Just got back from my trip to Vermillion. It was a good trip, but the fishing was a bit tougher than we had hoped. My estimation was the massive storm that hit up there Monday and Tuesday set us out on the wrong foot, followed by 3 days of 85/sun/no wind certainly didn’t help our cause. This coupled with the budding mayfly hatch on Vermillion certainly presented a challenge.
We fished for Largemouth in the mornings, muskies or smallmouth during the day, and walleyes at night. There is a bay that is just west of Niles point that has produced a bunch of nice 2-3 pounders for us on just about anything you throw in the past: this year, we had to really work hard for 6 fish total. Recomendation, move a lot, and fish shoreline structure in the shade. These first two beauties were taken this way on a 10ft 6 weight fly rod stripping a bunny leech! That was a kick.
For muskies, we concentrated mostly on weedy areas adjacent to deeper water and points at the outset of shallow weedy bays as the muskies are still coming off spawning areas. Very curious muskies up there right now, but non-committal! Almost all of our follows were on Orange/Black/ or light orange/yellow sledges. Again, no hook ups (minus a few decent pike) but the orange sledge got the nod for peaking the curiosity of a couple of mid 40 inch fish.
After leaving Vermillion, we headed down to the parking lot er I mean Mille Lacs on Saturday and got the last camp spot in Father Hennepin. The wind was howling out of the south, which confined my brother and I to the south end in my smaller boat. We started on the rocks just west of Upper Twin, where my brother hooked up with a smallie that had to go 4 maybe 5 on a k-grub (pumpkin seed) rigged on a 1/4 ounce jig head. His drag just singing before she came unglued. Jake connected again with this nice 3 pound healthy bronzeback before we moved out of the wind into Wahkon and trolled cranks for a few northerns. We drifted some more rocks near the island in Wahkon where I connected with this nice 22’er on a natural Shad Rap SSR7.
Later that night, we slip bobbered on rocks near Gull Reef where I caught the largest smallmouth to date for me. she taped at 18, and had to go at least 3.5 maybe 4.
Sunday morning is the tale of the fish that got away. Started early (5am) in the bay off Wahkon on the south east side. We found a section of water that was on a shoreline filled with reeds, and about 100×50 yard patch of cabbage in about 12-15 feet of water. No more than 15 minutes into our covering of this structure, a large muskie exploded on my Poe’s Awaker. I felt her there, set the hook, and somehow missed. All I have is the picture in my head of a boil the size of my boat, and her big red tail sticking out of the water as she swam back down to her haunts. We fished it with twitch baits, and bucktails but to no avail. Maybe next time.
All in all, it was a good trip. Nice weather, and a few nice fish!
June 20, 2005 at 8:58 pm
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