Big V Muskie Report

I had a chance last week to pound the waters of Lake Vermillion with Jeff Jensen. I will tell you this, it was one of the best trips I have been on in a long time. The fish were on the move and I had a chance to fish with one of the hardest working huckers thats placed foot in my boat. Jeff is a casting machine and an all around great guy to share the boat with.

I got on the water early on Wednesday morning, knowing that Jeff was not going to be up until after dark. My plan was to run and gun hitting as many reefs as I could. I started off on a few of my favorites and could not get a single follow. Conditions were a little less then perfect, with the lake flat as glass and the sun out. I started working some new locations and found a few fish here and there but for the most part they were lazy follows at best. It was about midday when I finally got hit on a very shallow reef. After a quick photo the fish was back to fight another day. I was out in the Arrowhead working reefs after I stuck this fish and my cell phone rang. I picked it up and it was Jeff telling me that he was only 20 minutes away. Holy smokes, I was about 30 minutes away via water, so I told Jeff to get ready and I would meet him back at the dock. Jeff and I went back out and started working reef after reef. We did manage to hook one fish that evening, but never got her in the net. As darkness fell, we decided to run a few trolling passes and got blanked there too. It was back to the Marjo for some eats and a good nights sleep.

Jeff and I got off to an early start. We started on a reef that was very close to the big water. My first cast of the morning brought in an absolute tank. The fish came in hot, but just would not eat. I marked her on the GPS and we worked this spot hard but to no avail she just would not show herself again. The sun came up, there was not a cloud in the sky and the lake was flat as glass again. The kiss of death! As we continued our way around this reef complex we both noticed a very large abundance of bait fish just off the structure. I was looking at the X-15 in the front of the boat when I see a really big fish show up on the graph in about 15 feet of water. I dropped my Lifelike to the bottom and started to jig my way up. Deep in the stained water I caught a flash but nothing hit the bait, I gave it another good snap up and this time I saw this pike come up and take a stab at it but missed, the 3rd time I snapped it up the pike hammered it and came right out of the water on hook set. I looked back at Jeff with a big funny smile on my face asking him to get the net. I got this pike jigging a Dunwright Lifelike.

We kept hitting different reefs looking for fish, but the weather had those fish glued to the big boulders and they were not on the move at all. This is where Jeff really impressed me. The conditions stunk for Lunge hunting and we hucked hard all day. Jeff’s upbeat attitude and motivation was amazing. We ended up returning to the first reef of the morning where we saw the tanker. Again she came to the boat and turned away, it was very clear that she had played this game in the past and wanted nothing to do with our baits. Jeff and I talked about this fish for the balance of the evening as we were fishing and made a choice to get up very early and hit her hard before the sun came up. We shot back to the Marjo, fired up the grill and had a few cold beers waiting for our burgers to cook. After being on the water all day a hot meal was just the ticket to put our lights out, and that it did.

I woke up to a very soft voice that morning saying "Dad will you take me fishing?"…I got out of bed and Jeff was standing there all geared up and ready to go. Heck, he had even made a trip into town to get us coffee, Thanks Man!!

We got out on the lake and the morning just felt right. We had a little wind, clouds, and very high hopes that the muskie Gods would shine on us today. The first pass around the reef, not more then 10 minutes into the morning I got rocked hard, looking down at the GPS, I was right over the mark on that big gal we had seen a few times. However, this was not the fish we had marked. It hit the tape at 40.5" and was fat. A quick photo and back she went. We came back up on the windy side of the reef and started our drift. This time down the face of the reef we got that big pig back up to the boat. She was right on the spot we had seen her in the past and came up hot and right back down, just as hot as she came up. This got me all fired up. We left her alone for about 20 minutes and worked a different part of the reef. We had fish moving all over the place this morning and some darn nice ones in the mix.

So a very long 20-25 minutes later we make our way back over to the GPS mark. I made a few casts up close on the stones and as I was working the bait back out over the deep water, I got a hit. A soft light tick, followed by 4-5 massive head shakes. I could tell right away that this was her just by the fight. I had just watched Jeff bomb a cast way out there when this fish hit. I started yelling this is a big fish, put your rod down and get the net. Sorry about the yelling Jeff! She came up to the surface made one big power run on me, I got her turned around and Jeff tucked her into the net. She hit the tape at an even 52". We took a few photos and sent her back home, but not before she could leave me with a little something to remember her by….

We got off the water a little early as the wind had kicked up big time and it literally kicked out butts. We went back and had a fish fry. Nothing better then some gills and Molson Ice to cap off a great day on the water.

Our plan for Sunday was to get out on the water early again, fish until 10am and hit the road. The wind was at about 25-MPH and this same reef had filled up with active fish early in the AM. We saw -15- fish on Sunday morning and I lost one. Jeff had one come up on him early that made him turn a little white in the face. This was a big fish, but I had a really hard time telling because of the angle I was at. Jeff was in the back of the boat, legs shaking when I marked this fish on the GPS. With the wind kicking out butts, all we could do was drift this location, the trolling motor was worthless in that wind. We drifted over this place about 10 times that morning. We got her back up one more time and she followed around on the "8" for about 11-12 times around, she was just taunting us. This fish was much larger then the 52" we boated the day prior, but it was just not in the cards for us that day. We called it quits at 10:30, packed up and hit the road. Jeff, I can’t thank you enough for a very enjoyable trip, your welcome in my boat anytime Brother!

I know as I was driving home, and still this morning as I sit at work, there is only one thing on my mind, and it was the last fish we saw of the trip. If you took a 5-gallon bucket, submerged it down in the water about 3 feet, that was what this fish looked like when it came to the boat. It was an absolute TANK…..I hope she’s hungry in two weeks…