How’s fishing on Vermillion?

Does anyone have anything they can report on vermillion?

Not much action in here lately.

I will be up there this weekend for a family outing and wondering if it is worth dragging up the boat?

I’m motoring up there tomorrow morning.
Staying on the west side, by the dam.
Chasing skis and eyes.
I’ll let you know what I find when I get back.

Gary-

Any reports on how you did? I am heading up there for a week on the 12th of September.
I have never fished the lake before but am excited about the adventure.

Still waiting to get pics to put up a report.

We stayed at Vermilion Dam Area, specifically Wolf Bay Lodge.
Very nice place with great accomodations.

Caught all the walleyes a guy wanted. Sized ranged from 6″ to 26″. All in the same locations.

Funny thing is this: Many, many, many lake reports that state the “eaters” are on the east side of the lake and the “slots” (17″-26″) are on the west end of the lake.
However, we found a ton of fish and had excessive 20+ fish days, with fish found in the same structure/depth of this size on the west side!
We had all the eaters and throw backs a guy could want.

You will find a TON of “arcs” in deeper water off of structure. For whatever reason, these fish were very tight-lipped. (I’m still kicking myself for not bringing the lead-core and deeper cranks, but when you pack 12 walleyes rod for you and your GF, what more does one need!?!?!?!? ) Even though these fish were not sitting on the bottom of the lake, they just were not ready to bite.

All of our fish came off of structure in the 18-28 foot range. Depends on the structure you are fishing. Meaning, stay on top/edge of the structure and trust your electronics. IF you are not marking fish, don’t bother.
Have to remember that I hit it at mid-August on a “cool” year. Plenty of food in the lake right now, so you are competing with the baitfish to get bit!

I’ve heard a ton of lake chatter that the walleye bite is off.
With that said, You might take “text-book” walleye fishing up there and think “outside” the box. People lindy rigging leechs/minnows didn’t put a lot of fish in the boat.
So, point is this: If everybody is saying that the bite is off and not getting bit, and they are all dragging lindy rigs……. ……….Why would you drive up there and drag lindy rigs!!!!
Give the fish what they want!
Pulling spinner rigs with crawlers, we done well. But there are other tactics that also work.
Tip here is pay attention to what Rainy Daze does and use his theories a bit. You’ll catch fish!
If I were to return: I’d pack a bottom bouncer rod, a jigging rod, and a long-line trolling rod. With those three tactics, you will catch ALL the fish you want if you fish the fishy areas.

I was quite surpised at the water clarity too. I expected to see more of a tea-stained, but it is not. It is an “average-clear” water.

My recomendation is to fish the rock piles/reefs. The lake is a river-system if you are on the west side. So use the structure system there to your advantage.
Points, inside turns and structure adjacent to the shoreline should put you on fish.

As for ski fishing……Pulled in a few nice pike in while trolling and lost 2 Skis (1 on a Weagle, 1 on a Phantom Squirely Tail), but only Ski fished about 5 hours on the last day.

To be honest, it wasn’t a very big “fishing” trip for me. It was more of a vacation with the significant other and enjoying everything the lake had to offer. What beautiful country!!!! I only averaged 4-5 hours a day on the water. I took advantage of making this a true vacation of sleeping in on the mornings, enjoying the lodge and the barkeep keeping me happy, enjoying a nice boat ride cruise around the lake, and just “relaxing”!

Last quick note!
If you are going to walleye fish, fair warning if you fish under 20fow……Lots of sunfish in the lake! We all know how sunnies love crawlers!!!!!!

Great report, Thanks.

I wish your trip would have been a week earlier. I bowed out of fishing while I was up there, focused on the task at hand . Bachelor party, what can a guy do?

Thanks for the report, you are definatly getting us more exciting to head up there. Any particular colors work better for you?

thanks again.

For the walleyes?
I would go as “natural” as you can!

Bring your “rainbow” of colors and I think you’ll score!

Dan,
you got an open seat?
I’m ready to head back up there!!!!!

Absolute fun lake to fish!
I’ll be back next year, come mid-July when the reefs are a rocking!!!!!
PS: Did I ever tell you guys how much I love bottom bouncing with spinners on rocks? I probably do it more differently than most. I more/less “jig” my bouncer on the rocks. I’m contantly making depth adjustments, as those reefs are not flat plateaus. The depths adjust all the time. You have to keep your “bait” in the zone. This is not the time to put the rod in a rod holder and kick back and enjoy eagle/bear watching. This is where a 7′ stick with a flipping switch will keep you in the zone. It can wear on the forearm, holding a 3-oz weight all day, but it sure is worth it in my book!

Keep your spinner rigs short. 6′ max for length!

We could have an open seat if you are interested in showing/guiding us. We promise a good time.

We are staying on the far west end of the lake in a small bay on the SE courner. we rented a house on the lake and will be looking to hire someone for a day or two.
We are pretty excited by the trip and have never been there before but will be taking your recommendations and trying to apply them.

We are bass fisherman by heart but will be trying for the elusive walleyes. we feel pretty confident in the trolling cranks but when it comes to spinners, we are still very much novices.

Is there a night bite out on this lake? If so, are the typical normal shallower rocky spot still the palce to be?

Where are you able to locate any smallies up there? where they interested in live bait? I rarely if ever fish with live bait but with some of the party not getting out as much, live bait seems like an easier fix for some of them.

I feel as though the closer the 12th comes, the more questions I am going to have. thanks for the information, it great to have some idea on what has work recently prior to our arrival.

Dan

Never hooked a smallie up there.
But with all the reefs and crayfish, they have to be there!
Lots of sunnies in water 20′ or less.
Where there are sunnies, crayfish, and rocks, there are smallies!

PS: There are even crayfish in 20+fow. Right now, they are a “soft-tannish-brown” color.

Shoot me an email and we can talk further….

Email Sent…

how is the cell phone service on this lake?
I have sprint and might need to make a call or two when I am up there…

Good luck!
real spotty!
You won’t get anything on the lake. Well, none of us did. but on shore, on higher ground you can get reception in different areas. I think at the area you are going to be at, you might be ok.

Good luck and give me a report when you get back!

We just got back from Vermilion on Sunday. Verizon didn’t work for crap up there. AT&T worked very well everywhere on the lake. Not sure about Sprint.

We fished muskies for 4 straight days. 1 – 35 inch fish between 6 guys. 80 degrees and sunny with no wind for the entire time. No fronts moved through the entire time.

We hired a guide our first day there and saw 2 fish in 11 hours of hucking baits. Very disappointing. But what an awesome lake. Got a good tan and saw a fish that you dream of an hour before we had to pull the plug.

I just got back from a week up on the lake. We stayed on the NW courner of the lake and mainly fished around the center island area.

For starters, the weather was perfect every day, clear skies and minimal wind. The obvious issues is that the fishing tended to get a little tougher. But, covering water allowed us to still catch some fish and have some nice dinners.

Most of the grouped targeted walleye but we had a couple throw a fair amount for muskies.

For walleyes: We hit humps, shoreline breaks and saddle areas. The two key factors for all of the places where we caught fish was that no fish came on steep breaks. all fish where on longer tapering points/breaks or saddle areas between humps. the other factor was that we used bottom bouncers exclusively with worms . We never used a jig once.
I don’t think we would have had half the luck that we did without going with the bottom bouncers. We talked to a handful of people out there that struggled the whole time they were up there. Some of them had rented a guide and caught fish with them but the days after that they stunk it up. It seemed like every one was content with Jigging even when it wasn’t working well. We never jigged and did great. We used a variety of spinner rigers from blue, gold, orange/black, chart, and white. All seem to produce fish throughout the week. The big fis was a 25. we had a couple more 24 and then the rswt of the fishin where 22 and under. we didn’t struggle to catch keepers either. I heard that the west side tends to produce more over fish but, we didn’t seem to find this case.

THe groups that went out muskie fishing saw a fair amount of fish. The fis they saw where on rock reefs and weedlines. I believe all the fish that where seen wher on Dunright in walleye and double cow-girls (gold). I didn’t fish for them but I personally saw 6 fish. Two of the them came after walleyes that we had on. one of these fish was successful in breaking our line too. the fish up there are incredible. I have caught some of these beast going bass fishing and let me tell you these babies where waaaayyy bigger. I believe I saw two pushing 50!

I was surprised to see the amount of fisherman out there. Pretty crazy. The muskies in particular get pounded every day.

We barely went after smallies but did find them relating to rock reefs in teh 12-15 foot range. Tubes in green and black product for us. the best technique was to really pop it off the bottom. We even caught a couple walleyes this way.

Overall the trip was a great success for our first time on the lake and fishing in some pretty tough conditions. We saw a ton of bald eagles, one deer trying to cross from a small island to the main land (those deer can really swin quick), and a bear on our way home (on 35W north of pine City).

A big help in getting us pointed in the right direction was Gary Wellman. I connected with him and he pointed us on some spots and the bottom bouncing. This definatly worked for us, allowed us to cover some water quickly and put some fish in the box too.

We are already looking/planning on our trip next year!

I’m just trying to finagle a way up there in 4 weeks for some ski action! It isn’t LOTW, but I do like it!

Fished Fri and Sat. Cold and sleet, but not much wind. Water Temp on Big Bay was 47. 40 degress in the AM in Pike Bay.

Walleye were off of the steep drops…25-40ft. Caught fish mostly in Big Bay wind-blown sides of reefs.

23″ biggest. Lots of small ones.

Grew up fishing near the dam on Vermilion. We now have a place in Niles Bay. Gary is right, the lake is full of walleyes…just need to adapt to them. Most of us get use to going after them just one or two ways. Thanks for the alternative ideas Gary and the reminders….see you on the water!!