and get it over with. It's going to end up there anyway.

That "walking sinker" or "dragging jigs" is just impossible many places on vermilion. Even the "drop it to the bottom and hop it" doesn't go for long for me.

So other techniques are in order. and not so much tackle is lost, although retying 4 or 5 times in an hour is not unheard of.

[Stizo]

Had two rods rigged with bottom bouncers and had both snargled up in less than 20 seconds each. One can only imagine how much lost tackle is lying on the bottom. Try slip bobbers if conditions permit.

Stizo

P.S. to the first poster...Have'nt been there in a few years but you're absolutely right...Doug and Lisa at Spring Bay run a first class operation and are very nice people.

[eyepatrol]

I nearly went with slip bobbers, but I wanted to stay on the move since I didn't know the lake well and I hadn't run into more than one 'eye in any one location. It was on my mind though.

They definitely run a great resort. I especially liked the storage they had right down at the docks. Didn't need to haul things back and forth from the cabin to the boat.

Oh, and one more thing.....I guess it takes more than 100 casts to catch a musky.

[DougSpringBay]

Hey Eric,

Thank you for the kind remarks. We enjoyed having you guys here. The weather hit a little tough, but at least it was cool and good sleeping weather. We do enjoy what we do, and consider it a blessing from God to be able to earn a living trying to help our guests have a great vacation or gettaway.

Stizo-

Thank you also for the kind cuddos.

Lake Vermilion is the greatest place in the world to be!!!

Doug

[Stizo]

Hi Doug,

Hope all is well.

Quote:

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Lake Vermilion is the greatest place in the world to be!!!

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Absolutely. It may not be heaven...but it sure is close!

Hopefully, someday we'll be able to call you our neighbors and I'll finally have the time to teach you how to catch those really big northerns

John

[eyepatrol]

We had a great time Doug. My wife Tami actually made it through a 400+ page book - a passion she hasn't had time to do since having kids (read books). We talked a little about trying to make the trip an annual event. Hopefully it'll work out so we can. If it does, the next time maybe we can hook up on a guide trip and you can show me the ropes. One thing that surprised me was, with all the resorts on that lake, it really wasn't crowded on the water and I never had another boat fishing next to me. Of course, maybe that just goes to show that I was never in the right spot either. Nonetheless, we had a great time and will try to get back there next year.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Hey bass, If you need some nieghbors on the water than you need to wave the vermilion green flag. Take your net, hold it nice and high and wave it back and forth right before you land your walley. Even if there are no other boats in site you will soon find yourself with plenty of company. If its the opener all you have to do is pick it up, no waving needed.

Seriously Vermilion is a fun lake lake to fish. I practically grew up near timbukto. I usually fish the opener on the west side, and I try to make it up in august to fish a couple of weekends with my dad. It doesn't hurt to have both sides of the family either living in Cook, or practically right on the lake!! Ah, life is good!

[eyepatrol]

Yea, yea....make me more jealous why don't ya! Maybe I should just quit my job and move up there and start my own guiding service?!?! Hey....I could call it "Basscatcher's Hardly Reliable Guide Service". (unlike Woody's on Rainy).

Seriously though, we had a great time. If/when we make it up there again, I'll do a lot more exploring further out than what I did. If nothing else, just to take in the sights. Lots of wildlife up there!!!

[Jeremy airjer W]

The guy that owns the vermilion trading post did that very thing! Looks like he's doin pretty good!!!!

[eyepatrol]

I'd probably crash and burn bigtime. Although, the company I work for DOES have an office in Virginia!?!? Hmmmm!

I've thought for many, many years that it would be awesome to own a resort. My wife doesn't think so. She thinks I'd have her doing all the laundry and cleaning (which might be true). Still, to be able to meet all kinds of new and interesting folks, be in a place I'd always wanted to be (up north on a lake) and be able to put smiles on peoples faces....the effort really doesn't seem like it really would be an effort. A job is never a job if you love what you do. It becomes a passion.

[sue]

Hey kudos to you..I agree wholeheartly..might be alot of work..but very enjoyable..and a dream I have had since a little kid