Lake Vermilion, MN

I am taking my family fishing for a week the first week in August. I have never fished this lake before.

Anyone willing to share some tips where I might find some walleye and small mouth? We are staying near big bay.

Much appreciated.

Jay

I’ve never fished Vermilion but would like to some day. Don’t forget to report in on how you did.

I go up to vermillion usually once a month through out the summer. Was up for 9 days over the 4th and the may fly hatch was terrible. I have a cabin renter over labor day again for another 8 days and we usually do good. What area on vermillion are you going ?

Bearcat89 wrote:

What area on vermillion are you going ?

He mentioned near Big Bay, so the Tower side.

It’s been some years since I’ve been but I made several trips end of September out of Big Bay.

You’ll likely have to do your own search for walleye as it seemed they’d be on the move all the time. One evening they would be stacked in on shallow rocks and then the next morning be gone for days. The mouth of Everett Bay, and around Raspberry, Strawberry, Comet Island or other islands can be good when they’re shallow.

Once they move out, you’ll need to keep looking for them. I found it challenging to pattern out there, it’s not an easy lake to fish IMO.

SMB are more predictable, fish shallower rocks.

A word of caution…Big Bay can kick up a fury in a hurry when the wind suddenly blows. Be prepared, even in a big boat.

I’ll add that it’s a beautiful lake and area to be visiting.

Good luck

Dang I missed the big bay comment. I fish the tower side often but I done ever fish the big body. I stick in all the fingers and between islands. Fish are always around. Like Andy said you might pound them for a day or maybe 2 and them boom vanished and they roamed a ways away.
Just use your electronics and I personally never fish very deep even in the heat. If I do its off a ledge of a island and not in the big basin

Been fishing Vermilion my whole life rather successfully. You can find schools out in Big Bay and jig for them around 20-30 feet. You’ll have to pattern them/ chase them out there. At night, find a nice rocky point and drop a bobber with a red or gold hook. Leeches are the king of baits on Vermilion; crappie minnows and crawlers are what I go to in that order if leeches are not on for some reason.

As someone above mentioned, the mouth of Everett’s is a very common spot to find fish.

Stop in to D’Erick’s in Tower for a beer while you’re there. The Vermilion club is an excellent place to go for lunch or dinner. Good-ol-Days has good breakfast.

I will likely be up there this weekend as well. Happy fishing

Been there twice for extended stays. Hired a local guide once. Scenery was great but fishing was difficult.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I fish the tower side often but I done ever fish the big body. I stick in all the fingers and between islands. Fish are always around. Like Andy said you might pound them for a day or maybe 2 and them boom vanished and they roamed a ways away.

It certainly would have been my preference to stick to the smaller bays but the resort I stayed at (Forest Lane Resort) was located on the south shore of Big Bay and just leaving the dock I was already on the big bay before I could get anywhere else. There were some days I never left the dock because of the wind but thankfully I went on 10-14 day trips so I still had plenty of fishing days.

I suspected though that the times the walleyes vacated the shallows they’d moved out to offshore structures out in the Big Bay basin.

Just like Kyle said here…vvv

KPE wrote:

You can find schools out in Big Bay and jig for them around 20-30 feet. You’ll have to pattern them/ chase them out there.

Stop in to D’Erick’s in Tower for a beer while you’re there. The Vermilion club is an excellent place to go for lunch or dinner. Good-ol-Days has good breakfast.

Kyle, I can’t remember if we went to any other restaurants but we did frequent Benchwarmers Sports Bar/Grill right before you get into town. Maybe not the finest restaurant but we really enjoyed the fun, lively atmosphere and we’d go for beers, lunch and/or dinners and thought it was pretty good food.

Have you been there?

Big Bay – Looks like it is near the center of the lake

Awesome information. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the tips!

Thank you Kyle for the info. I like your boat. I just purchased a used 2014 impact 1875. Perfect boat for us.

Thank you everyone for the tips. Gives me some places to start with!
I will report back after my trip.

-Jay

There are some deep humps SW of Potato Island, cruise over them and if you mark fish, give it a shot. Birch Point has some deeper water nearby too that can be decent. Early morning and around sunset, there is a reef that tops out in 12-15′ just east of 3 islands that line up between Canfield Bay and Ely Island, crawlers and a plain red hook can be good here in the summer.

Enjoy!

Andy, bench warmers is a great place to grab a bite and a few drinks. Walk in the side door and get your self a ice cream cone. I like that you can boat up and park at the docks as well.
Tower Cafe is great place for breakfast. And good ole days is also good for both breakfast and dinner. Its a pretty neat set up in there as well.
If you can get over to stuntz bay and fish the shallow channel off the 2 big boulders in there 6 to 8 ft of water with slip bobbers in the evening we always get our limit using leeches. But we do that same tactic in many different shallow bays as well early morning and later evening before dark.
I dont do the resort thing but I do rent vrbo cabins around the lake. We stayed off greenwood bay over the 4th and fished that end of the lake. It was a tougher bite for me then normal. The mayflies were at the peak hatch. We ended up doing more boating and scenery trips then fishing

Thank you all for the great advice.
Forgot to ask about Crappies. I am assuming I just need to scan for the schools of crappies as they will move around a lot. In the past, fishing other lakes, we have had good luck around the docks.
However, has anyone had any luck around any other areas.

Thanks again – Jay

DaveB wrote:

There are some deep humps SW of Potato Island, cruise over them and if you mark fish, give it a shot.

Walleye anglers were stacked up in this area. Lots of baitballs on the graph. I bet there’s some nice walleye roaming.

Just got back from Vermilion after four days musky fishing. It was fun but the fishing was tough. Very short bite windows around sunup and sundown.

Earlier in June I went up chasing musky with a smallmouth backup plan. The trip turned into a smallmouth smackdown after not seeing any sign of musky life on day one. Great bass fishery. I was using Senkos, crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, 4” swimbaits, and swim jigs. Don’t fish bottom-contact baits like jigs and tubes, or you’ll be donating them to the rocks every few casts. In June, the fish were still on beds and were located 5’ and under. I’m sure they’re a little deeper now, but probably not a whole lot. The water was 70-71 degrees on Friday.

Awesome tips. Thank you!

I second Potato island – if the fish are not biting at least you will be entertained by all the potato sized bird droppings hitting the water around you. On some days the islands are loaded with Gulls. Blue Colorado blade spinners with leeches were my go-to.

Just looking into staying in Norwegian Bay Area,Can a guy stay there and Travel by boat to Big Bay?

Just reporting back to everyone in case any of you are heading to Lake Vermilion soon. This report is from August 1-7, 2020.

For walleye we ended up having luck with a simple lindy rig and worms (some luck with leaches but better with worms). Trolling around 18-20 feet of water at .5 mph in the middle of Big Bay near a steep ledge that runs more so east to west, just southwest a bit of Potato Island. Walleye were not very big but good eaters. Also I know people had luck around Potato Island.

We hammered the small mouth in just a couple of places. At the mouth of Canfield Portage Bay, you will see a caution rock marker. Use a slip bobber and a worm.

The other 2 spots are hard to explain so I will just leave coordinates. I also caught a few northern using a paddle tale in the same areas.
47°53’08.6″N 92°21’50.5″W and 47°53’12.8″N 92°22’04.7″W

Awesome lake. Will certainly go back next year. We did end up getting a fishing guide that had a last minute cancellation. I highly recommend getting one if you are not familiar with the lake at the particular season you visit. Sounds like the fish move all the time. The guide will get you on the fish and give you great tips for the remainder of you trip.

Had a great time!

Jay Czeczok wrote:

47°53’08.6″N 92°21’50.5″W and 47°53’12.8″N 92°22’04.7″W

These are the kind of reports I like

Thanks for the report, Jay.

Thanks for the report. Will be up there next week. My only issue is finding leeches. Usually hit the Bait Shack up in Superior but they dont have any either.

RVRDUX

You are correct. Leeches were out every time we went to the Y Store. We did find some leeches at Grubens. Stopped there on the water to refuel and ended up asking about bait. They had leeches and night crawlers. Ended up buying all of our bait there for the rest of the time we were there. Staff is extremely friendly there. I recommend that you pack some masks or neck gaiters on your boat in case you want to stop. So easy to forget to bring them with you.

Forgot to leave the link for Grubens.
https://www.grubens.com/

I have a trip planned up on Vermillion for late January/Early February. Fished this lake several times in the summer but never on ice. Looking to mainly target walleye but I have heard there is some decent pan-fishing in the winter as well. Seems like there is a lot of Humps, Saddles, And breaks just looking at Navionics. I will be out of Big Bay on the south shore. Any tips on where to start or use would be greatly appreciated.

-Austin